Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
In the last few years, the number of cigarettes sold in the United States plummeted by roughly one-third, from almost 204 billion in 2020 to 138 billion in 2024. The share of American adults who smoke has been falling for decades and is at or near an all-time low. And yet the tobacco industry is … Read more
Progressives and environmental groups have teamed up with a rival steelmaker to lobby against the U.S. Steel deal. As President Joe Biden continues to mull whether to allow one private steelmaking company to purchase another, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate the bizarre political alliances that opponents of the U.S. Steel/Nippon Steel deal have … Read more
If Musk is truly serious about fiscal discipline, he’ll advise the president-elect to eschew many of the policies he promised on the campaign trail. Elon Musk has thrown down a $2 trillion gauntlet, claiming he can slash federal spending by that amount. While the billionaire’s proclamations on X often generate more heat than light, one … Read more
As more states move to legalize pot, concerns about the drug’s long-term effects multiply Now that Ohio has joined the nearly half of U.S. states that have legalized recreational marijuana, lawmakers are scrambling to put limits on the drug’s potency. “It’s not our grandfather’s marijuana,” said Dr. James Avery, who is board certified in internal … Read more
In a famous exchange in the The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.” “Gradually” and “suddenly” applies to higher education’s implosion. During the 1990s “culture wars” universities were warned that their chronic tuition hikes above the rate of inflation were unsustainable. … Read more
Local politicians can be just as greedy and callous as state politicians and national politicians. Even if it means mistreating poor people. Perhaps the best evidence for the preceding sentence is the way that traffic cameras are used to generate revenue. Indeed, local politicians use cameras as a way of grabbing more money even if … Read more
The Chiefs have been one of the most dominant teams in the NFL for the last five years. And, as a Kansan (and a native of Omaha, Nebraska) I consider myself a Chiefs fan. Despite this, I want the Chiefs to stay out of my state. No, it isn’t because I’m bitter about Tyreek Hill … Read more
Rent Seeking “rent seeking” occurs when interest groups manipulate the political system to obtain undeserved riches. And there are all sorts of examples of policies that exist solely because interest groups get politicians to tilt the playing field – including trade barriers, farm subsidies, occupational licensing, and bureaucrat salaries. As pointed out in … Read more
There are important lessons to be drawn here though; lessons the Longists have neglected. The first being the flaw of the personalist Caudillo-styled leader. There is no doubt that Huey was a political genius. But this political genius, along with his whole movement, died that autumn night in Baton Rouge. While building the movement around … Read more
Organized shoplifting for commercial purposes is real. It is fed by the easy profitability with which the stolen goods can be sold on Amazon and other platforms to law-abiding Americans. When you buy a brand-name shampoo on Amazon from a third-party vendor, you have no idea where the shampoo came from. Brick-and-mortar retail stores have … Read more
Bootleggers and Baptists | Learn Liberty The class-warfare crowd and tax lawyers don’t have a lot in common, but both groups oppose the flat tax. An even stranger unholy alliance involves the War on Drugs, which has the support of both the activists who despise drugs and the criminals who get rich selling … Read more
There’s a new study out today that does the math: Intercollegiate amateur athletics in the US largely bars student-athletes from sharing in any of the profits generated by their participation, which creates substantial economic rents for universities. These rents are primarily generated by men’s football and men’s basketball programs. . . . [We] measure how … Read more
Shutdowns and bailouts are unsustainable for 18 months to two years. We need a new and better set of strategies, and we can’t put it off any further. In mid-April, 69 percent of 2,394 registered U.S. voters polled said it is “necessary” to develop a coronavirus vaccine “before we reopen the economy.” Politicians are beginning … Read more
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that lobbying spending has jumped to near‐record levels in the first quarter of 2020 “as powerful companies, trade groups and other clients rushed to influence the government’s response to COVID-19, particularly its $2.2 trillion stimulus bill.” Federal lobbying spending totaled $903 million in the first quarter, the most since … Read more
Edna Ferber, author of Giant, had a great ear for one of the subtlest American dialects: High Texan Bulls***, the mother tongue of almost every politician to make it from the Lone Star State to the national stage, from Lyndon Johnson to Ross Perot to George W. Bush to Rick Perry. “It was part of … Read more
We also seem to see overspending in medicine, law, school, investment analysis, campaign spending, and much else. A consistent pattern I think I see is overspending in areas where spending lets one associate with prestigious folks. So I suggest that much of this overspending is better explained via motives to gain prestige via association. Re … Read more
Bootleggers and Baptists: A Conversation with Bruce Yandle The “Bootleggers and Baptists” are at it again. No, this time it’s not about pious reformers shutting down the corner liquor store on Sunday, thereby creating odd alliances between social puritans and sellers of illegal booze. This time, the regulatory target is small-box retail stores, … Read more