Month: February 2024

Why Is Panera Exempted From California’s New Minimum Wage Law?

Probably because Greg Flynn, who operates 24 of the bakery cafes in California, is a longtime friend of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The deeper lesson is that giving the government more power to set wages (or regulate other aspects of the economy) creates the conditions for exactly this sort of thing to happen…

And the more the government does that, the more opportunities there will be for officials to reward their friends and punish their enemies.

https://reason.com/2024/02/28/why-is-panera-exempted-from-californias-new-minimum-wage-law/

China’s Fertility Flip-Flop Shows the Folly of Legislating Family Sizes

If communists are consistent on one point, it is that the state knows best. Always. Even when it comes to how many children each couple should bring into the world. Where communists have been inconsistent, though, is on whether that number ought to be higher or lower.

China’s Fertility Flip-Flop Shows the Folly of Legislating Family Sizes

Love And Liberty

The most fragile thing in the world is a social consensus in favor of freedom… The basic libertarian experience is to go to sleep confident that some freedom is rock-hard and universally-agreed upon, only to wake up the next morning and find that every newspaper in the country has simultaneously declared it Problematic.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/love-and-liberty

If You Spend Time in Jail Because the Government Lied, You Should Be Able to Sue

The Sixth Circuit’s rule gives police and prosecutors a perverse incentive to overcharge defendants, because the more charges are brought the greater likelihood that at least one will be found to have probable cause.

https://www.cato.org/blog/you-spend-time-jail-because-police-officer-lied-you-should-be-able-sue

Friedrich Hayek’s Legacy for the 2024 Election

Government failures are worse than any perceived market failures. 

Taking a cue from Hayek, we should strive for more free trade agreements, especially with our allies, which means an end to all tariffs and other barriers. We should also enact market-based immigration policies that balance national security concerns with the economic advantages of attracting talent from diverse backgrounds. 

Friedrich Hayek’s Legacy for the 2024 Election

NJ’s Plastic Bag Ban Backfires Horribly

Reusable polypropylene bags are used “two to three times before being discarded, falling short of the recommended reuse rates necessary to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions generated during production and address climate change.”

https://www.aier.org/article/njs-plastic-bag-ban-backfires-horribly/

Stock Traders in Congress Beat the Market Again

The return for the S&P 500 represents a benchmark that 92% of professional investment managers can’t beat. Certainly not with any regularity.

But, according to the market analytics firm Unusual Whales, for the members of the U.S. Congress who actively traded stocks during 2023, no fewer than 32 beat the S&P’s 24 percent return.

https://blog.independent.org/2024/02/08/stock-trader-congress-beat-market/