Subsidize Cheese to Stimulate?

Posted on July 20, 2009 | Comments Off on Subsidize Cheese to Stimulate?

$1,562,568 of stimulus money went to subsidize mozzarella cheese in Rep. Marcia Fudge’s district.

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Posted in Economics, Stimulus

In Which the Case for Antitrust Action against Telecoms Weakens

Posted on July 20, 2009 | Comments Off on In Which the Case for Antitrust Action against Telecoms Weakens

New research from the American Consumer Institute, using FCC and OECD data, finds that U.S. telecoms are charging, on average, ten cents less per minute than their counterparts around the world. Evidence, it seems, of a healthy competitive process.

Tell me again why antitrust authorities are investigating telecoms?

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Posted in Antitrust, Economics

Keynes Remains Popular with Politicians

Posted on July 17, 2009 | Comments Off on Keynes Remains Popular with Politicians

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation. People, when I say that, look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes.”

-Vice President Joe Biden

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Posted in Business Cycles, Economics, Stimulus

Regulation of the Day 16: Endangered Snails

Posted on July 17, 2009 | Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 16: Endangered Snails

The sixteenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Fish and Wildlife Service ($2.32 billion 2008 budget, 7,960 employees).

After a 12-month study, the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the desert valvata snail is not endangered. A proposed rule would remove it from the list of endangered species.

For more information, see pages 34,539-34,548 of the 2009 Federal Register.

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Posted in Regulation of the Day, The New Religion

The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body

Posted on July 16, 2009 | Comments Off on The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body

For fun, try reading this out loud as fast as you can. From p. 26 of the March 1995 issue of Ultralight Flying Magazine (article not online, unfortunately; hat tip to Wayne Crews):

[I]n 1975, U.S. Senators fought aggressively with obfuscation as they voted on the following resolution: “A motion to table a motion to reconsider a vote to table an appeal of a ruling that a point of order was not in order against a motion to table another point of order against a motion to bring to a vote the motion to call up the resolution that would institute a rules change.”

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Posted in General Foolishness, Political Animals

Regulation of the Day 15: The Color of Stitches

Posted on July 16, 2009 | 2 comments

The fifteenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Food and Drug Administration ($2.3 billion 2008 budget, 9,300 employees).

In §70.5(c) of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the federal government reserves the right to regulate which colors may be used in surgical stitches.

2 Comments

Posted in Health Care, Regulation of the Day

Making Regulation Transparent

Posted on July 16, 2009 | Comments Off on Making Regulation Transparent

Regulations.gov is the federal government’s main outlet for making regulations public. It is also less than user-friendly. Finding what you’re looking for is next to impossible.

As a way of leading by example, the Mercatus Center’s Jerry Brito and programmer Peter Snyder have launched Openregs.com. Unlike the government site, it is superbly organized and easy to navigate. Check it out. Keeping track of new regulations just got easier.

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Posted in regulation

Flying Is a Taxable Event

Posted on July 15, 2009 | Comments Off on Flying Is a Taxable Event

The potential specter of federal carry-on bag size restrictions has not deterred me from flying. But my jaw nearly hit the floor recently when I saw that I had paid more in taxes and fees than for actual airfare for an international flight.

Click here to see a list of 17 taxes we pay for flying. The September 11th Fee. International Departure Tax. International Arrival Tax. And those are just the direct taxes.

Indirect taxes are also legion. They’re harder to see. But they’re still there. And they, too, increase the price of flying. Airports have to pay an electricity tax to keep the lights on. Airlines have to pay a corporate tax on any profits. Pilots and crew have to pay income taxes. All these also affect the price of airfare. There is far more to taxation than meets the eye.

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Posted in Taxation

Doing Business in DC

Posted on July 14, 2009 | Comments Off on Doing Business in DC

DC Progress notes that Washington, DC has ranked 51st – dead last – in the annual Small Business Survival Index every year since the mid-1990s.

Part of the problem is that taxes and spending are both sky-high in DC. Per capita government spending exceeds that in any state, and is roughly double the national average. High corporate, income, and sales taxes have been very effective at driving away businesses to nearby Virginia and Maryland.

One of DC’s other problems is regulatory. The District is notorious for its thorough, exacting, and bureaucratic regulatory regime. Mayor Fenty and the City Council should ease the burden. It would save taxpayers money and encourage more businesses to locate in DC. The fixes that CEI’s Wayne Crews identifies for the federal government in his annual Ten Thousand Commandments also apply to DC and the states.

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Posted in Economics, regulation, Taxation

High Art Reborn?

Posted on July 14, 2009 | Comments Off on High Art Reborn?

It is not a controversial statement to say that the art of painting declined in the 20th century, and remains at a low ebb. For most people, paintings of soup cans don’t compare favorably to Botticelli, Titian, or Rembrandt.

Could a revival be underway? Historian Paul Johnson (The Birth of the Modern, The Renaissance, etc.) has a short article, worth reading, about Charles Cecil’s attempt to revive the lost art of portraiture.

While I wish Cecil well, and would love to see some of his work, I think his revival of the masters’ techniques is ultimately a lost cause. The future of art will probably have more to do with the pixel than the paintbrush.

Most digital artwork out there is dreck, true. But its sheer quantity almost guarantees that quality work will emerge. Good art will have life after its ironic postmodern death.

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Posted in The Arts