Tag Archives: Perverse Incentives

Chicago Bans Vaping In Public—For The Children

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“Today, as anticipated, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance that adds e-cigarettes to the city’s Clean Indoor Air Act, meaning that vaping will be prohibited everywhere smoking is. The vote was 45 to 4, a resounding endorsement of a scientifically groundless, emotion-driven policy that is likely to accomplish exactly the opposite of what its backers say they are trying to do (i.e., reduce tobacco-related disease). Mayor Rahm Emanuel implausibly portrayed the vaping ban, which will discourage smokers from switching to a far less dangerous method of consuming nicotine, as a victory against Big Tobacco.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/01/15/chicago-bans-vaping-in-public-senators-want-it-banned-at-award-ceremonies-for-the-children/

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Denmark scraps world’s first fat tax [2012]

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“About a year ago, the Danish government tested out a policy never before seen in the world. It implemented an across-the-board tax on all foods with a saturated fat content above 2.3 percent, with the hopes of reducing consumption of unhealthy foods.  But it didn’t quite work that way. Some Danes did indeed switch to lower fat cheeses  and dairy products, The Wall Street Journal’s Clemens Bomsdorf reports. But a lot of them simply began to do their grocery shopping internationally, heading to countries that didn’t levy a fine on fat.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/13/denmark-scraps-worlds-first-fat-tax/

About a year ago, the Danish government tested out a policy never before seen in the world. It implemented an across-the-board tax on all foods with a saturated fat content above 2.3 percent, with the hopes of reducing consumption of unhealthy foods.

But it didn’t quite work that way. Some Danes did indeed switch to lower fat cheeses  and dairy products, The Wall Street Journal’s Clemens Bomsdorf reports. But a lot of them simply began to do their grocery shopping internationally, heading to countries that didn’t levy a fine on fat:

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Perversity of Modern White-Collar Criminal Remedies

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“Today, the markets in the US and elsewhere are massively top heavy with regulations of every type but there is no discernible difference when it comes to protecting consumers. If anything, things have gotten worse. The amount and types of regulation have mostly and unfortunately overweighted certain investment solutions. In other words, Wall Street strategists are apt to do the same thing at the same time for clients because modern regs force them to. This is very dangerous in an investment environment stimulated massively by central banking. It virtually guarantees that investors are going to take terrible losses in euphorias.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/34906/Perversity-of-Modern-White-Collar-Criminal-Remedies/

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Robert Rector: How the War on Poverty Was Lost

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“According to a variety of government sources, including census data and surveys by federal agencies, the typical American living below the poverty level in 2013 lives in a house or apartment that is in good repair, equipped with air conditioning and cable TV. His home is larger than the home of the average nonpoor French, German or English man. He has a car, multiple color TVs and a DVD player. More than half the poor have computers and a third have wide, flat-screen TVs. The overwhelming majority of poor Americans are not undernourished and did not suffer from hunger for even one day of the previous year.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303345104579282760272285556

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Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not

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“Banks, including state-chartered ones, are reluctant to provide traditional services to marijuana businesses. They fear that federal regulators and law enforcement authorities might punish them.  The limitations have created unique burdens for legal marijuana business owners. They pay employees with envelopes of cash. They haul Chipotle and Nordstrom bags containing thousands of dollars in $10 and $20 bills to supermarkets to buy money orders. When they are able to open bank accounts — often under false pretenses — many have taken to storing money in Tupperware containers filled with air fresheners to mask the smell of marijuana.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/us/banks-say-no-to-marijuana-money-legal-or-not.html

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How more than $100 billion in secret cash was smuggled into China

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“Something funny is happening at the Hong Kong border.  Every month, billions of dollars worth of exports simply disappear on their way out of China, but they’re not vanishing into a wormhole. They never existed in the first place. In the first half of 2013 alone, nearly $100 billion sneaked into China in the form of faked export invoices, according to research by non-profit Global Financial Integrity.  Every time China reports a bounce-back in exports, some read it as a sign of a ‘soft landing,’ or that the economy is recovering from its increasingly wobbly state. GFI’s report is another reminder that Chinese trade data can’t be trusted as a sign of what’s really going on in its economy.”

http://qz.com/164743/how-more-than-100-billion-in-secret-cash-was-smuggled-into-china-last-year/

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States turn against electric cars as gas tax revenues fall

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“As of this year, Coloradans driving electric, alternative fuel and high-efficiency vehicles will pay a $50 registration fee to capture more revenue from vehicles that use less traditional gasoline. This is part of a growing trend by which states are looking to recoup declining gas tax revenues as vehicles become more fuel efficient and drivers buy more electric vehicles.  Colorado is one of at least five states that have special fees on hybrid and electric vehicles — Colorado, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington.  On the federal level, gas tax revenues have lost one-third of their value since 1993; the federal Highway Trust Fund could face insolvency in 2015 if this trend continues.”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/06/states-turn-against-electric-cars-as-gas-tax-revenues-fall/

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Gun sales hit new record, ammo boom to follow

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“Gun records checks, fueled by a post-Newtown boom of gun sales, hit a new high in 2013, and industry analysts expect ammunition to be the big seller this year as consumers catch up to all of those firearms purchases.  More than 21 million applications were run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, marking nearly an 8% increase and the 11th straight year that the number has risen. ‘2013 was the best year for firearm sales (commercial, domestic) in history — period! That’s true for NH to Hawaii,’ said Richard Feldman, president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association in Rindge, N.H. ‘Ruger alone sold well over one million guns this year.'”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/6/boom-for-guns-likely-to-trigger-rush-on-ammo/

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The Magnificent Failure of ObamaCare

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“By front-loading the benefits, and by back-loading the costs, the politicians have extended the welfare state to encompass virtually every area of life.  ObamaCare is the exception. ObamaCare is front-loading the costs, and it is back-loading the benefits.  This is not insurance; this is a welfare state program, pure and simple. But it is being covered by the illusion that it is, in fact, an insurance program.  People who have pre-existing conditions that exclude them from getting insurance in the free market are rushing to sign up for the welfare program. People who are generally healthy, meaning younger people, are not rushing to sign up. They don’t want the program. They have been outvoted.”

http://www.garynorth.com/public/11966.cfm

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Ron Paul: Government Policies Hurt Low-Wage Workers

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“Unskilled and inexperienced workers are the ones most often deprived of employment opportunities by increases in the minimum wage.  By increasing unemployment, government policies like minimum wage laws only worsen inequality. Those who are genuinely concerned about increasing the wellbeing of all Americans should support repeal of all laws, regulations and taxes that inhibit job creation and economic mobility. Congress should also end the most regressive of all taxes, the inflation tax, by ending the Federal Reserve.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/34871/Ron-Paul-Government-Policies-Hurt-Low-Wage-Workers/

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