First, the one who howls describes the current pending legislation to prevent banks from capriciously changing the interest rates charged on existing credit card balances, and then he goes on to make a point as politically incorrect as it is critical to understanding how the economy actually functions: There is legislation pending in Congress to restrict the ability of lenders (e.g. credit card issuers) from changing rates on existing debt. They ask if it is fair for someone who took on a debt thinking it would be at 15% to suddenly find it is at 25%. But how are tax increases any different. I make 10-20 year investments in my company, and the expected tax rate is a hugely important assumption in whether it makes any sense for me to put my capital in a particular venture. How is a large increase in taxes on returns from my past investments any different than changing the interest rate on an existing debt? Then Coyote discusses the fact that huge new regulatory skeins ostensibl...

...to prevent international incidents for one thing, and to prevent the abuse of old people for another. As I described before, different cultures have different perceptions of privacy of their persons....none more so than Western cultures and Latin American cultures....well it finally happened, TSA pissed off the wrong Latino.... just look at the "person of interest" to the left then read the story.....luckily they get away with it with old folks all the time..... Costa Rica protests US airport security By MARIANELA JIMENEZ, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 26, 5:14 PM ET SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Costa Rica has suspended legal cooperation with the United States and filed a diplomatic protest over what it called the "disrespectful" treatment of its attorney general at the Miami International Airport. In a letter describing the incident, Attorney General Francisco Dall'Anese said a security officer at the airport allowed him into the United States on April 23, ...

Regulation is not always a bad thing, especially when the EPA and Pesticide companies team up to test chemicals on mentally retarded and poor women and children....

Real ID is a program that needs the careful attention of Americans concerned with their civil liberties. It basically creates a Soviet style internal passport that every American must show to get a job, do their work with the government, enter government buildings, etc. In some ways it is surprising to see that many states are adopting anti-Real ID legislation . I hope Delaware chooses to adopt anti-Real ID legislation in the same spirit because the idea of a national ID card in this way is a complete contradiction of what a free society is all about. Is that really somewhere we want to go? Yale University has an interesting take on the problems of National ID and how these are related to the genocide committed by Hitler , Pol Pot and others. If you examine the legislation closely , you see that it is the antithesis of being the "first state" because it removes all constitutional protections under the bill of rights . It is important to understand and remind our selves from ...

This document from the US Customs service, speaks for itself. I love how it gives any federal bureaucrat the right to do with me whatever they want. Maybe they can sexually abuse me at the border like they do down near Mexico or poor "M.C." from Jamaica? I loved the TV show about Customs Special Agents , but one thing is sure, this type of behavior is not helping the image or reputation of the organization. I want to see someone on CNN discuss this problem. ICE enforcement agent arrested for aggravated sexual abuse of detainee by SOPnewswire Posted November 22, 2007 MIAMI - R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Steven J. Mocsary, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Professional Responsibility, Donald J. Balberchak, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Office of Inspector General, and Al Lamberti, Sheriff, Broward County Sheriff's Office, announced the filing...

. . . at least bash an actual free market. Over on Delawareliberal there is a post entitled See, Free Markets Bring Lower Prices , which lambasts the government auction of cell-phone frequencies in which AT&T and Verizon (the two largest carriers) won a greater swath of radio spectrum in the government auction that ended this week, heading off new competition that could have led to lower prices for consumers. Pretty sweet huh? I love our brand of capitalism. Aren’t these the same guys that when asked to break the law, did so? And shockingly the government had the bidding done in secret. Wonders never cease… The auction raised $19.12 billion for the Treasury after more than seven weeks of secret bidding. OK, let's unpack this one with recourse to the original NYT story . There we find out a couple of important points left out in the post. First: note that it was the bidding that was secret, not the auction . The fact of the auction was a matter of public record; in fact, the ...

James Baker, Mayor of Wilmington, gave his budget address last night to the City Council. The big headline of his speech, triumphantly reported as such, was : "no tax increases this year" . This in spite of an incredible inflation-surpassing one year growth rate of 11% and the addition of at least 13 new city employees none of whom by the way is a police officer, given the violent crime explosion we have seen, or an otherwise essential employee. http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/NEWS02/803210339/1006/NEWS http://www.wilm.com/cc-common/mlib/1171/03/1171_1206039408.doc In keeping with Baker's theme that it is somehow praiseworthy that the city government has managed to scrape by with such paltry means as $141,800,000 for FY 2009 * while still taking real nice care of all those much-needed layers of bureaucracy and patronage, Baker reassured that at least several of these new taxpayer-funded jobs would be justified by the new revenu...

...which is something that happens more often than most of us care to think. I remember visiting the DMV to get my eldest daughter's driver's license. She'd been through a lot to get it. Being extremely dyslexic, she'd had to take the written test three times to pass it. It was a big day. There is, of course, a requirement that your parents sign for you when you're sixteen. So I did. First problem: I'm not on her birth certificate, since she's adopted. I explained this. "You'll have to bring me a certificate of adoption," said the person behind the counter. Fortunately (back then) my office was only about ten minutes away, and I had a file on each of my kids in my desk. We went back, acquired the document, and returned. Same clerk. "This is no good," she said. "It's a photocopy. Got to be the original." "You didn't tell me that," I said, as I felt patience, tact, and all constraints on my trigger ...

A friend of mine once said, that "America is about to change in the most profound way..." He said this back in the 1980's when I was still too young to understand what he meant. But then a radical plan was proposed from the Chicago school of economic theory that proved him correct. I think he knew this was coming. His experience was from Chile. When we compare his experience to what we see in America today there is very little difference. http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?page=letelier-docs_thenation Of all the sources Greg Palast sums the situation up the very best, an alumni of Chicago and student of Milton Friendman he gives us a rare insight into the mechanics of globalization that we see around us in America today: http://www.gregpalast.com/tinker-bell-pinochet-and-the-fairy-tale-miracle-of-chile-2 My friend Ty Anders over at FSU lays the reality of the American situation bare here: http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/andros/2007/0524.html Not only do all...