Uber reduces DUIs, traffic fatalities, and accidents. The drivers are safer because it is cashless and the entire trip is tracked online. And they carry more insurance than the cabs. They are more available and better serve their customers. By
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from The Wall Street Journal Encouraged by the Feds, Cities Are Punishing Business by John Ella The challenge for employers is not only the cost of higher wages or paid sick time. Multistate employers compelled to monitor new developments in
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An important axiom of government is to imagine that the law or regulation you propose or champion is in the hand of your worst nightmare. Would you want that person to have the same power you are proposing to be
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Jonah Goldberg writes Martin O’Malley’s modern-day know-nothingness at AEI excerpt: The first minimum wage laws were advocated by progressive economists on the assumption that if you forced employers to pay a “white man’s wage,” they’d only hire white men. As the
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In a few previous posts I explored the dynamic of new commercial enterprises like Uber (read Uber Libertarians in American Thinker) that defied the ability of the regulatory state to deal with the rapid development of very large commercial communities.
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From The National Review George Will writes Government for the Strongest and Richest Intellectually undemanding progressives, excited by the likes of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) — advocate of the downtrodden and the Export-Import Bank — have at last noticed
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Apparently there is a problem in Las Vegas with cabbies intentionally taking long routes in order to overcharge. This article explains the various Rube Goldberg schemes the government has regulated to try and control this practice. As you would expect,
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“My own view is that the problem of too big to fail is really about complexity, not size, and thus “break-up” proposals should focus on simplifying the megabanks so that they can be easily resolved in bankruptcy or the FDIC’s
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“We should also recognize that there is a difference between promoting home ownership and promoting home finance. Canada has no mortgage interest deduction, yet it has a comparable rate of home ownership and fewer leveraged home owners. My first preference
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Thomas Hemphill and Mark Perry write The Myth of ‘Cowboy Capitalism’ in The American, 3/3/13. Excerpts: The Code of Federal Regulations (established in 1938) is where all the administrative rules of U.S. federal agencies are compiled; American businesses, employees, and
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“Dodd-Frank fixed some of that by giving both the SEC and the CFTC authority to regulate the derivatives market. Among other things, the legislation mandated that the SEC and CFTC, working with the banking regulators, set standards for the amount
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While tax rates are often stated as the burden on individuals and businesses there are other “mandated expenses” that are much more insidious. Federal agencies are often charged with funding themselves with fines and penalties. Much too often these fines
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Occasionally I find an article that raises terrific questions, even if they fall short on the answers. Kurt Anderson writes The Downside of Liberty in The New York Times, 7/3/12. Anderson ponders: Why had the revolution dreamed up in the
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Jonah Goldberg writes Symptoms of a Sick Culture in Townhall, 7/6/12. Excerpts: Two days before the Fourth of July, Lopez was fired for helping rescue a man drowning 1,500 feet outside of his designated zone. “It was a long run,
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In my three or more decades of business experience and relationships I have only encountered a very small portion of the business owners. Yet it is striking how many I have encountered that had an encounter with the government that
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We all benefit from an economy that is growing, but growth is slowed by an endless array of friction costs mandated by the government. When the economy is robust these friction costs appear to be minimal because they can be
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A Follow up on the Gibson Guitar raid under the Lacey Act:
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John Cochrane writes in his blog The Grumpy Economist, Three Kinds of Regulations, 1/2/2012: Excerpts: For regulation is not “more” or “less,” something you just pour into a cup until you’ve had enough like a good beer. Regulation is most
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Daniel Hannan writes in the UK The Telegraph with Memo to the Occupy Protesters: here are ten things we evil capitalists really think. Point 6: Nor, by the way, does state intervention seem to be an effective way to promote
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We pay a frightful price in lost jobs and economic opportunity for what I think of as the mad pursuit of zero. When, at great expense, we have reduced the amount of a given pollutant to a few parts in
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