Sometimes I swear we are living in a dystopian novel whose author is courteous enough to provide us mere extras in his story with plenty of comedic relief to make the days tolerable. The USA Today headline reads: “Obama, Biden again target government waste.” Yes. That’s in fact what it says. The administration that...
Read More »

Conditions for California prisoners are so bad that the Supreme Court has ruled that the overcrowding amounts to unconstitutional “needless suffering and death” (it almost goes without saying that the conservative justices dissented). California is supposed to release 38,000 to 46,000 prisoners. Unfortunately, Matthew Cate, head of California Corrections, indicates that the Brown administration...
Read More »

Yesterday, after I had participated in the commencement exercises at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin, in Guatemala City, I was interviewed by a reporter for Prensa Libre, an important newspaper in this city. I did not know what the reporter would ask me, but I supposed that his questions might have something to do with economic affairs or...
Read More »

The Obama administration has detained the alleged Wikileaks whistleblower under torturous conditions—for almost a year, he has been subjected to solitary confinement in a windowless 6×12 cell for 23 hours a day, under constant surveillance, prevented from exercising, lacking a pillow or sheets. For the remaining hour every day, he is allowed to walk...
Read More »

A few days ago, tens of thousands of Mexicans in scores of Mexican cities participated in public protests against the War on Drugs and the use of the Mexican army as anti-drug warriors. The violence that has accompanied the Mexican government’s attempts to defeat the drug dealers during the past several years has claimed perhaps as...
Read More »

In a recent piece in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Ralph Nader bemoans President Obama’s failure to use his position and standing to advance the non-profit sector: Yet, though he rhetorically urges more volunteerism, as all presidents do, in his travels around the country, he stops most often at factories and campaign fund-raising events patronized...
Read More »

Panelists David Friedman and Judge Alex Kozinski had a lively exchange in response to a question about the doctrine of jury nullification during the Q&A portion of our recent Independent Policy Forum, “Is U.S. Justice Broken? Overcoming Government Legal Failure“, based on our book, The Pursuit of Justice: Law and Economics of Legal Institutions,...
Read More »

This week in my local newspaper, Florida’s Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp wrote an op-ed reporting that a drug known as “Spice” is becoming “... a nightmare for law enforcement, because it is sold and used openly as a so-called legal alternative to marijuana. Currently, there is no way to test for the use of...
Read More »

Guess who recently donated $10,000 to Public Safety First, a California group lobbying against marijuana decriminalization? The California Beer & Beverage Distributors. The beer guys are, of course, concerned only with public safety. Says a spokesperson for Public Safety First: “Let’s keep in mind the beer and beverage distributors are the folks who deliver...
Read More »

It’s all over the news. “The recession is over.” The mainstream economists say so. This was the longest recession since World War II, I heard on the news (say, I thought the economy was just dandy throughout that war—oh, never mind). The end of this terrible recession into which the free market plunged us...
Read More »