Two researchers at Utah State University have discovered a factor which may be silently impacting the much-discussed, but poorly understood, gender wage gap. Lindsey McBride and Grant Patty examined the gender bias of occupational licensing requirements. What they found is that —  at least at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder — women are…

Steven Reisner discusses a letter to Obama about ending torture once and for all. Ralph Nader discusses a potential left-right alliance. Vincent Navarro discusses the Mondragon worker cooperatives in Spain. James Peron discusses how people who hate gays also hate capitalists in the context of the businesses refusing to discriminate against them. Qatryk interviews Roderick…

In this post, I continue my brief introduction to left-wing laissez faire economic theory. Let’s get started. After discussing Benjamin Tucker’s four big monopolies, the next big thing to discuss is that of contemporary mutualist/individualist anarchist – Kevin Carson. I already made use of some of his stuff, but I want to highlight the innovations…

For decades taxi regulations have served as the textbook example of government regulations creating artificial enclosures, rents, and wage labor. In addition to a host of prohibitous regulations that even extend to the color of a driver’s socks, the “medallion” system dramatically limits the number of taxi in major cities while at the same time…

Around the country, consumers are greeting newly arrived rideshare and taxi alternative companies like Lyft and Uber with fanfare. Some people, though, aren’t so happy. Taxi companies, for example, are lobbying city and local governments to heavily regulate and outright ban these services from the streets — ostensibly for “safety” reasons. One group in Seattle…

It’s intriguing to see the progressive Left uniting against drug prohibition. They’re not with us in spirit, nor should they be, but they’ve laid the groundwork for its critique, and in a way that is sewn with the same threads of our passing commonalities. Many hold that only “hard” drugs should be combated with force and other “safe”…

Ho provato a cercare un solo caso di censura o discriminazione dei contenuti da parte dei fornitori di accesso internet in Brasile. Ho cercato casi in cui i fornitori di accesso bloccano l’accesso a specifici siti o offrono un piano più caro per accedere a più contenuti. Sembrerà incredibile ma non ho trovato nulla. Ho…

I tried to find a one simple case of censorship or content discrimination in Internet services in Brazil. I looked for cases in which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocked access to specific websites or offered more expensive plans that afforded access to more content. As incredible as it may sound, I found nothing. I thought…

Aqueles que veem o poder governamental e o poder corporativo como conflitantes e aqueles que veem os dois como simbióticos, tem cada um, um ponto. A aliança entre o governo e a elite corporativa é parecida com a parceria entre a igreja e o estado na Idade Média: cada um quer ser o parceiro dominante,…

The Lawrence, Kansas Journal-World‘s Peter Hancock writes that US Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) finds Bitcoin “a difficult subject” (“Senator says ‘Bitcoins’ are challenge for regulators,” November 25th). And in certain respects Moran is correct. Encrypted digital currencies do imply a technical learning curve for users (and presumably for creators). It seems pretty obvious, though, that what…

Existe uma lenda popular secular que diz o seguinte: era uma vez (pois é assim que esses tipos de histórias deveriam começar), no século XIX, a economia dos Estados Unidos, que era quase totalmente desregulada e laissez-faire. Então, surgiu um movimento com o objetivo de sujeitar os negócios a controles regulatórios em prol dos trabalhadores e…

A decade after Califormia’s disastrous experience with Enron-style electrical utility “deregulation” — rolling blackouts and price spikes — caused Arizona to abandon a similar project, the Arizona Corporation Commission is once again considering it. The real problem with “deregulation,” as promoted by the libertarian establishment — the think tanks and lobbyists who pressure the state…

In a speech last month about proposed gun control legislation, President Obama decried opponents’ attempts to encourage “suspicion about government.” “The government’s us,” he responded. “These officials are elected by you. They are constrained as I am constrained, by a system that our founders put in place.” But if government were “us,” why would we…

Matonis: Bitcoin is not a governmental instrument of legal tender that requires regulatory legitimacy and coercion by law in order to gain acceptance.

D’Amato: [The state] intercedes in economic affairs not to aid ordinary, working people … but to restrict their opportunities and options so that dominant corporate actors (today’s feudal lords) may prey upon them.

Dawie Coetzee: The way to create scarcity is to withhold output, but, in many cases, the creation of scarcity depends on a significant increase in output.

No mundo de Barack Obama, eventos como o massacre de Newtown são preço pequeno a pagar pela inconteste capacidade de fazer por atacado o que Adam Lanza fez no varejo.

Knapp: In Barack Obama’s world, events like the Newtown massacre are a small price to pay for the uncontested ability to do wholesale what Adam Lanza did retail.

Knapp: Shiny badges and expensive offices notwithstanding, ICE is no less a criminal enterprise than Los Zetas or the Gambino family, and its abduction of Andiola’s family no less a crime.

Hultner: The “debate” between CNN host Piers Morgan and talk radio host Alex Jones on Monday may have been entertaining political theatre, but they — and the rest of us — are missing a larger point.