My community in the Deep South prides itself on friendship, community feeling, and an overall happy spirit. So it was a bit strange for all of this to be utterly smashed and obliterated in the course of a few calamitous weeks in which friend turned against friend, colleagues became antagonists and enemies, and families were …
Years ago, it was virtually unheard-of for someone to give up his/her U.S. citizenship. Then, one by one, a handful of famous cases surfaced… like Sir John Templeton, who renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1964 and moved to the Bahamas. At the time, Templeton was able to save $100 million that he would have otherwise …
“I have not done anything wrong,” Lois Lerner, head of the IRS’ nonprofit division, told a congressional hearing. “I have not broken any laws.” Then she invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to be second-guessed by the Congress that is supposed to be watching over all agencies of government. Seeing the IRS grilled like this …
The least of the problems with the income tax is that it takes your money. The really big problem is that the income tax takes your life. It gives the government direct access to the things you own and sets up the political/bureaucratic sector to be the final arbiter of what you can and cannot …
Emblazoned across the lucre-basted exterior of the Internal Revenue Service Building in Washington, D.C., is one of the most intellectually polluted quotes any free mind is ever likely to encounter: “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.” Its effortlessly officious author, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., …
If you’re looking for freedom, which state should you live in? Government oppression at the state level comes in various forms and levels. Since Galt’s Gulch doesn’t exist, people must prioritize the state intrusions they can live with. For those valuing freedom, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is providing a new “Freedom in …
There’s no way it could happen in the United States. That’s the conventional wisdom on this side of the pond about the ECB’s bailout of the banks in Cyprus. That caper looks as if it may take a chunk out of the hides of at least some bank depositors on the tiny Mediterranean island. So …
If you think of American wage-earners as swimmers, they were mostly underwater after 2008. Then last year, wages increased a bit. It was only 2.4% for the year, but it was like coming up for a slight gulp of air. Now think of Congress and the president as the people in a boat pushing the …
Let’s say that a thief demands $100 and lets you keep $10 because he likes your suit. He calls that a deduction. The next day, he demands the whole $110. He says that he is not stealing more. He is only eliminating deductions and closing loopholes. That’s the GOP’s tax plan in a nutshell. They …
We are getting a sense of what life is like with the new Fed policy of openness. It means that the chairman tries to beat the world record for the longest, most-boring press conference in modern history. Ben Bernanke is getting even better at that crucial skill of repeatedly saying nothing at great length. The …