Infrastructure Investment Firms Raise $140 billion Over Five Years
Infrastructure Investor has tallied the capital raised by the world's top investment firms and calculates they raised more the $140 billion over the last five years for their infrastructure funds. The...
View ArticleRecession Drives Up Housing Affordability
One of the unintended (if not unexpected) outcomes of the housing bust and economic recession has been a dramatic rise in housing affordability according to the National Association of Home...
View ArticleGreen Homes Versus the Appraisers
Nation's Building News, the on-line publicatin of the National Associatino of Home Builders, has an interesting, if confused, article on Green Homes. On the one hand, builders of Green Homes say their...
View ArticleThe Big Ten and Midwestern Identity
In the Midwest, we don't have damp, blustery fall days: We have Big Ten weather. We don't have mammoth land-grant universities: We have Big Ten schools. You may insult our climate, our politicians, or...
View ArticleOpen Primary Would Close Doors to Voter Choice and Participation
"The most natural privilege of man, next to the right of acting for himself, is that of combining his exertions with those of his fellow-creatures, and of acting in common with them. The right of...
View ArticleInstant-Runoff Voting Would Be Better Alternative to Open Primary for...
To hear proponents of Proposition 14, you would think that implementing an open primary in California would provide greater choice to voters, fix the state’s budget mess, and bring peace and harmony to...
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States Plunder 911 Funding
State governments are getting bolder about diverting funds intended to maintain and modernize 911 emergency calling systems for other uses.As states face greater budget gaps spurred by reckless...
View ArticleCalifornia Open Primary Measure Would Reduce Voter Choice, Violate Freedom of...
One of the measures on California's primary ballot tomorrow, Proposition 14, would impose an "open primary," or "top-two" primary, system under which voters would select from all qualified candidates...
View ArticleInstant-Runoff Voting Would Be a Better Alternative Than Open Primary in...
In an earlier post, I discussed California's Proposition 14 open primary measure on the ballot tomorrow and the negative effects it would have on voter choice, voter participation, and the freedom of...
View ArticleThe â??Costsâ?? of Free Speech
Last year the Obama administration updated Washington’s official position on what forms of expression are legal. “Whether a given category of speech enjoys First Amendment protection,” Solicitor...
View ArticleThe Talking Cure for the Tragedy of the Commons
In his famous 1968 article in the journal Science, Garrett Hardin illustrated his notion of the “tragedy of the commons” by suggesting, “Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each...
View ArticleBad News From Survey of Economic Literacy
My friend Dan Klein did an interesting analysis of how different ideological groups do on a series of simple economic questions. He wrote up the results for the WSJ and it is interesting stuff.Who is...
View ArticleConservatives v. Libertarians
It’s hard to imagine a greater victory for the conservative legal movement than the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which overturned D.C.’s ban on handguns. Not only...
View ArticleThe Cost of Slow Travel
Steven Polzin, director of the urban transportation research center at the University of South Florida, has spurred an interesting debate on Planetizen.com with his recent column noting that slow...
View ArticleSummers Talks California Public Pension Reform on John and Ken Show
I recently got to talk with John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of "The John and Ken Show" on KFI AM 640 (Los Angeles), the most listened to local radio talk show in the nation, about my new California public...
View ArticleLicense to Kill
Nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks, we still have not settled the question of how to deal with terrorism suspects. Should they be in military or civilian custody? Should they receive...
View ArticleWhy the Helen Thomas Case Makes Me Nervous
A few months ago, a picture appeared in The Denver Post. On a local college campus—an alleged stronghold of free inquiry and debate—a leftist student, protesting some perceived injustice, was holding a...
View ArticleMedia Matters (To Itself)
When award-winning 89-year-old Hearst columnist Helen Thomas, who occupied the front-row center seat in the White House press room since sometime during the Stone Age, declared last week that Jews...
View ArticleThe Economic Argument to Resume Gulf Drilling
Every day, more and more oil is leaking from the Gulf seabed into the ocean. It is astounding on many levels that BP has taken this long to get the situation under control. And even now, control is a...
View ArticleReport Released on International Experience with Road Pricing Schemes
Transportation Research Board and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a report entitled: International Scan: Reducing Congestion & Funding Transportation Using Road Pricing. The...
View ArticleA Rotten Bunch
Running for Congress in 2000, Mark Kirk told a Chicago Tribune reporter he had almost drowned in Lake Michigan as a teenager. "I should be at the bottom of that lake, but I was given a rare gift of a...
View ArticleFree to Choose
America's current struggles notwithstanding, life here is pretty good. We have a standard of living that's the envy of most of the world.Why did that happen? Prosperity isn't the norm. Throughout...
View ArticleCows, Copy, and Cash
What do a Kenyan woman who wants to become a dairy farmer and a journalist interested in reporting on unprocessed rape kits in Los Angeles have in common? Until recently, both would have had trouble...
View ArticleWhat is the Right Question about Electric Cars?
A very interesting article in the Washington Post entitled: “Do More Electric Cars Mean R.I.P. for mpg?” The article is actually about the wringing of the hands concerning how to categorize the new...
View ArticleMichael Barone, Tea Parties, and Rick Santelli's Rant
Michael Barone has a great article in the Washington Examiner that places CNBC economic analyst Rick Santelli's live "rant" against the Stimulus Package in its rightful place as a key trigger to the...
View ArticleTaken By Regulation
According to the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, “private property [shall not] be taken for public use without just compensation.” The classic example of this is eminent domain, where the...
View ArticleFederal Transit Funding Rules Breed Inefficiency
For decades, federal transit funding has focused all its efforts on capital projects. Like the Interestate Highway System, the feds will build it, or fund its construction, but will not pay for the...
View ArticleInfrastructure Investor Southeast: Public-Private Partnerships Alive and Well
I had the privilege of being the Chair of the PEI Media conference on June 3, 2010 entitled Infrastructure Southeast. The conference focused on Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico. Senior officials from...
View ArticleLegal System Problems and Solutions Discussed in New Book
I am pleased to announce the publication of a book to which I contributed called The Pursuit of Justice: Law and Economics of Legal Institutions. Here is a synopsis of the book from the Independent...
View ArticleLawyer Licensing Laws Lead to Higher Prices, Less Consumer Choice and Access...
In a previous post I noted the publication of a new book that I contributed to that discusses problems with the U.S. legal system and how to resolve them. The Pursuit of Justice: Law and Economics of...
View ArticleThe Growth of the Public Sector: New York City Education Department Edition
As the Obama administration pleads for billions to bail out public education keep in mind stories like this from the New York Post :The number of employees in the school system earning $150,000 or more...
View ArticleTeacher Bailout Needed because New Jersey Teachers Getting 3 Percent Raise...
As Obama Administration pleads for $50 billion bailout for state and local workers including $23 billion for teachers the Associated Press reports on teachers' supposed dire consequences in New...
View ArticlePennsylvania Needs to "Man Up" on Asset Privatization
Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell reportedly exhorted state legislators to "man up" and vote for a large package of fee and tax increases to solve the state's nearly $2 billion budget...
View ArticleAre Toll Road Companies Getting Guaranteed Profits?
One of the strangest claims I’ve heard from populist opponents of toll roads developed and operated by private companies under long-term concession agreements (public-private partnership toll roads) is...
View ArticleWhy, Oh, Why Doesn't Obama Save Us?
Not long ago, Barack Obama was pilloried for being too activist, too meddlesome, and too inclined to see himself as the messiah. He was forcing health care reform down our throats, running General...
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Ideas Having Sex
The phrase diminishing returns is such a cliché that few people give it much thought. Picking out the pecans from a bowl of salted nuts gives diminishing returns: The pieces of pecan in the bowl get...
View ArticleWhoâ??s Liable for the Gulf Oil Spill? You Are.
BP has repeatedly promised to pay all “legitimate claims” for loss and damage as a result of the Gulf oil spill, now vying for the title fourth biggest oil spill in history at 2.3 million barrels of...
View ArticleFree Speech and Guns
Few scholars have led a life as varied as Eugene Volokh’s. Born in the Soviet Union in 1968, Volokh immigrated with his family to the United States at age 7. A prodigy, he entered the University of...
View ArticleChinese Environmentalism: Prestige Over People?
In the Western imagination, China is as much an environmental basket case as it is an economic miracle. Its prosperity, we are told in one account after another, has been purchased by a wholesale...
View ArticleRazing Arizona
Imagine you are competing in a marathon. Every time you pull into the lead, someone picks up the other runners in a van and lets them off next to you. When you object, he says you are still free to run...
View ArticlePlease Don't Save Us
You know what journalism could really use more of? Government participation. Who better, after all, than a gaggle of technocrats and political appointees to guide the industry in matters of...
View ArticleRacism, Civil Rights, and Libertarianism
Thanks to Rand Paul, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky and son of maverick libertarian Republican Ron Paul, we find ourselves in an unlikely debate about the Civil Rights Act...
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Public Sector Growth: California Higher Education Edition
So much for drastic cuts to higher education in California. I realize that many of these higher salaries are doctors and athletic directors that may add revenue to the UC system. However, the overall...
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How Public Schools Waste Money: Sick Teachers in Newark Edition
Excessive teacher absences offer one more reason to be skeptical of the need for a teacher bailout. Maybe districts like Newark should just pay the substitutes who actually show up to work. Similar to...
View ArticleEnd the Drug War
I'm confused. When I walk around busy midtown Manhattan, I often smell marijuana. Despite the crowds, some people smoke weed in public. Usually the police leave them alone, and yet other times they act...
View ArticleSecret Watchdogs
You won't find WikiLeaks' biggest impact in any specific story the site has exposed. You'll find it in the bracing fear of what the place might publish next. That anxiety, more than anything else,...
View ArticleThe Vanity Tax
Last December, on Christmas Eve, any Republicans in the Senate who had actually read the latest version of the healthcare reform bill they were voting on must have thanked the Democrats for one...
View ArticleAs the Spill Expands, So Does Presidential Power
The other day, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked what will happen if the people running BP decline to go along with everything the administration demands of it. "The president," he...
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The Post-Housing Tax Credit Slump Begins
Applications for the thrice-extended First-time Homebuyer Credit (FTHBC) ended in April 30, with the construction to be completed by June 30. At the end of each previous credit, we saw a slump in...
View ArticleGeopolitics and the Pill
America + The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation, by Elaine Tyler May, Basic Books, 199 pages, $25.95When the Food and Drug Administration approved oral contraception in 1960, everybody...
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