"Politicians in the winning country are often not around when taxpayers foot the bill more than half a decade later. The Olympics exhibit many qualities which are endorsed by free-market capitalism, actively promoting individualism, international cooperation, and excellence through competition. Why, then, do we continue the tradition of outlandish public spending on them?"
"In the People’s Democratic Republic of New York City, the owner of a building covered in graffiti must pay the 'artists' who trespassed on and defaced his property because he whitewashed their 'work,' a clown in a federal gown has decreed. And he must pay a lot: $6.7 million."
"Mnuchin, speaking at a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee, said he has spoken personally with Trump about the issue, and that the president 'does feel strongly' that the tax should be applied."
"The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 permanently erases those spending limits, while authorizing far more spending than would ever have been considered while the Tea Party movement held sufficient political influence to stop it. As a result, the U.S. government’s budget deficits for 2018 and 2019 appear set to grow the levels that the Congressional Budget Office had projected for its more realistic alternative fiscal scenario following President Obama’s spending proposals back in 2010."
"In 2006 the FDA put limits on how much pseudoephedrine, a nasal decongestant, you could buy and also required a photo ID to do so. Despite adding a lot of hassle into the treatment of stuffy noses, meth only became more pure. What on earth makes anyone think that going down this same road with loperamide will have any kind of positive benefit?"
"200,000 Salvadoran refugees who were granted U.S. Temporary Protected Status – some of whom have been living in the U.S. for nearly a generation – are being thrown under the bus. The federal government is stumbling over a problem of its own creation, having made it almost impossible for the Salvadorans who lawfully have lived, worked, paid taxes and raised children under TPS to acquire permanent status."
"Randall Schriver, the Defense Department's top Asia official, said the $45 billion total for the year includes $5 billion for Afghan forces and $13 billion for U.S. forces inside Afghanistan. Much of the rest is for logistical support. Some $780 million goes toward economic aid."
"Someone started arbitrarily and aggressively buying stocks and the decline was halved. Monday will still go down as a Wall Street massacre, but that anonymous superhero buyer or buyers made it a lot less bloody. Who was the market’s superhero? I’m going to tell you a story and then you decide."
"Overnight, realizing it is facing an avalanche of lawsuits even though it explicitly laid out the possibility of the ETN getting 'terminated' should VIX explode, Japan's biggest brokerage issued an apology after investors in its $300 million vol-linked ETN were all but wiped out during this week’s stock-market turmoil."
"If they're going to be so explicit in their hostility to the anonymity and liberty those means of exchange offer people, we should take them at their word. Let's be clear in response that what they see as problems are the precise features we like about cash and cryptocurrencies. We support our well-worn folding money and bitcoin and its successors to come precisely because they put at least some of our activities beyond the reach of control freaks who want to monitor, tax, and regulate our lives."