Essays

Immigration Reform — The Time for Free Trade

"During the 19th century, tariffs and other barriers restricted international trade in goods and services. However, for the most part, labor was free to enter or leave the United States. Following World War I, the federal government enacted a series of laws restricting immigration. The interwar years also witnessed significant restrictions on trade in goods and services. Market forces are necessary to coordinate the international labor market as well. Increasing the number of H-1B visa's or temporary work permits is a small step in the right direction but governments can no better plan the international labor market than the Soviets could plan their markets." Continue reading →

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Think Government Is Intrusive Now? Wait Until E-Verify Kicks In

"If this part of the bill passes, all employers will be forced to use the government-run, Web-based system that checks potential employees' immigration status. That means, every American will have to obtain the federal government's prior approval in order to earn a living. E-Verify might seem harmless now, but missions always creep and bureaucracies expand. Surely we should link E-Verify to the criminal records of pedophiles? And why not all criminal records? We don't want alcoholic airline pilots, disbarred doctors, fraudster bankers and so on. E-Verify will be attractive as a way to enforce hundreds of other employment laws and regulations." Continue reading →

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How to escape from a car underwater

"On Friday night, Morgan Lake lived through many drivers’ nightmare: She found herself plummeting about 27 feet off the edge of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge into the water below. And the 22-year-old student managed a feat that pilots and military personnel take hours of specialized training to perfect: She escaped from her sinking car, swam to safety and survived. Ken Burton, president of Panama City, Fla.-based Stark Survival, has guided helicopter operators worldwide through his $2,295 underwater-egress class. For those who might find themselves underwater in their cars, Burton offered this advice." Continue reading →

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How to Survive a Plane Crash: 10 Tips That Could Save Your Life

"In a report analyzing airline accidents from 1983 to 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the survival rate of crashes was 95.7%. But it’s important to take note of another interesting tidbit that the FAA and NTSB found in their research on plane crashes: 40% of fatalities that did occur happened in crashes that were survivable. Close to half of all airplane crash fatalities might have been prevented had passengers taken proper action. In today’s post we’re going to offer research-backed advice from Ben Sherwood’s The Survivor’s Club on what you can do to make it out of a plane crash alive." Continue reading →

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Austrian Detroit?

"As Detroit begins to sort through the ill-begotten public liabilities that have driven it to bankruptcy, an important opportunity is at hand to revitalize the city that was once the epicenter of American entrepreneurship and manufacturing, while setting an example for other municipal governments that appear to be headed toward a similar fate. Here is an 'Austrian moment' in the making, a potential libertarian awakening guided by the market-oriented, non-interventionist principles of the Austrian school of economics. The time has come to free Detroit’s entrepreneurial spirit from the legacy of government mismanagement." Continue reading →

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What is an American? Forget the state and just be a child of the nation

"The act of renouncing U.S. citizenship should not 'diminish your personal identity'. If you want to think of yourself as an American that’s fine. Nobody can take that away from you. This is important. Why? Because the Obama 'Witch Hunt' against U.S. citizens abroad has forced people to reevaluate many of their fundamental assumptions. Few Americans abroad still view the United States as 'that great citadel of freedom and justice'. Few Americans abroad see themselves as 'tax cheats' because they have offshore accounts." Continue reading →

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Rail Fails, Pipelines Prevail

"It costs approximately $15 per barrel to send oil by rail — compared with $1 a barrel by pipeline and $2 a barrel by ship. However, the steep premium for Brent made up for the huge shipping costs. Bakken oil sent by train was still cheaper than Brent oil carried by ship. Unfortunately for trains, though, prices are now shifting. The price advantage Bakken enjoys over Brent has fallen to only about $10–12 a barrel. Suddenly, spending $15 a barrel to ship Bakken by train doesn’t make sense. Instead, refiners are finding buying Brent is a better and safer deal. But all this talk about ships versus trains leaves out the best solution for crude oil transport." Continue reading →

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Obama’s False History of Public ‘Infrastructure’ Investment

"The makers of autos, tires and headlights began building roads privately long before any state or the federal government got involved. The Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway for cars, pieced together from new and existing roads in 1913, was conceived and partly built by entrepreneurs. Railroads are another example of the infrastructure-follows-entrepreneurship rule. Before the 1860s, almost all railroads were privately financed and built. Airplanes became a major industry and started carrying passengers by the early 1920s. During that period, nearly all airports were privately funded." Continue reading →

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Poor Economy = Low Gold Price?

"By the time 1979 hit, inflation was rising, gas prices were soaring, incomes were dropping, and mortgage rates were climbing. The S&P was rising, but not so much in real terms. GDP growth was high, but it was clearly not a rosy time for consumers or workers. So how did gold perform during this challenging economic environment? The gold price rose 23% in 1977 and 37% in 1978, both of which are considered economic expansion years. But as things worsened in 1979, the price accelerated and went into a mania, ending the year with an incredible 127% return." Continue reading →

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The Case for Fed Tapering Sooner Rather Than Later

"The best way to (ahem) get the attention of the political class is to taper now, trigger a stock market decline and speak directly to the elected leadership's need to put the fiscal house in order. This is the only way the Fed can escape taking the bullet during the next financial crisis. 'We told you so' is much better than 'we did everything we could and it still fell apart.' Better to engineer a mini-crisis while you're still in control than let a crisis you can't control run away from you, and better to pass the ticking time-bomb to the elected leadership while you still can." Continue reading →

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