Now it’s the automakers. Too bad nobody predicted that throwing money into these fine well-run American corporations could have been a bad deal! The Obama administration will tell Congress Wednesday that it expects to lose about $30 billion of the $82 billion government bailout of the auto industry. Gene Sperling, senior counsel to Treasury Secretary [...]

Normally this might be considered good news: The Obama administration plans to announce this week that it is slashing its estimate of the losses from the government’s financial bailout package by about $200 billion, Treasury officials said. The White House had projected in August that the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, would [...]

Here’s a perfect song to complement my recent call to action to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. System of a Down “Prison Song” Toxicity (2001) Written by: Tankian, Serj;Malakian, Daron;Odadjian, Shavarsh; and Dolmayan, John They’re trying to build a prison, They’re trying to build a prison, Following the rights movements You [...]

The governator sent a letter to the California State Assembly where he, er, told them he would “strike” them. Carnally. To the Members of the California State Assembly: I am returning Assembly Bill 1176 without my signature. For some time now I have lamented the fact that major issues are overlooked while manyunnecessary bills come [...]

Peter Suderman writing for The Wall Street Journal has written an excellent article about the (apparent) unlearned lessons of government run healthcare. But unlike many others who use Canada and the UK as examples, Suderman insists that we only need to look at states like New York, Massachusetts, Washington, and Tennessee for their respective failed [...]

From the WSJ: The bottom line is this: The available empirical evidence does not support the idea that spending multipliers typically exceed one, and thus spending stimulus programs will likely raise GDP by less than the increase in government spending. Defense-spending multipliers exceeding one likely apply only at very high unemployment rates, and nondefense multipliers [...]

From The Club For Growth: Thanks to you, the federal government is going to dole out $615,175 to help digitize the Grateful Dead’s archive.

Here in Southern California, water is a pretty precious commodity. And I’m not just talking about the pretentious restaurants where you get dirty looks if you don’t like your water “sparkling” and at $6 a bottle. No, it’s a serious outgrowth of building a major city in the middle of a desert, in which you [...]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Arizona State Capitol Building for Sale www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview The above video clip from The Daily Show, while very humorous, illustrates a fundamental problem of government: shortsightedness. In this example, the State of Arizona is offering [...]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has issued benefit checks totaling $40.3 million to an estimated 6,100 beneficiaries for months – and in some cases for decades — after receiving notification of their deaths, according to a June audit report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. H/T: The Other McCain

The “Ambulance Commercial” from AARP claims that the “special interest groups” are “trying to derail” the healthcare debate. Those who oppose “reform” are “spreading myths” about rationing of care. In case you’ve missed it, here’s the ad: One of the things that really makes me angry about this debate is the way groups like AARP, [...]

Hmm, I guess we can see once again that our Congress is not in any way trying to manage our car companies (and their unions) for political gain: The latest example is the $10 billion taxpayers will be asked to shell out to prop up the United Auto Workers’ retiree health insurance program. That provision [...]

Here in California, our state decided to offer a tax credit to buyers of new housing construction. Unsurprisingly, $10K in free money gave the housing market a bit of a kick in the pants, particularly new construction. Now they’ve run out of money. And in a complete and utter coincidence, which nobody could possibly have [...]

The spike in car buying has caused automakers to ramp up production (via John Stossel): Many auto industry analysts and dealers expect sales volumes to fall now that the program is over. They worry that many people who took advantage of the program were merely accelerating purchases they would have made later in the year. [...]

Earlier today, I provided one more reason why corn-based ethanol mandates/subsidies might be the dumbest government program ever. Chris Edwards of Cato@Liberty suggests that Cash for Clunkers might win that honor. I have to hand it to him, he provides a few good reasons supporting his case. All good reasons, but I’ll stick with ethanol, [...]

Obama is not a dumb man. He understands that government provisioning generally produces a worse service than private organizations which are dependent on people choosing to patronize them. Here he is pointing out that while Fedex is required by law to charge higher prices than the Post Office for equivalent services, it is the Post [...]

At Cafe Hayek, a letter to the editor by Andy Morriss to the Wall Street Journal is posted: Holman Jenkins asks “Does Obama Want to Own the Airlines?” (Business World, July 8). I am sure he does not. Rather than own them, the president and his congressional allies want to control the airlines — a [...]

The news out of Sacramento appears good for the California middle class: The good news, Schwarzenegger glowed, is no new taxes. Digging a little deeper, of course, reveals the truth: REVENUES * Accelerate income tax withholding — $1.7 billion * Increase estimated tax payments for businesses and the self-employed — $610 million Between now and [...]

The July/August 2009 issue of the Left-leaning Mother Jones dedicates several articles to the asinine War on (some) Drugs. The title of the magazine’s cover story states it best – “Totally Wasted: We’ve blown $300 billion. Death squads roam Mexico. Cartels operate in 259 cities. This is your War on Drugs. Any Questions?” Reason’s Nick [...]

The purpose of society is to help people satisfy their needs. A major means used to satisfy needs are economic activities such as production, trade, and the performance of services. In a complex economy, it is easy to lose sight of this, and people begin to believe the fallacy that the purpose of an economy [...]