How Exclusionary Zoning Increases Homelessness

A new paper by housing expert Salim Furth shows it does so by making it harder for marginal people to find housing with relatives and friends.

…[A] large proportion of the homeless … could find housing with friends or relatives, if housing were cheaper. Some could potentially live with roommates. “YIMBY” policies that make it easier to build new housing in response to demand could alleviate this problem.

https://reason.com/volokh/2024/12/16/how-exclusionary-zoning-increases-homelessness

‘Transparency’ Mandate Would Burden Small Brewers and Distilleries

It’s hard to oppose “transparency,” “common sense,” and “informed choices.” But labeling mandates always fall heaviest on the smallest of businesses. 

It is very easy for seemingly “commonsense” transparency reform to give way to more alarmist and intense health warnings on booze and, eventually, more draconian restrictions on alcohol sales and higher booze taxes.

https://reason.com/2024/08/24/transparency-mandate-would-burden-small-brewers-and-distilleries/

Make Going to The Doctor More Like Going to the Vet

No muss. No fuss. No complicated paperwork. No uncertainty. Taking the dog to the vet was more like taking the car to the shop than a doctor’s visit. We went in, they told us what our options would cost, and we chose. 

Why the 2024 Election Misses the Mark on America’s Most Critical Issue

The two dominant parties are off in la-la land, unaware of the colossal growth of the welfare state, the regulatory state, and the warfare state. They generally mistake the symptoms for the causes and sometimes confuse the problems with the solutions. 

Milton Friedman: ‘Crack Would Never Have Existed If You Had Not Had Drug Prohibition’

The prohibition of drugs produces on the average 10,000 additional homicides a year. It’s a moral problem that the government is going around killing 10,000 people. It’s a moral problem that the government is making into criminals people who may be doing something you and I don’t approve of but who are doing something that hurts nobody else.

https://www.cato.org/blog/milton-friedman-crack-would-never-have-existed-you-had-not-had-drug-prohibition

Arguments Against Markets

Those of us who want to keep government small and strictly limited — and, hence, who want individuals to have very wide latitude to make whatever peaceful choices they wish in markets — are far outnumbered by individuals who distrust markets to deliver enough of the goods to enough of the people. Why this distrust? What must sincere opponents of free markets have in mind to motivate their enthusiasm for replacing market processes with government commands?

Trump Advisor Admits Trade War Against China Failed

Trump’s tariffs—in addition to those since imposed by President Joe Biden—continue to raise prices for Americans. In fact, promising great economic results and not achieving them is key to Trump’s record: After announcing the $200 billion deal in the first place, he tweeted that “it will bring both the USA & China closer together in so many other ways.” And of course, Trump’s anti-trade rhetoric was based on the trade deficit between the U.S. and China, which increased as a result of his policies.

https://reason.com/2024/06/19/trump-advisor-admits-trade-war-against-china-failed/

No, Politicians Can’t ‘Fix’ Prices—and That’s OK

Price controls lead to the misallocation of resources, shortages, diminished product quality, and black markets. Prices and wages set on market dynamics reflect underlying economic realities and then send out a signal for help. Price controls only mask these realities, which inevitably worsens the economy’s ability to respond with what ordinary consumers and workers need.

https://reason.com/2024/05/16/no-politicians-cant-fix-prices-and-thats-ok/

J.D. Vance Thinks U.S. Steel’s Shareholders Weren’t Adequately Warned of J.D. Vance’s Efforts To Block Sale

Where are the limits of federal power? Vance is positing a situation in which the government must grant implicit or explicit approval of every merger and acquisition involving an American company.

https://reason.com/2024/04/11/j-d-vance-thinks-u-s-steels-shareholders-werent-adequately-warned-of-j-d-vances-efforts-to-block-sale/

Government Project: The Eternal Folly of Central Planning

Americans do not readily embrace government-imposed collectivization. “Community,” in the Tocquevillian sense — voluntary associations which comprise the fabric of civil society — cannot be manufactured or externally imposed; civic cooperation must be organic.