A useful way to think about price controls is that they destroy mutually beneficial Coasean bargains. By a “Coasean bargain,” I mean an offer that takes the following form: “I’ll pay you to reduce this harm” or “I’ll compensate you for bearing this harm.”

I have always been interested in etymology, which can often provide interesting historical insights about whatever topic a word encompasses. Changes in language patterns in terms of the meaning and frequency of certain words can reveal much about a society’s cultural perception of a given issue.

The following is the first post in a five-part series on Yale’s Akhil Reed Amar’s criticism of Thomas Jefferson. Follow these links for Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

Just a month ago, National Review (the supposed Gray Lady of the Right) ran a piece by Yale’s Akhil Reed Amar entitled Declaring Independence from Thomas Jefferson. The piece is a paean to centralized power imbued with presentism as Amar virtue signals and plays the role of Pied Piper as “conservative” lawyers and academics follow him to the land of the living Constitution. Amar is a staunch progressive, yet when one views his biography and list of engagements from the Federalist Society, one is left with the impression that he is some sort of conservative/originalist hero. I have no problem when the Federalist Society brings him in as the progressive voice in a debate with a conservative scholar, but in most of the FedSoc events, he is the only speaker and is selling his latest book. I’ve personally attended a FedSoc National Lawyer’s Convention and witnessed idolatrous worship of Amar and his work. In this post and those to follow—focusing on his latest article at NR—I hope to show why lawyers and academics should divorce themselves from Amar and stuff cotton in their ears when the Pied Piper plays.

Most people associate the Food and Drug Administration with regulating prescription drugs and other medical goods. The agency’s actual regulatory power extends to about 20 percent of all US consumer goods. Some of its authority extends over large portions of the economy—affecting the entire healthcare market and the quality of life for millions of Americans. 

On September’s first Monday we supposedly honor those who labored hard in the past by taking the day off. That alone should suggest something is wrong with the occasion. Normally, when someone has worked an awful lot and you want to show your appreciation, you do so by picking up some of the slack, not slacking off yourself.

Nearly five decades ago, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974 was passed into law. Since then, this law has governed how members elected to the U.S. Congress draft and pass the U.S. government’s budget.

California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) meets the criteria to be designated “high-risk,” according to a new report from State Auditor Grant Parks, because of “inadequate fraud prevention and claimant service, as well as a high rate of overturned eligibility decisions in its unemployment insurance program.” 

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group’s march toward Moscow on June 23 marked the beginning of the end for Putin’s regime in Russia. In exchange for stopping his troops short of Moscow, Putin promised Prigozhin he could leave for Belarus and face no charges for his rebellion. Many observers, including me, thought that Prigozhin would not live out the year.

I’m not a Donald Trump fan. Nor am I a fan of going back to Romney-Ryan Republicanism. (For my thoughts on Trump and the GOP, see this post written two days before the riot that took place on January 6, 2021). But those on the right who long for the UniParty as it existed pre-Trump have devised a new trick to keep the Donald off the next presidential ballot. And it’s about as goofy as Sydney Powel’s voting machine theories. UniParty advocates are turning to Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads:

The Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors summarizes Section 2A of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which authorized the central bank’s creation, as requiring it “to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.” Channeling Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, I say in the classroom that the Fed is supposed to pursue the “Holy Trinity” of price stability, full employment, and economic growth.