California governor Jerry Brown wants to impose the state’s first-ever tax on drinking water.

FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, is a mandatory report to the U.S. Treasury Department and is inherently intrusive.

Many libertarians have embraced the slogan “taxation is theft.”

Many Americans talk about “our country,” “our public lands,” and “our infrastructure.” Such terminology is inaccurate and misleading. Genuine de facto ownership entails control of the property and the benefits it generates. No one owns the country, though the thousands of governmental entities make and enforce claims to various parts and aspects of it….
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In an earlier post I argued for expanding tax-deferred retirement accounts because they eliminate the double tax on saving that exists under the current tax system.  Here is the basic idea.  People earn income and pay income tax on that income.  If they save it and then earn interest (or dividends, or capital gains,…
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December 16 is the 243rd Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. The British taxed tea, the colonists got mad, dressed up like Indians, and tossed the tea into the ocean—that’s a fair summary of what most Americans know about the Boston Tea Party. It was, we are told, a mere tax protest that shows…
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Neither of the major party presidential candidates is a font of economic wisdom. However, if you look hard enough, you can find a glimmer of truth in some of their rhetoric. In this post I’ll analyze two of the issues raised by the candidates, showing how each contained some truth but also confusion. Economic…
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In the antebellum South, it was not uncommon for slaves to rent themselves from their masters. As a young man, Frederick Douglass did so, for example. His owner gave him leave to go out on his own, to find employment where he could, and to pocket the pay he received for such work, except…
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One of my first lessons in economics and politics came from an unlikely place—vacation Bible school. I must have been about six or seven. For a week, I went to church to learn with other children my age about our faith and the Church. Throughout the week we had the opportunity to earn stickers….
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In 1883, William Graham Sumner wrote a series of essays for Harper’s Weekly, which paid him $50 apiece. The excerpted essay below on “The Forgotten Man” is as relevant today as in 1883—even more so. Politicians continue to pile more burdens on ordinary people in the name of this or that professed well-intentioned cause,…
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