Co-authored with Veronique de Rugy A value-added tax, a soda tax, a gas tax, banning earmarks, freezing a portion of federal spending at “pre-stimulus” levels – there’s no shortage of ideas being thrown out to fix the country’s disastrous balance
by Nick Gillespie7 Dec 2010, 10:43 AM PST0
They’ve targeted bottled water and the selling of all kinds of pets, er, “animal companions.” And now, with the soda scold who’s yanking sugary beverages from vending machines, the City by the Bay pulls off the first-ever Nanny of the
by Nick Gillespie6 Aug 2010, 9:11 AM PST0
Cameras are everywhere today: In convenience stores, at intersections, the workplace, your computer, your cellphone, ATM machines. There’s even been a camera in news anchor Katie Couric. Yet there’s one place cameras have never been allowed: The U.S. Supreme Court.
by Nick Gillespie4 Aug 2010, 1:17 PM PST0
The Empire State has a long list of sad-sack governors, ranging from the current one, the previous one, the one before that (who served three too many terms, and Nelson Rockefeller, who jacked up spending and passed draconian drug laws
by Nick Gillespie3 Aug 2010, 12:01 PM PST0
LeBron James has decided to move to Florida and play for the Miami Heat rather than bear another season with the Cavaliers. Everybody is piling on: How could a dude with a tattoo of the word loyalty on his chest
by Nick Gillespie10 Jul 2010, 12:01 PM PST0
Before hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, New Orleans had one of the worst performing public school districts in the nation. Katrina forced nearly a million people to leave their homes and caused almost $100 billion in damages. To
by Nick Gillespie8 Jul 2010, 7:18 AM PST0
The financial reform bill currently working its way toward President Barack Obama’s desk for signing is being touted as the biggest overhaul of the banking and investment sectors since the Great Depression. But the new regs won’t be any more
by Nick Gillespie2 Jul 2010, 2:11 PM PST0
Whether it’s Arizona’s controversial new law or President Obama’s decision to send additional national guard troops to the US/Mexico border, immigration remains one of the most contentious issues in contemporary politics. As the battle over “comprehensive” reform heats up, everyone
by Nick Gillespie1 Jul 2010, 10:01 AM PST0
To the American mind there may be nothing more quintessentially Swedish than the leggy, blond supermodel. But there’s another Swedish model that inspires almost as much admiration–the Swedish economic model. With a generous welfare state and high living standards, Sweden
by Nick Gillespie25 Jun 2010, 9:13 AM PST0
Reason.tv presents Citizens Against Government Waste‘s Porker of the Month for June 2010. CAGW makes this award to a politician or special interest who takes pork-barrel spending to new heights. This month’s winner is Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)! The Constellation
by Nick Gillespie23 Jun 2010, 12:01 PM PST0
President Barack Obama made news on The Today Show when he talked about kicking some ass over the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. If he is interested in punishing those responsible for what is shaping up as
by Nick Gillespie11 Jun 2010, 6:29 AM PST0
Kristin Davis rose to notoriety as the madam who provided New York Attorney General and Gov. Eliot Spitzer with the escorts that led to his demise. Davis ended up going to jail for providing a business populated by and for
by Nick Gillespie7 Jun 2010, 2:35 PM PST0
The Gulf of Mexico continues to gush oil just as a whaling controversy threatens to land Australia and Japan in international court for killing protected species. Meanwhile, another less-publicized but arguably more cataclysmic oceanic disaster continues to worsen. Overfishing threatens
by Nick Gillespie2 Jun 2010, 1:03 PM PST0
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said that “the rich are not paying their fair share” of taxes in the United States and other developed countries. Is she right? It depends on what you consider fair. Using 2006 data, The
by Nick Gillespie30 May 2010, 9:01 AM PST0
Post updated with author’s note. Author’s Note: This article includes three images that clearly denigrate Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. So there is absolutely no question about the provenance of these images, I would like to direct all readers to
by Nick Gillespie19 May 2010, 5:27 AM PST0
In The Capitalist Welfare State, Lund University economist Andreas Bergh explains how Sweden has managed to increase economic productivity despite its large public sector. Bergh says that despite popular mythology, Sweden is not a socialist success story but instead owes
by Nick Gillespie12 May 2010, 1:31 PM PST0
It’s not surprising that so many parents are so worried about autism. After all, the disorder strikes about one out of every 115 kids, its prevalence seems to be growing, and its cause or causes remain mysterious. A 1998 article
by Nick Gillespie9 May 2010, 12:13 PM PST0
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that the Tea Party movement is “struggling to overcome accusations of racism,” some of which has been perpetuated in its editorial pages. Yesterday’s New York Times, home to the most obsessively anti-Tea Party editorial page
by Nick Gillespie7 May 2010, 9:33 AM PST0
The video sharing site YouTube.com recently started blocking access to countless parodies of the 2004 German movie Downfall, a critically acclaimed film that chronicles Adolf Hitler’s final days in a Berlin bunker. The parodies take off from a powerful monologue
by Nick Gillespie5 May 2010, 11:59 AM PST0
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre has bragged in TV commercials and newspaper columns that GM has paid back its bailout “in full and ahead of schedule.” As with the Pontiac Aztek, an ugly exterior masks an ever darker problem: Whitacre
by Nick Gillespie2 May 2010, 12:11 PM PST0
Last month’s biggest busybody was the New York politician who’s waging a war on salt. This month’s top honors could have gone to the US senator who wants to block betting on box office sales or the Silicon Valley pol
by Nick Gillespie30 Apr 2010, 10:29 AM PST0
In The Excellent Powder: DDT’s Political and Scientific History, Richard Tren and Donald Roberts argue that the infamous insecticide is the world’s greatest public-health success stories, saving millions of lives by preventing insect-borne disease. Unfortunately for those in areas still
by Nick Gillespie21 Apr 2010, 1:17 PM PST0
“Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society,” said legendary Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. As students of Buck v. Bell could tell you, Holmes had a habit of being monstrously wrong, but if he’s right
by Nick Gillespie15 Apr 2010, 9:31 AM PST0
It’s hard to find a politician who isn’t eager to “do something” about high unemployment. Turns out California has found one way to save and create certain kinds of jobs–spend like mad and raise taxes. That job-creation strategy has worked
by Nick Gillespie12 Apr 2010, 12:57 PM PST0
Is California “too big to fail” or is a Golden State bankruptcy in the cards? Reason’tv’s Ted Balaker sat down with Jon Fleischman, founder and publisher of the FlashReport, to talk about California’s ongoing fiscal meltdown, and how, after a
by Nick Gillespie9 Apr 2010, 11:41 AM PST0