“But only if the person who steals the car is a minor. Having the same unlocked car stolen by an adult would not be a criminal offense. Newton insists his bill wouldn’t punish real victims.”
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2017/12/12/florida-bill-would-make-it-a-crime-to-be
“The protectionist move against LG and Samsung comes, perversely, just as those companies are set to employ thousands of Americans in Tennessee and South Carolina. It may also inadvertently put the final nail in the coffin of one of the longest-standing bastions of the American service industry, Sears Holdings Corp. Trump should reject the remedy proposal put forth by the International Trade Commission. Making it more expensive for LG to import the washers it produces for Kenmore, one of Sears’ most popular product lines, will jeopardize the retailer’s efforts to revitalize its brand.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/washing-machine-tariffs-will-hurt-americans/
“The new study adds to the already substantial evidence indicating that licensing laws are a major obstacle to geographic mobility, particularly for poor and lower-middle class people seeking to move to areas with greater opportunity. We have gotten to the point where some 30 percent of Americans have to have licenses to legally work in their respective fields, including even some states that license florists and tour guides. The evidence also suggests that most of these laws do far more to suppress competition than protect consumers.”
“The possible marginal tax rate of more than 100% results from the combination of tax policies designed to provide benefits to businesses and families but then deny them to the richest people. As income climbs and those breaks phase out, each dollar of income faces regular tax rates and a hidden marginal rate on top of that, in the form of vanishing tax breaks. That structure, if maintained in a final law, would create some of the disincentives to working and to earning business profit.”
Read more: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/12/insane-senate-bills-marginal-rates.html
“Without a license, one is no longer legally permitted to work. This is to say, barbers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and pilots (the list is extensive) who are otherwise skilled at their occupations can be removed from the legal workforce if the governing body deems their student loan repayment unsatisfactory.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/a-government-that-gives-licenses-wont-hesitate-to-take-them-away/
“Home buyers are facing a new challenge in finding mid-priced houses to purchase: Cash buyers who swoop in and snatch up all the properties. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, while mortgage lending is finally rebounding after the housing crash of a few years ago, cash deals are still at higher than normal levels – even with the prices of homes heading into record territory.”
Read more: https://www.pymnts.com/loans/2017/cash-payments-home-buying-mortgage-lending/
“He only got a $25 ticket for improperly wearing his seat belt and a warning for ‘lane use.’ But Wyoming law enforcement officers found and eventually seized the $91,800 in cash, as it was hidden in a speaker cabinet — by getting Parhamovich, under what he claims was duress, to sign away his interest in the money through a waiver. He has since tried to get his money back. But state law enforcement officials have rejected his pleas. Responding to a request for records related to Parhamovich’s case, state officials said they consider the cash ‘abandoned.’ The state has even moved to forfeiture the money without notifying Parhamovich of the relevant court hearing until after it happened.”
Read more: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/1/16686014/phillip-parhamovich-civil-forfeiture
“Special interests argue that occupational licensing somehow protects people, yet we have real-world examples for all 102 professions of states that have zero licensing restrictions and we don’t have examples of people dying or being harmed because of unregulated florists or rogue cosmetologists.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/occupational-licensing-is-just-another-form-of-cronyism/
“It is this licensing which, in some cases, forced students to rack up student debt in the first place to satisfy these barriers to entry. Now, these roadblocks are contributing to unemployment.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/the-states-war-on-student-debtors-is-heating-up/
“Neighborhoods are rotting away as the local economy crumbles giving way to a surge in homicides. Baltimore is on track for the worse year ever with a homicide rate the highest in the United States. Baltimore is home to about 615,000 people, but the city has more homicides than New York or Los Angeles, both of which have far larger populations. Earlier this year, Mayor Catherine Pugh called in the Federal Government in hopes to restore order. She was even quoted, ‘violence in the city is out of control’…”