Oct 31
The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant in the desert of Southern California cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. Yet “it is producing carbon emissions at nearly twice the amount that subjects fossil-fuel power plants to California’s “cap-and-trade” program. See here. The plant uses large amounts of natural gas to substitute for times of low solar output. …
Oct 29
“Underperforming bailout-style programs (expiring after next year) designed to artificially hold down rates, sicker-than-expected risk pools, and stagnating enrollment projections.” These are, according to columnist Guy Benson, the ways that promoters of Obamacare underestimated costs and unintended consequences of the “Affordable Care Act.” Premiums are rising an average of at least 7 percent annually (despite …
Oct 06
When Medicare was enacted in 1965, Congress projected its costs into the future, and estimated that it would cost $3 billion dollars by 1990. Actual cost in 1990 was $98 billion. Today the program costs taxpayers more than $500 billion annually. Government officials consistently underestimate entitlement costs, refusing to recognize that medical entitlements artificially increase …
Sep 29
Thomas Sowell: “nobody has done more to make housing unaffordable than [government officials proclaiming a desire to make housing affordable].” “A recent survey,” says Sowell, “showed that the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was just over $3,500. Some people are paying $1,800 a month just to rent a bunk bed …
Sep 14
CNBC reports on the relatively new phenomenon of tax exiles who flee America’s current high tax rates. The U.S. currently has the world’s highest corporate tax rates and substantially higher-than-average personal income taxes. See our earlier report here. See the CNBC story here. The urge to renounce U.S. citizenship is increasingly strong among high-earners who …
Aug 22
Every economic regulation–whether laws governing labor, product quality, or prices of goods or services–creates a black market. And socialist countries which seek to regulate everything suffer (or, rather, experience the comforts and joys of) black markets in every commodity and industry. Here is a recent BBC story about efforts to thwart free-market transactions in Venezuela–a …
Aug 15
We all know that the Federal Student Loan Program has driven up college tuition costs because the Program subsidizes artificial demand. Now a New York Fed study has found that: for every new dollar a college receives in Direct Subsidized Loans, a school raises its price by 65 cents. For every dollar in Pell Grants, …
Aug 13
Lysander Spooner University will be offering a one-day course on “How Government Harms the Poor” at the Manhattan, Montana Potato Festival on Saturday, August 15. Tuition is free; the exam is $5. Find us at the Libertarian Party table at the Festival. Every government measure aimed at helping the poor actually harms the poor. Consider …
Aug 03
Today’s incoming college freshmen will be paying 1,041 percent more for their textbooks than their peers did in 1977. This is while the actual value and costs of books have been declining for years. The free market has been making books cheaper; yet college students are forced to pay ever-more. Why? Because of the Federal …
Jul 28
More than a hundred peer-reviewed economic studies have established that raising (or imposing) a minimum wage is correlated with increased unemployment. The only studies purporting to show otherwise are those that occurred in unusual economic circumstances (such as in a “boom-town” situation where wages were naturally rising rapidly anyway). The strong correlation between minimum-wage laws …
