Tag Archives: regulation

Air Travel Delays? Blame the Government

November 4, 2008 – 5:45 pm

Hate flying? Don’t blame it on the evil “free-market”, “private” airlines. There are huge chunks of the system that they don’t control. There are also many decisions that they don’t get to make, thanks to government regulations. Add air travel to the list of hated things that government is partially responsible for screwing up. Scott [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Government | Comments (0)

Don’t Freeze the Future

October 29, 2008 – 3:45 pm

Life is full of risk. No matter how hard we try, we can’t eliminate that risk. Nor should we. Risk leads directly to rewards. Not all of the time. Sometimes risk leads to failure. But those failures teach us what we need to know in order to reach the rewards. More than that, it’s impossible [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Economics, Politics | Also tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Blame the Fed?

October 24, 2008 – 8:36 pm

I always like a story that points out how supposedly wise government employees manage to destroy the very thing they’re trying to protect. Today, the Wall Street Journal fingered the Federal Reserve for much of the turmoil of the last year.

But the larger story is that the global economy is fast popping its [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Economics, Government | Also tagged | Comments (0)

Did Deregulation Cause the Crash?

September 29, 2008 – 9:43 pm

Many people are blaming the mortgage crash on the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act — the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Biley Act. But did Gramm-Leach-Bliley cause the crash? I don’t think so.

First, Glass-Steagall created a “wall of separation” between investment banking and commercial banking. Investment banks create and sell securities in the investment markets. Commercial banks earn money [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Economics | Also tagged | Comments (0)

Water Wells and Scarce Resources

July 31, 2008 – 11:13 am

The Southeast has been experiencing drought conditions for over two years now. Many residents don’t want to watch their lawns turn brown or their flowers die off. So, they’re drilling their own wells.

While Atlanta’s main water source, Lake Lanier, has sunk 15 feet below desired levels and ordinary families have let their lawns [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Economics | Comments (0)

Don’t Attack My Mike’s!

February 29, 2008 – 5:05 pm

No More Mike’s Hard Lemonades For Me:

OK, perhaps it is a guilty pleasure, but I enjoy downing a couple of Mike Hard Lemonade’s on a hot afternoon. Now, it seems, the Food Nazi’s at the Center for Science in the Public Interest want to stop me.Public Citizen’s blog announced that CSPI plans to [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Government | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Do You Have Your eBay License?

January 31, 2008 – 5:22 pm

How’s this for economic freedom:

The state of Pennsylvania has shut down the eBay business of Mary Jo Pletz, who started the endeavor so she could earn money at home while caring for daughter, who had developed a brain tumor. Not content with merely running her out of business, state officials [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Government | Also tagged | Comments (0)

How Evan Almighty Should Have Been

January 31, 2008 – 4:53 pm

From Redneck Peril, Lack of Realism in Evan Almighty Dept.:

And it came to pass, in the fourth day of the sixth month, that Noah settled in the land of Massachusettes. And behold, the LORD spake unto Noah and said, “Again hath the earth become wicked, and it repenteth me that ever I made [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Biblical, Humor | Comments (0)

Banned for Your Own Good

January 17, 2008 – 10:42 am

The city of Madison believes that if it limits your freedom it can truly make you safer. Next up on their agenda: plastic water bottles.

The city of Madison, enamored of bans on everything from smoking to phosphorus fertilizers, may be setting its regulatory sights on another target — plastic. In [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Government | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Minor Medicine Concerns

October 1, 2007 – 9:36 am

This story (Ban Sought on Cold Medicine for Very Young - New York Times) made my pharmacist wife shake her head.

It seems more than a little overkill to ban an entire class of medicines just because a few doctors start jumping up and down and yelling “There’s no proof that it works! No proof!”

And look [...]

By Joe Martin | Posted in Healthcare | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)