January 31, 2025 - "President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 31 directing agencies to limit the number of regulations they impose and eliminate 10 existing policies for every new rule enacted.... Titled 'Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,' the order is intended to remove regulatory obstacles to growth.
"'The ever-expanding morass of complicated federal regulation imposes massive costs on the lives of millions of Americans, creates a substantial restraint on our economic growth and ability to build and innovate, and hampers our global competitiveness,' the order reads.... There are currently more than 200,000 federal regulations, according to the National Archives.
"Reducing regulations is a key element of Trump’s economic policy, meant to improve opportunities for businesses and job seekers while strengthening national security, according to the order. The new policy also aims to cut unnecessary expenditures for taxpayers. The goal is for all regulations imposed in a year to cost less than the amount saved by those repealed.
"Regulations related to foreign affairs, homeland security, the military, and immigration agencies, among others, are exempt from the new rules.
"During his first stint in office, Trump oversaw a rate of eight and a half regulations rolled back for every new one implemented.... Those reductions potentially reduced costs by up to $220 billion, according to a statement from the White House at the time.
"Deregulation legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the president in 2019 boosted real incomes by more than $40 billion annually, according to the statement. In total, those prior deregulation efforts led to more than 6 million new jobs and increased wages, the White House estimated....
"Some critics said the regulations are in place to hold businesses accountable while others point to concerns about environmental protection, labor rights, and other issues they said are threatened by deregulation.
"The Council on Economic Advisers’ annual report on the president published in 2018 highlighted economic studies that suggest the costs, including stunted business opportunities and reduced capital flow, of regulations can outweigh realized benefits."
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Chevron rule, a 40-year precedent under which lower courts had to defer to regulatory agencies when interpreting the laws the agencies enforce.
April 2024 - "Separation of powers is a core concept of America's Constitution. In the Founders' scheme, Congress, the courts, and the executive are independent branches of government, with their own roles and duties, intended to check one another. But since 1984, the Supreme Court has hamstrung its own ability to act independently in the face of executive power. In Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the high court adopted a blanket presumption of deference to statutory interpretations put forth by regulatory agencies in any case where the statute was ambiguous, so long as the interpretation was reasonable.... In practice, the Chevron deference undermined the Court's independence, since it forced courts to just accept executive branch interpretations in many tough cases.
"The doctrine also creates perverse incentives for the other two branches. For example, by giving deference to agencies in ambiguous cases, it gave executive branch regulators incentive to hunt for ambiguities in order to expand their own power. This led to decades of executive overreach, as administrations used convoluted readings of statutes to pursue agendas Congress never imagined. By the same token, Chevron deference shifted the burden of making well-written and fully thought-out laws away from Congress. Empowering regulators meant that, at the margins, Congress had less reason to write clear, consensus-based legislation.
"The result, over 40 years, has been a shift away from the intended constitutional order, in which Congress writes laws, the executive branch implements them, and the courts rule independently on matters of dispute. We now live under an often dysfunctional system in which Congress is less inclined to compromise and legislate on tough issues, regulators are more inclined to take matters into their own hands, and courts have less power to tell executive branch officials when they have overreached. The system lends itself to politicized regulatory pingponging, as courts are generally required to defer to the differing and even dramatically opposed interpretations put forth by shifting Democratic and Republican administrations.
"This was what was at stake in January, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments that put the legacy of Chevron on trial. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a group of herring fishermen from New Jersey objected to a federal rule requiring them not only to host government monitors on their boats but to pay the cost of those monitors—about $700 a day. That requirement was based on the 2007 Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), which does require some types of fishing operations to host and pay for government monitors. But the fishermen in this case weren't explicitly covered by that requirement, so when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided to expand the purview of the MSA in order to cover a budget shortfall, the fishermen went to court."
June 28, 2024 - "Today's Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturns the important 1984 precedent of Chevronv.Natural Resources Defense Council, which required federal judges to defer to administrative agencies' interpretations of federal laws, so long as Congress has not addressed the issue in question, and the agency's view is 'reasonable.' It's an important reversal, and I think the Court was right to do it. Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion lays out a compelling critique of Chevron, including explaining why it should not be retained out of respect for precedent. But, contrary to the hopes of some and fears of others, today's ruling will not end the administrative state or even greatly reduce the amount of federal regulation....
"Despite the likely limited scope of its impact, I still think today's ruling is a valuable step. While it won't lead to large-scale deregulation, it can help strengthen the rule of law. It could also limit the aggrandizement of power by the executive. Liberals who lament Chevron's demise may be happier about it if Donald Trump returns to power and his appointees try to use statutory ambiguities to advance his ends....If Trump returns to power, do left-liberal Chevron fans believe his appointees will scrupulously 'follow the science' when they interpret statutes? Or will they have a political agenda that will usually trump (pun intended!) science when the two conflict? The answer seems pretty obvious, at least to me.
"The same question can be posed in reverse to the dwindling band of conservative defenders of Chevron. Even if they think GOP administrations will 'follow the science,' they probably don't have equal confidence in Democratic ones.
"Partisan and ideological bias aside, many issues handled by agencies are simply impossible to resolve through technical expertise alone. They also involve questions of values. And even the most expert of government planners have severe limits to their knowledge, which is one reason why it's usually best to rely on markets, which aggregate information better than planners do."
The Canadian government's planned changes to its "air passenger bill of rights" regulations are being criticized by both the industry and a passenger-rights group.
April 30, 2023 - "Air travel groups are criticizing the Trudeau government’s proposed changes to the air passenger bill of rights – warning Canadians that the changes may result in higher airfares. This comes amid Canada already having some of the most expensive flight prices in the world.
"On Thursday, the federal Liberals tabled legislation to amend the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR), as part of Bill C-47, the Budget Implementation Act [see video]. They claim that these amendments will lead to Canada having the 'toughest' passenger protection laws. The changes seek to limit situations in which airlines can refuse to compensate passengers affected by flight disruptions ... [and] will also increase penalties for non-compliant airlines, modify the complaint process and require airlines to pay the Canadian Transportation Industry a portion of the cost of processing complaints....
"[T]he National Airlines Council of Canada [NACC] warned in a news release that 'By imposing a new fee for passenger claims submitted to the Canadian Transportation Agency and expanding compensation requirements, the cost of air travel may increase, threatening access, connectivity, and choice for passengers'.... '[T]argeted infrastructure funding, re-investment of airport rent, increasing the accountability of third-party service providers, and reduction of costs and fees would strengthen the system, as has been repeatedly recommended by many parliamentary committee and government reports issued over the last several years.'
"The Liberals’ proposed changes are also being criticized by Air Passenger Rights president Gabor Lukacs. Lukacs told True North 'the government is weakening passenger rights in Canada'.... The ... amendments have also been criticized by opposition parties, with Conservatives saying they 'will do nothing' to address a backlog of passenger complaints. The NDP described the changes as 'complex, bureaucratic and expensive'....
April 26, 2023 - "Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, says the bill will actually weaken passenger rights. The proposed legislation was unveiled Monday by Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. He touted the bill as one that tightens loopholes, putting the onus on airlines to show a flight disruption is caused by safety concerns or reasons outside their control.
"'The minister promises to close that loophole. The minister’s bill actually perpetuates that, and references that terminology in four different places,' Lukacs said.... 'By the same stroke of a pen, he's adding a loophole that allows airlines not to pay any penalty at all if they sign a so-called compliance agreement. They just promise to behave going forward, and they walk away scot-free.'
"Meantime, the industry group representing four of the country’s biggest carriers denounced the possible nixing of safety concerns as an exception to compensation requirements. 'No airline should be penalized for adhering to the highest standards of safety, whether that is due to weather, mechanical issues or other safety-related constraints,' said National Airlines Council of Canada president Jeff Morrison in a statement....
"[T]he legislation also calls for airlines to roll out a process to respond to complaints with a decision within 30 days. The move comes after the Canadian Transportation Safety’s complaints backlog ballooned to about 45,000. Each requires at least 18 months on average to resolve. Lukacs said it’s rare an airline will end up paying once a complaint is issued because there are currently no meaningful consequences for the airline if it refuses." Read more: https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/overhaul-of-air-passenger-rights-charter-a-step-backwards-advocate-1.6372021
October 10, 2022 -'Mexico's move to exempt some foodmakers and retailers from quality checks from national health regulators as part of an anti-inflation plan to keep costs down is a 'goodwill' agreement,
"President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday. Last week, Lopez Obrador and officials announced the plan made with companies such as Walmart's Mexico unit (WALMEX.MX) and tortilla maker Gruma (GRUMAB.MX). The plan also exempts them from paying import tariffs on food products.
"The agreement puts the responsibility on the signatory companies of ensuring that their imported products meet safety and quality standards. Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez said it applied to all food products, not just basic foodstuffs, brought in by the companies.
"The measure, which must be published in Mexico's official gazette to take effect, has stirred discontent from competitors. It's also sparked concerns that the deal could violate a trade deal with the United States and Canada and may also allow crop and animal diseases to be brought in.
"'We have to ensure that food prices do not increase,' the president said in a regular news conference Monday, when asked about the weakened regulations. Lopez Obrador said the move was made to cut through bureaucratic red tape from regulators Senasica, Mexico's agricultural inspector, and Cofepris, a health regulator.
"All trade between Mexico and its main partner, the United States, has been tariff-free for years. Mexico also has trade agreements with several dozen other nations that include clauses slashing tariffs for agricultural products. If Mexico allows food products to enter from countries without such agreements, it could be in violation of existing treaties, experts say.
"'That's the punitive part,' said Rocio Ruiz, a former economy ministry official, regarding a potential trade agreement violation. 'In general, these treaties do prohibit you from discriminating against trade allies by giving such a benefit to national companies,' she said Monday at a forum organized by economic competition authority Cofece.
"Senasica has since said it was working with Mexican industry to protect food production and that it will redouble efforts to help importing firms avoid bringing in pests or diseases."
October 19, 2022 - "The latest Obama documentary series is The G Word. "G" for government. As Netflix documentaries go, this one is remarkably stupid. It's big government propaganda.
"Obama begins by claiming that he does his own income taxes, saying, 'It's actually easy'.... But that's just silly. It's so complex that millions of us pay to get help.
"Obama's series is hosted by silly comedian Adam Conover. Conover, correctly, calls himself 'an idiot.' He uses his time with the former president of the United States to make lame jokes and, at one point, to make sandwiches. He compliments Obama on how well he cuts the bread. It's not funny.
"The series occasionally covers some serious issues — meat inspection, for example. But instead of honest reporting, actors do a skit suggesting that, without government, meat companies would sell us dead poisoned rats. 'Food regulation was unbelievably successful,' concludes Conover. But food is largely safe today mostly because slaughterhouses cleaned themselves up way beyond what government requires.... One company executive showed me how they voluntarily do extra things like treat beef carcasses 'with rinses and a 185-degree steam vacuum.' Also, 'equipment is routinely taken completely apart to be swab-tested.'
"By contrast, for 90 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected meat with a crude process called "poke and sniff." Inspectors stuck spikes into carcasses and smelled them. They kept using the same spikes, so they sometimes spread disease. The government only stopped poke and sniff in the 1990s.
"A few times, Obama's series admits that government agencies mess things up. Conover mocks the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 'not a name you normally hear after the words "did a great job."' No, but he then claims FEMA fails because it's underfunded.... That's ridiculous. FEMA doesn't fail because it lacks resources. U.S. disaster relief funds have increased by billions. FEMA fails because it's a government bureaucracy, and bureaucracies do wasteful things, like bring bottles of water to hurricane victims but then leave them at an airport.
"The private sector is more efficient. The G Word sneers at what it calls 'this philosophy that the free market should be trusted over the government.' But Walmart donates supplies much more efficiently than FEMA. They employ sophisticated weather tracking that helps them determine what assets are needed where. They get things to people because they lose money if they don't.
"Obama's series smears those of us who are skeptical of government handouts. 'In the wake of the civil rights movement,' claims Conover, 'some Americans began to resent the fact that the government was now providing assistance to black and brown citizens.' What? We didn't resent welfare because we're racists. We objected because it created a new permanent underclass. Handouts, President Ronald Reagan explained correctly, 'discourage work'....
"Obama's documentary depicts Reagan as a vicious surgeon cutting valuable government agencies, throwing them into a bucket labeled 'free market.' But government wasn't cut under Reagan. Federal spending went up during his terms. It always goes up.... It only grows. Today it's bigger than ever.
"That's fine, says Conover, because Washington rescued us during the COVID shutdowns with 'stimulus checks, small business loans, and corporate tax breaks!' They don't mention how much of that money was stolen or that their spending orgy brought 8 percent inflation.
"For three hours, Obama and his sidekick say government should do more. Whatever the problem, their answer is always more government and more money. Maybe someday a president will point out that government has no money of its own and that spending more than you have is a road to ruin."
October 20, 2019 - "With gasoline prices in California eclipsing $4/gallon, Americans have taken to nervously glancing at their gas gauges. Oil prices appear to only be going in one direction (up), with dramatic disruptions such as a drone attack on Saudi refineries disrupting fuel supplies. But things may soon get far worse if the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a sub-agency of the United Nations, implements onerous worldwide restrictions on fuel content.
"Starting in 2020, the IMO will require the phasing out of sulfur from ship fuels despite documented difficulties in refiners’ ability to meet strict new standards. Unless the IMO changes course, consumers across America, and all around the world, will foot the bill for higher gasoline prices as the result of global fuel shortages. If America and her allies fail to act soon to stymie the efforts of this global bureaucracy, affordable gas will soon be a thing of the past.....
"Like many unaccountable international governmental organizations (IGOs), the IMO is hardly noticed by the media. But the agency’s 2016 decision to ratchet down sulfur content in shipping fuels from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent has received plenty of press and attention from analysts around the world. Environmentalists have lauded the IMO’s decision and called for eliminating scrubbers used to wash out sulfur and comply with the new standards. But the IMO and cheerleader groups fail to properly acknowledge or address the fuel shortages that will likely result....
"In moving away from sulfur, shippers will likely switch en masse to alternatives such as gasoil or diesel. That’s not good news for refineries, which will face significant pressures to ramp up production of these stand-ins. Currently, there simply isn’t enough low-sulfur fuel to go around, and refineries will need to sharply increase capacity and operations in order to keep up....
"Worldwide regulations holding the industry back make it even more difficult for refineries to keep up.... In the US, federal fuel regulations have significantly contributed to the closure of 70 refineries since 1990. And since then, refineries have spent more than $100 billion complying with ultra-specific federal standards about which blends of fuel they are required to produce.... In Europe, refinery regulation is often even stricter than in the US....
"[A]sking everyone in the world to pay drastically higher fuel and shipping costs overnight hardly seems like a practical solution to environmental issues.... By working with shippers to achieve gradual, more attainable goals, the IMO could signal that it is serious about cleaning up the environment while keeping costs low. Consumers around the world deserve clean skies without having to gasp at their gas gauges, and taxpayers deserve an IGO that makes sound decisions."
August 29, 2019 - "A pair of New York police officers is earning praise after they were called to shut down a neighbourhood lemonade stand.... Whitney Glover said her two children and a few other kids in her neighbourhood of Newburgh, located 107 kilometres north of New York City, decided to set up a roadside lemonade stand during rush hour on Monday evening.
“'We were probably out there for an hour and a half when I noticed the cop car pull up,' Glover told local station News 12 Westchester on Wednesday. It seemed someone in the neighbourhood had called the police about the children’s lemonade stand. However, when Officers Clayton Dubois and Thomas O’Connell of the Town of Newburgh Police Department approached the group, Glover said they received an unexpected greeting from them.
“'His first words were, "Can you believe someone called the cops on kids selling lemonade?"' she recalled. The two police officers then proceeded to buy some lemonade and pose for a photo with the children, which Glover posted on Facebook....
"Since Glover posted the photo of the police with the children on Facebook, she said dozens of customers have stopped by for lemonade and the children ... made hundreds of dollars in only three days."
May 9 2019 - "Speaking before the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers before declaring his third bid for the presidency, Biden settled on one example in particular: occupational licensing reform. 'You know if you are a hair braider, you braid people’s hair, you have to get a license to do something like 400 hours of training,' he said before ... concluding that licensing requirements were part of a greater unseen effort 'not to help the worker.'
"The union crowd in Washington, D.C., gave the gaffe-prone politician a laugh, and three weeks later at his presidential campaign kickoff, Biden recycled the talking point. 'Why should someone who braids hair have to get 600 hours of training? It makes no sense,' he told another labor crowd, this one packed into a union hall in Pittsburgh. 'They’re making it harder and harder in a whole range of professions, all to keep competition down.'
"The union members in the crowd and the workers standing behind the candidate applauded again -- reliably Democratic voters all cheering the kind of government deregulation that has been the pet project of libertarian billionaires like Charles and David Koch for half a decade....
"Well known to limited-government types, occupational licensing reform is the sort of thing discussed by wonks at libertarian think tanks. Until now, the issue hasn’t been fodder for presidential politics. This could change, thanks to Biden, and it could begin a larger national discussion about state and local licensing rules that govern everything from hair braiding to pet walking.
"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly half of U.S. workers hold an occupational license, a dramatic increase since 1950 when just 5% of the workforce held such permits. Attorneys, construction contractors, and surgeons are all expected to obtain legal certification to ensure quality and public safety. But critics complain that licensing requirements have gone too far when hairdressers and interior decorators have to obtain permission from the government to do their jobs....
"Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ... Democrat and close Biden ally ... eliminated licensing requirements for more than a dozen jobs.... Pennsylvania barbers were required to train for 1,250 hours, pass written exams, and spend thousands of dollars just to legally give a buzz cut. And anyone who want[ed] to auction off antiques, manage a campground, or even sell cemetery plots in his state had to obtain legal certification to do so. Critics like Wolf argue that those hoops do more to harm workers looking for opportunity than they do to protect consumers.
"Biden agrees and the longtime liberal is getting rare accolades from an unusual source for making the argument: the conservative Koch network.... Erica Jedynak, director of employment initiatives at the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, told RealClearPolitics that Biden’s comments show the 'issue is now coming to the forefront'....
"Clark Neily, a vice president at the libertarian CATO Institute, is normally no fan of the former vice president ... Neily told RCP, but Biden is a persuasive politician who has grasped onto 'something that is fundamentally true, namely that occupational licensing is destroying the engine of American prosperity.... If he is prepared to translate that into terms his constituency can understand and respond to, it’s going to be a winning message,' Neily said. If Biden [also] backed the libertarian case for further criminal justice reform, the CATO scholar added, 'heck, I might even vote for him.'”
April 1, 2019 - "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg [wrote in] a March 30 op-ed for The Washington Post ... 'I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators'.... Specifically, Zuckerberg concludes 'we need new regulation in four areas: harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.' He wants more countries to adopt versions of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation....
"Fortunately for Zuckerberg, thanks to the economic realities of government regulation, he can both support government regulation and enrich himself personally.... Large firms with dominant market share have long made peace with government regulation because it often helps these firms create and solidify monopoly power for themselves....
"Many Facebook critics like to claim that Facebook is a natural monopoly.... But remember MySpace? People used to say exactly the same thing [about] that social media platform.... The reality, however, is that unless governments artificially erects barriers to entry, no firm can expect a safe place as a dominant firm. Other firms with new ideas will come along, threatening the older firm's dominance. The answer to this problem, from the point of view of a firm like Facebook, is to make things more expensive and difficult for smaller startups and potential competitors.
"Facebook knows that if government regulations of tech firms increase, the cost of doing business will increase. Larger firms will be able to deal with these additional costs more easily than smaller start ups.... Large firms can absorb high labor costs, higher legal costs, and other high fixed costs brought on by regulation. A high-regulation environment is an anti startup, anti-entrepreneurial environment....
"Facebook will be one of the most powerful groups at the negotiating table when it comes to writing the new regulations ... in a position to make sure the new rules favor Facebook over its competitors. This is a common occurrence in regulatory schemes and is known as 'regulatory capture.' When new regulatory bodies are created to regulate firms like Facebook, the institutions with the most at stake in a regulatory agency’s decisions end up controlling the agencies themselves.....
"Not only will a small start up lack the resources and political pull to challenge Facebook in the rule-making sphere, but those small firms won't be be large enough to be considered important "stakeholders" on any level. Thus, Facebook will continue to wield more power than its smaller competitors through its regulatory power....
"As FTC commissioner Brendan Carr put it, Facebook's proposed regulatory agenda would allow it to 'outsourc[e] censorship.' Not only would this put the federal government in a position to be directly determining which opinions and ideas ought to be eliminated from tech platforms, it would also allow Facebook to pretend to be an innocent third party.... Moreover, regulation can be employed by firms like Facebook to shield the firm from lawsuits....
"Zuckerberg's pro-regulation position is just a pro-Zuckerberg position. By further politicizing and regulating the internet, policymakers will assist large firms — and their billionaire owners — in crushing the competition, and ensuring the public has fewer choices."
November 27, 2018 - "Since becoming law a year ago, the number of Maine towns and small communities with a food sovereignty ordinance has grown to more than 40.... The legislation, ... signed into law last October, allows municipalities to regulate local food systems, including production, processing, consumption and direct producer-to-consumer exchanges. This type of commerce had been regulated at the state and federal level, which continues to regulate meat and poultry production and sales.
"No official data are being collected on the towns adopting the ordinance, but last week Augusta became the latest municipality in the state to pass an ordinance based on the sovereignty law, joining the dozens of municipalities including Auburn, Machias, Blue Hill, Rockland, Chapman and York.
"Sen. Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, ... along with Rep. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, co-sponsored the food sovereignty legislation signed into law....
"In Greenwood, population 800, the ordinance is acting as a sort of small business incubator, according to Suzanne Dunham of Dunham Farms and Velvet Hollow Sugar Works in Greenwood. She and her husband Brian also manage the Greenwood Farmers Market.... Before passage of the food sovereignty ordinance made the licensing moot, the Dunhams were fully licensed by the state [but] 'others in our community didn’t have the economic means to go through licensing,' she said. Now, thanks to the ordinance the town passed last June, that obstacle has been removed.
"'Greenwood’s food sovereignty ordinance allows me to make pies and other baked goods in my home kitchen and sell them directly to customers without having to be licensed by the state,' Greenwood resident Amy Chapman, who runs Amy’s Bakehouse out of her home, said. 'Since I have several other part-time jobs and baking is only a small part of what I do, it would not be worth my time, money and energy to do it for a weekly farmers market if I had to go through the state’s process to become a licensed producer'....
"That is exactly what Jackson envisioned for the law. 'A lot of people can’t take the chance on doing something they wanted to do because they found it too onerous or costly to become licensed under state or federal regulations,' Jackson said. “I think people who have a product will now take more of a chance and actually do something to create a small business'....
"Neighbors selling to neighbors has been going on for generations in Maine, but for all that time growers and producers not licensed by the state were forced to conduct business out of the public eye and only with trusted, known customers."
November 26, 2018 - "As a candidate for state office in Georgia this fall, I heard from thousands of voters feeling left behind by Georgia politics. Those voices of dissent and discontent voted for libertarian candidates.... They rejected the status quo and corrupt bureaucrats. Many of those voters, myself included, will be faced with that status quo again in December 4 run-offs.
"I campaigned against the outrageously disingenuous incumbent failing to represent District 3 on the Public Service Commission (PSC). His campaign was overwhelmingly funded by companies he is elected to regulate, most notably Georgia Power, Southern Company. Donations are disguised through lobbyists and law firms who represent those special interests.
"The PSC’s duty is to advocate for consumers against state-appointed monopolies. When competition is illegal, prices rise and quality falls.... Monopoly power companies are not only charging Georgians higher prices and special fees, they’ve successfully convinced incumbent politicians to allow them to profit from power they haven’t produced. The $28 Billion boondoggle in Waynesboro guarantees Georgia Power ... $5 Billion in profits without a single kilowatt generated.....
"I’ve fielded many calls and emails this month asking if my campaign – 100,000+ voters strong – would endorse either the sitting Republican or the challenging Democrat. I will not. Were either candidate on the right side of enough issues to earn my endorsement, my own campaign would not have been necessary. But I will cast a vote in this run-off: I will vote for Lindy Miller....
"Democrats usually count on the support of unions and ‘organized labor’ in exchange for make-work projects at public expense. Miller has not received those endorsements, and that’s a good sign. Unions see she’ll question cost overruns and wasted dollars – exactly what the PSC should be doing but hasn’t....
"The PSC, designated to represent your interests and stand up to its own crony donors, has 5 commissioners all of whom are big government, tax-and-spend Republicans. Lindy Miller will challenge discussions that routinely end in 5-0 or 0-5 decisions. The strength of Miller’s campaign is her fierce advocacy for consumers and apparent willingness to fight the status quo.
"Customers forced to do business with just one power provider need a champion bulldog, not a corporate lapdog. We need someone on the PSC asking the hard questions. I genuinely hoped it could be me, and I thank the tens of thousands of you who joined me in voting for that vision. At least one candidate has endorsed consumer choice, because your concerns tipped an election."
November 14, 2018 - "The supply shortages that have plagued many provinces in the first month of legal cannabis will likely persist for years, industry insiders say.
"Provinces including British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have all reported varying degrees of shortages. New Brunswick was forced to temporarily close more than half its stores, while the Quebec Cannabis Corporation has reduced its store opening hours to four days a week. Labrador's only legal cannabis store said it was forced to temporarily close after being without any product for nearly two weeks.
"Khurram Malik, CEO of the Toronto-based cannabis company Biome Grow Inc., said the lack of supply is due in part to the tough regulations imposed by Health Canada on the country's 132 licensed producers, and the time required by companies to develop a quality and compliant product. He said the federal department also took too long to approve licences....
"'The rules here are so difficult to grow cannabis -- quite frankly more difficult than anywhere else in the world -- that if you're a new licence holder and you've never done this before, it's going to take you a year, year-and-a-half, or two years to get any decent, consistent quality product out the door in any predictable volumes,' said Malik, adding it's much easier and cheaper to grow in jurisdictions such as California....
"Malik said he suspects some companies did stockpile cannabis leading up to Oct. 17, but logistics such as packaging and shipping have held up distribution as producers navigate the red tape of a brand new sector....
"Health Canada said it has taken steps to improve the licensing and capacity of producers.... The department declined a request for an interview. But a statement from spokeswoman Tammy Jarbeau acknowledged that product shortages would likely continue 'in the months ahead'....
"Brenda and Trevor Tobin, the mother-and-son owners of Labrador City's High North, said ... [t]he shop sold all of its cannabis in the first three hours on legalization day, and in the weeks following, products dried up for almost two weeks.... Brenda Tobin said ... that has prompted some of her customers to buy cannabis illegally."
"'A lot of them have said, "Well I guess it's back to the black market",' said Tobin. 'We hate to hear that, but I'm assuming if they want their product, they're going to get it one way or the other.'"
October 12, 2018 - "The Federal Government of Canada is enacting strict branding and packaging restrictions on the legal cannabis market. More specifically, Health Canada has taken the framework of plain packaging tobacco products including cigarettes and cigars, and applied many aspects of that legislation to how legal cannabis products must appear. This mandate from Health Canada limits consumer choice, according to the Consumer Choice Center, and more importantly, prevents consumers from selecting products based on their personal choice.
"Speaking at [a] news conference yesterday held in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, David Clement, North American Affairs Manager for the Consumer Choice Center (CCC) said the Federal Government seems committed to treating adult consumers like children. The branding restrictions placed on tobacco products, and now cannabis products, shows a disturbing trend of paternalism creeping further into the lives of adult consumers. It's a dangerous precedent and raises the question of what products will be targeted next.
"'What we've seen is that Health Canada and our federal government are regulating products with complete disregard for consumers, and complete disregard for a continuum of risk. Our worry now is what started with tobacco has moved to cannabis, and now will move to other products, such as soft drinks, alcohol and various other food items,' said ... Clement....
"CCC has launched the Smokers Vote initiative where consumers of cannabis, tobacco products and cigars can raise their concerns about plain packaging regulations directly with their elected representatives and engage in direct democracy....
"The Consumer Choice Center is a global advocacy group focused on consumer choice and market access. The CCC monitors regulatory trends around the world, works with consumers in over 100 countries, and engages with policy makers to highlight how certain regulations impact consumer choice."
October 1, 2006 - "So what if CEOs earn more money than most other workers? In a free market (and below we deal with the complication that in today’s world there is no truly free market), the price of labor corresponds to its marginal product. That is, competition ensures that workers are paid according to how much additional revenue they bring in to their employer. The fact that some types of labor command thousands of times more market value is no more surprising or outrageous than the fact that some goods in the marketplace (such as a house) have a price hundreds of thousands of times higher than the prices of other goods (such as a pack of gum).
"But what of ... corporate leaders actually failing their way to riches?... When a company brings in a new executive ... to turn the company around ... it is entirely possible that the plan will fail — and the executive knows this as well as anyone else.... [T]he assembly-line worker doesn’t want his contract contingent on the overall profitability of the company; he wants to be paid — and to get his pension and other benefits should he retire or quit — whether or not the company’s stock does well. If it’s acceptable for the assembly-line workers, why not for the CEO too?
"Yet ... CEOs and other executives do get paid according to how well the company does. In addition to a base salary, these executives are often paid in stock options [i.e.] the right to purchase shares of stock at a specific price, called the strike price.... [I]f the actual market price of the stock [falls] lower than the strike price, the option is worthless ... options are valuable [only] in proportion to the difference between the strike and actual prices.
"We must accept that in the modern economy, with billions of potential consumers worldwide, certain individuals have extraordinary earning power on the open market.... These people aren’t qualified for just CEO spots, and they’re well aware of the social stigma against big business. If the compensation packages are as high as they are, it’s because that’s what firms need to offer to attract and retain these highly skilled individuals....
"If ... management collectively frittered away $10 million per year in unjustifiable expenses, the total shares of the corporation would be valued around $200 million less than they otherwise would be, assuming an efficient stock market and an interest rate of 5 percent.... Such a corporation would then be a prime target for the much reviled corporate raider. The raider would institute a 'hostile takeover,' in which he bought up a controlling share in the corporation (by offering far more than the current price per share to the stockholders) and then used his power to fire or straighten out the inefficient managers. After cleaning house the corporation’s dividends and/or stock price would rise accordingly, netting the raider a profit.
"Unfortunately ... the above relies on the assumption of a free market in corporate takeovers, and that is decidedly lacking. In the present legal and cultural environment, so-called corporate raiders are even more despised than golden-parachuting CEOs. Regulations severely restrict so-called hostile takeovers, and hence hamper the ability of shareholders to restrain their managers....
"The market’s other checks on inefficient management are stifled as well. After all, ... there was always a sure-fire way to keep corporate officers in line: any firm that wasted too much money on fancy offices and executive perks would be vulnerable to its competitors.... But as with hostile takeovers, so too with new entrants to industry: Government regulation muffles this threat and thus allows entrenched businesses a margin of profligacy that they otherwise would not enjoy.
"Many people (especially young students) new to the ideas of laissez faire believe that big business opposes government meddling, but this is naïve and contradicted by the history of actual legislation. Ironically, the profitability of big business can actually be enhanced when the government regulates an industry, because the big firms can more easily handle the fixed costs of filling out paperwork ... and so on.... In this environment, would-be competitors face additional hurdles if they want to challenge the large incumbents, and thus the latter may indeed get away with lavish expenditures that would be short-lived in a truly free market."
June 7, 2018 - "Kids getting busted and fined by cops for running neighborhood lemonade stands without permits could come to an end this summer — thanks to food giant Kraft Heinz.
"The brand’s Country Time Lemonade unit announced Thursday that it will personally defend and pay for any fines that children get for trying to sell the summertime drink.
"'We recently came across a story of a kid getting her lemonade stand shut down for legal reasons, which had to be an urban myth. After looking into it and seeing even more instances, we realized these weren’t myths, they were real stories,' Adam Butler, general manager for beverage and nuts for Kraft Heinz, told Fox Business.
"Just last week, three brothers, ages 2 to 6, from Stapleton, Colorado, got their lemonade stand shut down by Denver cops after several vendors at a nearby arts festival called the police to complain the kids were undercutting their prices. The brothers, who didn’t have a temporary vending permit, ... were trying to raise money for a nonprofit child-advocacy ministry called Compassion International that supports children in poverty....
"But according to Butler, this summer will be different.
"The fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world with a market cap of $71 billion said it has created a 'Legal-Ade' unit that is on hand to help kids and their parents fight any legal woes or fines associated with their lemonade stands.
"'Any child fined for running a lemonade stand without a permit can have his or her parent apply for reimbursement. To apply, simply upload the image of your child's permit or fine along with a description of what your lemonade stand means to your child, in his or her own words,' the company said in a statement.
"Each submission will then be reviewed by Country Time Lemonade’s team and if it complies with the terms, the company will cover the permit fee or fine, up to $300. Additionally, it will donate up to $500,000 to help kids with their entrepreneurial pursuits next year and beyond."
April 6, 2018 - "Laura Ebke of Nebraska is the Libertarian Party's only sitting state senator. A bill she introduced to reform her state's occupational licensing regime got an enthusiastic and lengthy write-up this week in The Wall Street Journal.... The Occupational Board Reform Act (L.B. 299) would change the incentive structure and process by which Nebraska decides the most rational and least restrictive way to ensure consumer safety without unduly harming people's ability to work.
"The state has been interested in 'chipping away at occupational licenses one by one' for a while, Ebke said.... Then last year she 'was approached by the Institute for Justice to see if I would be interested in carrying some model legislation they had put together, and I was very interested.'
"One of the more colorful case studies, described in the Journal story, involves massaging horses, which leaves you open in Nebraska to a possible four years in jail and a $35,000 fine if you do it unlicensed.... Ebke saw it as a teachable moment: 'Does it make sense,' she asked her colleagues, 'to demand a license to give a rubdown to a 1,200-pound creature?'
"The final vote on the measure is expected next week, and Ebke is confident it will make it to the governor's desk and be signed. One of her main allies in the process is a Nebraska-based free market think tank, the Platte Institute, founded by the sitting governor Pete Ricketts.
"Being a Libertarian, Ebke says, has likely helped the bill's so-far positive prospects. 'Most of the co-sponsors are Republicans,' she says, but 'the fact that I'm not a Republican allows some of the more liberal members of the body to come and talk to me." She says she's found such members willing to work on getting the bill into a shape that they can support, 'and their willingness to do so speaks to the fact that a lot of times I have been with them' on issues where Republicans were not.
"Ebke is also proud that the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union has been an enthusiastic proponent of the bill, largely because of how it deals with how difficult current occupational licensing laws can make it for those with criminal records to find meaningful work.... As the Journal notes, 'Recidivism rates are lower in states where former criminals can find gainful employment.'
"In arguing for the bill, Ebke has found that some citizens are 'very protectionist and want to protect their [existing] licenses,' but many Nebraskans are excited for a chance to do meaningful productive work without jumping through unnecessary and expensive hoops."
March 21, 2018 - The latest bright idea from Paul Mason is that Facebook must be regulated or changed in some manner to make darn sure it does what Paul Mason wants Facebook to be doing.
Reminder: nobody needs to #Deletefacebook if there is one of a) strong regulation b) breakup c) public ownership
"There are lots of problems with the Corbynista columnist’s idea. They include: not understanding how the internet or corporate law works; ignoring how innovation happens; and the political problem of allowing the government to control a social network, real or digital....
"Let’s start with the question of ownership. That Facebook is a public, listed company therefore owned by the public seems to escape Mason. Perhaps by public ownership, he means government ownership. But that is something he rules out.
"Heavy state regulation of Facebook would be to repeat the mistakes of the 20th century when governments really did try to control the social milieu. As Anne Applebaum points out in Iron Curtain, the first thing every Soviet-imposed government in Eastern Europe did was to make sure that all corners of society were state controlled. The local equivalents of the Womens’ Institute, the chess and jazz clubs, swimming teams, and simply every expression of civil society were brought under the control of the state and Party bureaucracy. People were actually sent to jail for continuing to run Scout troops.
"As to breaking the company up, ... He points to the UK corporate registration as proof that we can control the local bit, or break it off from the whole. Such a conclusion is hard to square with the complaint about the Facebook profits HMRC struggles to tax. The reason Facebook doesn’t pay UK corporation tax on all the money collected from the UK is that the UK company just does some engineering bits, and doesn’t actually run the service. That engineering could be done from elsewhere just as the ad sales are. And the design. And there’s absolutely no one at all who has insisted that there must be a UK company out there before signing up for the service, is there?...
"But there is a deeper reason why we don’t want the British state to have anything to do with the likes of Facebook. The state never does innovate. Even if we accept Mariana Mazzucato’s points about invention — which we shouldn’t — it was still Apple that made the iPhone. There was no state involvement in the creation of MySpace, Twitter, or Facebook. There never is in people using extant inventions to do something new and whizzy, the very definition of innovation. Therefore we just don’t want the state running things in those areas of innovation, do we? For if it did, it would never happen....
"That, in short, is why we don’t want the British state anywhere near something like social media or any other fast-changing technology business. The moment decisions are taken on the sort of societal grounds that Mason admires and insists upon then technological advance will grind to a halt....
"Facebook should be and is subject to all the same sorts of rules as any other business in the country. That is the proper role of government: to set general rules which must be obeyed by all and then we all get to see what happens. If Facebook did indeed break the law then they should, of course, be held responsible.
"But the mere fact that someone is successful within those rules isn’t an argument to nationalize or regulate them further and that, when it comes down to it, is the only real argument Mason is employing. For there’s no one quite as jealous as a statist discovering that an organization other than the state has a meaningful amount of power."
"Thanks to readers of Reason, Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, and other random strangers who had never met him, Elias Zarate was able to pay off a $1,500 fine (plus another $600 in fees) imposed by Tennessee's haircut cops.
"What crime warranted such a stiff penalty? Zarate cut hair without a ... high school diploma. What's finishing high school got to do with being a good barber, you may ask? Well, nothing, but Tennessee is one of 13 states to require completion of high school as a prerequisite to getting a barber license....
"Zarate dropped out of high school midway through the 12th grade to help raise his two younger siblings — their mother had died in a car accident and their father abandoned the kids to tenuous living arrangements with relatives — and ultimately got a job working as a barber in Memphis.... After getting busted, Zarate approached the Tennessee Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners, hoping for some help with getting a legitimate license. They slapped him with a fine and told him he'd have to go back to high school before he could work again. 'I was thinking, how am I supposed to pay for this fine, you know, because they're stopping me from working," Zarate told Reason....
"With the help of licensing reformers at the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free market think tank, Zarate set up a GoFundMe account to help pay off his fine. After our story about his situation — and a clutch tweet from Pai — the page was flooded with donations.
"Zarate ended up raising more than $3,200, with most of it coming in the form of small donations from people who likely have never met him and never will.... 'I just want to thank everybody who donated, it means so much to me," says Zarate in a video posted by the Beacon Center. 'I just want to be able to get into barber school and make everything right with the state and provide for my family.'
"But now that Zarate has paid off his fines ... he's still no closer to having a career as a barber. Righting that wrong will require action from the state legislature. After Zarate's story became public, Gov. Bill Haslam called for a bill to reduce the educational requirements for a barbering license. Legislation introduced in the state House and state Senate would require the completion of 10th grade....
"It's not clear why there should be any educational requirement attached to a barber license. Cutting hair well does not require knowledge of trigonometry or a careful study of the meaning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Proper sanitation for the equipment used by licensed barbers — the only thing that could remotely be considered a reason for government to intervene — could be, and indeed is, taught during the mandatory training that all barber licensing applicants must complete in Tennessee. It is not taught in Tennessee high schools.
"The closer you look, the less sense it makes. You can become a licensed emergency medical responder in Tennessee without a high school diploma ... Getting an EMR license in Tennessee requires only that an applicant can 'read, write, and speak the English language,' according to Tennessee Department of Health guidelines....
"Individuals pitching in to help a guy like Zarate is a heart-warming story; but the reality is that state boards can issue more fines than could ever be paid off in such a fashion. Eliminating unnecessary licensing laws that have nothing to do with public health and safety is the only way to ensure that barbers, hair braiders, and cosmetologists in Tennessee and elsewhere have the freedom to pursue their careers without fear of the haircut cops."
March 19, 2018 - "Rod Hanscomb is not the typical gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut. He talks about why Washington, typically considered a blue state, could be a model for Connecticut’s path to an economic comeback. He criticizes some Republicans for not being true fiscal conservatives.
"And, perhaps most consequentially, he’s a conservative who’s not running as a Republican in the 2018 race for governor. Instead, Hanscomb is opting for a libertarian run....
"Hanscomb grew up in Connecticut, attended Stamford High School, and lives in Stamford now. In between, though, [Hanscomb], an ex-military man, lived in Washington state, the Seattle area, 'for 20-plus years'.... 'When I left Connecticut back in ’85, we had the highest incomes in the country,' Hanscomb added. 'Coming back here four years ago,' he said, 'it was kinda surprising, or I hadn’t realized, how much the energy had kinda died in this state.'
"What happened while Hanscomb was gone? Well, he points out, the income tax.... Hanscomb’s prescription for Connecticut then?
First: 'We need to drastically cut spending.' 'There’s a lot of obstacles to it,' Hanscomb said, 'but that just has to happen, in order to get these tax rates down.'
Second, on taxes: 'We’ve just gotta get these taxes as low as possible'....
Third: 'deregulating.' 'People that aren’t in small businesses or small industry don’t understand, but the amount' of regulation, Hanscomb said, 'it really stagnates the economy, it really puts a lot of pressure on smaller companies'.....
"Hanscomb expressed, at times, his frustration with Republican leadership.... 'Republican after Republican just kept saying that they don’t feel that their leaders are true fiscal conservatives anymore,' Hanscomb said, of his time on the campaign trail.... The Republicans in many ways … they just seem very gun-shy to bring up even anything that talks about spending, or reining this in,' Hanscomb later added.
"That said, Hanscomb praised the legislature, some of whom he has met. 'When you talk to them, I really get the feeling that they want what’s best for the state,' Hanscomb said. 'I think there might be something to having a third-party leader in there that wasn’t beholden to either party'....
"Hanscomb said his focus is on social media, getting on the debate stage, and calling people.
'You have to get as much media as possible,' Hanscomb said.... Hanscomb’s website is www.RodForCTGov.com."
August 24, 2017 - "In Atlas Shrugged, published 60 years ago this October, Ayn Rand asked what would happen if society’s most talented businesspeople got so fed up with being taxed, regulated and otherwise messed about by government that they went on strike. Innovation would cease. The economy would stagnate. And government, starved of easy pickings, would become more bullying.
"The world’s fifth-largest economy is in the early stages of its own experiment with driving Atlas crazy. Since the Thatcher revolution of the 1980's Britain has been one of the most open and business-friendly large economies.... But the settlement is under assault from two directions. The Conservative Party is negotiating Britain’s departure from the European Union, disrupting long-established flows of trade, talent and capital. Meanwhile, the main opposition party is led by a hard-leftist who wants to consign Thatcherism to the dustbin of history.
"Brexit is already beginning to damage Britain’s most globalised industry, finance. Most big investment banks have shifted some people and operations to the continent as a hedge.... Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, predicts that up to 75,000 finance jobs, or 7% of the total, will leave if Britain loses easy access to the single market. EY, another consultancy, puts the figure at 83,000....
"Jeremy Bernard Corbyn ... stands on the verge of power.... There is little chance that Mr Corbyn would moderate his hard-leftism in government. He has been banging the same drums for 30 years, and is surrounded by fellow-travellers such as John McDonnell, his shadow chancellor, and Seumas Milne, his chief strategist, whose biggest disagreement is over whether Stalin or Trotsky is the greater inspiration. He is supported by snarling activists in the Momentum campaigning group and the Unite trade union.... He believes that change comes through conflict rather than consensus, so will expect the markets and media to tell him he is ruining the country: that’s what the reactionary establishment does.
"The combined result of Brexit and Corbyn could be the dystopia that Rand warned about: a stagnant society driven by resentment of the successful. The flight of talent will not only have a knock-on effect on the wider economy.... It will also reduce the state’s revenues, since the top 1% of earners pay almost 30% of income tax and the top 10% pay nearly 60%. Mr Corbyn seems to think that all he need do is to ask 'the rich' to pay 'a little bit more' and everything will be fine. But why would successful people put up with higher taxes, particularly if they follow on the heels of Brexit-related uncertainty and disruption? As Luke Johnson, a serial entrepreneur, points out, the world is full of places where Britain’s Atlases would be welcome, from neighbouring countries like France, which is courting London’s bankers and tech workers, to emerging markets such as Dubai and Singapore. When Atlas shrugs, the whole of Albion suffers."
