New Analysis Finds Expanded Child Tax Credit Reduces Work and Growth

As policymakers continue to look for ways to make family life easier, more convenient, and more affordable, it is key that they avoid reforms that inadvertently undermine families or reduce the size of the economy and associated opportunities for workers.

https://www.cato.org/blog/new-analysis-finds-expanded-child-tax-credit-reduces-work-growth

The False Face of SBF, FTX, and ESG

The vast majority of ESG funds and firms are similarly misdirective. Freewheeling use of terms like “sustainable” obscure a wide variety of investment activities, some decidedly at odds with common public notions of “green” investing. Between 2019 and June 2022, some 65 US funds were re-branded as “sustainable,” without any consensus as to the meaning of the term. 

Washington Has Been Much More Successful Than California in Displacing the Black Market for Pot

Lighter regulation is one likely explanation.

California’s striking failure to shift consumers from illegal to legal dealers is largely due to a combination of high taxes, onerous regulations, and local retailing bans. While Washington has a relatively high retail marijuana tax (37 percent, plus standard sales taxes), in other respects the state has made it easier for licensed suppliers to compete with illegal sources.

https://reason.com/2022/11/14/washington-has-been-much-more-successful-than-california-in-displacing-the-black-market-for-pot/

Data on Mass Murder by Government in the 20th Century

Communists killed the most, followed by fascists.

At the insistence of Josef Stalin, the Genocide Convention applies to some mass murders by government (e.g., targeting racial, ethnic, or religious groups) but not to others (e.g., targeting victims for class warfare or ideological reasons). Hence, prof. Rummel coined the term “democide” to describe noncombat mass murders for any reason.

https://reason.com/volokh/2022/11/09/data-on-mass-murder-by-government-in-the-20th-century/

Cut off from food, Ukrainians recall famine under Stalin, which killed 4 million of them

The Soviet dictator covered up the starvation and cannibalism that stalked Ukraine in the early 1930s

Thirteen percent of the Ukrainian population perished… as Stalin enforced “collectivization.” What followed was “the first truly big lie in the politics of the 20th century…” Stalin denied the famine happened. Most in the outside world knew no better, thanks in part to… the New York Times.

Archived from the Washington Post: https://archive.ph/OZk4q

The fourth Saturday in November is Holodomor Remembrance Day.

After Supreme Court Ruling, States Grapple With How To Define an Excessive Fine

The Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Timbs v. Indiana revived the Excessive Fines Clause. Now state courts have to come up with tests to determine what’s excessive.

“Surely, if the Excessive Fines Clause means anything, it means that the government cannot confiscate a defendant’s entire net worth when the maximum fine set by the legislature is less than one-tenth of the value of the forfeited asset.”

https://reason.com/2022/11/04/after-supreme-court-ruling-states-grapple-with-how-to-define-an-excessive-fine/

The Pilgrims Dreamed of Socialism. Then Socialism Almost Killed Them.

Private property was the solution to their failed experiment. But people keep repeating the Pilgrims’ mistakes.

The Pilgrims had run into the “tragedy of the commons.” No individual Pilgrim owned crops they grew, so no individual had much incentive to work.

Bradford’s solution: private property.

https://reason.com/2022/11/23/the-pilgrims-dreamed-of-socialism-then-socialism-almost-killed-them/

Go With the Regs or Go to Jail

The Miller’s Organic Farm Case: Part 1

Last summer, armed federal agents sent by the USDA demanded that Miller cease operations and prepared to hit him with more than $300,000 in fines. … The farm was ordered to pay the fine within 30 days or face further penalties “including imprisonment of Amos Miller.”

What We Knew In the Early Days

We certainly live in an age of short attention span but many these signs and warnings came weeks or months before the world locked down and they chronicled the damage as it was happening. Why all this came to be completely ignored remains the burning question.