Jan 162009
- Could you imagine spending 13 years in jail without any kind of trial or criminal charges because some judge thinks you have money hidden away somewhere in a divorce proceeding? Probably not — but that’s what has happened to H. Beatty Chadwick, a former Philadelphia-area lawyer, thanks to one judge’s application of the “murky legal concept” of civil contempt.
- Kendall blogs about distortions due to subsidies and protectionism in domestic corn production. It begins:
When discussing government intervention in the economy, many times we see industries where government’s role is primarily one of suppression of an industry. That is, regulation, taxation, and trade restrictions serve to depress an entire industry. This is true in my industry, the chemical industry. It is also true in the pharmaceutical industry. While there may be differences in impact from firm to firm, generally all firms suffer from government intervention, and generally all firms can be viewed in some ways as victims of government intervention.
But what happens in an industry when government subsidizes a particular set of players at the expense of another? Are all firms victims? No, The picture it turns out is very different.
- The religious want America to be more like China. After all, at least China bans porn. (Oh, that pesky notion of freedom of speech!)
- Twincredibles: A mixed-raced couple has two sets of mismatched twins. Cool! (Via John Enright)
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Ayn Rand for Treasury Secretary on Yahoo Finance. Ayn Rand’s “fix” for today’s economic crisis would involve much more than abolishing the income tax. It would entail a full return to laissez-faire capitalism. (Via Adam Buker.)
