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anti-discrimination laws \ discrimination \ employment laws \ equal pay \ fair pay \ glass ceiling \ justice \ Lilly Ledbetter \ racism \ Rights \ sex
The Alternative to Non-Discrimination Law
In my previous post I argued that non-discrimination laws were immoral. But you might still wonder what we can do about the many irrational employers who might discriminate in the workplace. Without such laws won’t many employers consider race and sex unfairly? Won’t there be businesses that choose not to hire certain individuals based on [...]
discrimination \ equal pay \ fair pay \ glass ceiling \ Lilly Ledbetter \ racism \ sex
To Hire, and To Befriend. Should Government Have a Say?
Fairness. Individual rights. Equality under the law. These are all things we, as Americans, and more deeply, as human beings, cherish. We have accepted these ideas as moral, virtuous, and something towards which we ought to strive. It was allegedly in the name of these values that President Obama, with a swift stroke of his [...]
cigarette \ electronic cigarette \ FDA \ morality \ property \ regulation \ Rights \ smokers \ smoking \ tobacco industry \ vaporized nicotine
FDA Snuffs Out Safer Smoking Alternative
Millions of Americans choose to continue smoking despite known health risks. Presumably, the value they get from smoking is (rightly or wrongly) worth the risk to them. But for a short time, it appeared that smokers had a healthy third alternative: electronic cigarettes. The electronic cigarette is a relatively new innovation that works by allowing [...]
coercion \ force \ freedom \ government \ healthcare \ rationing \ Rights \ welfare
The High Cost of a Free Lunch
Congress recently approved a new budget of staggering proportions. Weighing in at $3.6 trillion, the plan provides billions in allocations towards a national health plan, green energy, foreign aid, education, and countless other programs. The president has declared that his budget is “an economic blueprint for the future- a vision of America… that will lead [...]
bailout \ banking \ capitalism \ Posner \ regulation
Capitalism In Crisis?
Capitalism is in crisis, claims Richard Posner on the pages of the Wall Street Journal today. This crisis happened, he says, because “a capitalist economy, while immensely dynamic and productive, is not inherently stable.” Furthermore, he suggests that “the banking crash might not have occurred had banking not been progressively deregulated beginning in the 1970s.” [...]
AQR \ Asness \ bailout \ Rights \ TARP \ Wall Street
A Hero Speaks Up for Hedge Funds
In the past months, Washington has used its pull over and over to force businessmen to buy into its programs. From cornering banks into accepting TARP money to firing GM’s CEO to insisting that AIG employees return their contractually guaranteed retention bonus—Washington has demanded and businessmen have acquiesced. So it has been with Washington’s latest [...]
coal \ energy \ environmentalism \ green \ stanford \ sustainable
Campus Media Response: Punishing Coal: Truly Criminal
Crime and Punishment: Jumping off the coal train, April 7, 2009 The Stanford Daily Stanford University Madame— Your article, “Crime and Punishment: Jumping off the coal train,” argues that despite the benefits of coal America should switch to “sustainable” energy production. Yet, aside from a ludicrous metaphor comparing coal fuel to eating cake you make [...]
bailout \ Bank of America \ Bernanke \ insider trading \ Ken Lewis \ Paulson \ regulation \ Rights
Thug Rule in Washington
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis has sparked controversy in his recent testimony to regulators. Lewis has revealed that he was threatened, by then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Chairman of the Fed Ben Bernanke, to buy Merrill Lynch, a company drowning in financial losses of billions of dollars. Lewis explained that Paulson and Bernanke presented [...]
AIG \ Barack Obama \ statism \ TARP
Obama, No Take-Backs
The Washington Post recently reported that the federal government has changed the rules of the $1 trillion program to relieve banks of toxic assets. President Obama’s administration is back-pedalling on promises it made to financial institutions only a month ago that they would not face executive compensation restrictions—ala AIG bonuses—if they participated in the program. [...]
earth day \ environmentalism \ global warming
It Isn’t Easy Being Green
As people assemble on the National Mall to celebrate Earth Day today, the idea that man-made global warming is threatening our future seems a foregone conclusion. But even the left-leaning New York Times recently featured an opposing view from famous physicist Freeman Dyson. Keith Lockitch, a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, has been campaigning against environmentalism [...]
