A runup of gas prices is a perennial issue that has been a constant threat to liberty, however small those threats may be. Whenever profits at oil companies are posted, there are calls for government to dictate how much they should be. Whenever the gas prices of every station in town, there are ongoing accusations of collusion, sometimes to the point where people call on governments to set the prices instead.

I think the biggest worry that people have is that these fluctuations can take an unforeseen bite out of their pocketbooks. But here's a thought -- if these increases had been incremental, would they have caused such an uproar?

Would you mind if gasoline went up a predictable one penny per gallon every two weeks? It would be a big increase over time, but in effect, that is what has happened.

And for reference, here is a chart that gives you the hypothetical counterfactual:

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The Institute for Liberal Studies is hosting their eigth annual Liberty Summer Seminar - details are below from an ILS email.  If you register and want to go, email SFE, and we'll do a big car-pool so you don't have to pay for gas.  It'll be a blast!!!

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Lately, I've seen the unemployment rate chart pop up in a couple places to show that we're in recession, close to one, or that growth isn't all that it's cracked up to be. For instance, Paul Krugman posted here and Greg Mankiw posted here.

Years ago when I first started looking at these figures, David Littmann gave me a heads up to keep in mind that the rate calculation can hide some of what's really going on. A growing economy can also have a growing unemployment rate if people join the labor force faster than jobs are able to be created.

So here are the underlying figures: the number of people in the labor force and the number of people employed. You just divide the gap between them by the top line and you get the unemployment rate.

& ... Read More »

From the LA Times:

 A well-funded coalition of unions, health care provider cartels and government-takeover advocacy groups are currently collecting signatures for a socialist camel’s-nose-under-the-tent called the “Health Care For Michigan” initiative. The goal of many of its backers is a complete takeover of this state’s health care system along the lines proposed by House Bill 4022, which would establish a government-run “single payer” state health care system.

The Detroit News reports on the citizens of House Speaker Andy Dillon's district collecting what seem to be enough signatures to put a recall question on the August ballot.

Dillon apparently held a press conference with lawmakers from both parties to address the recall effort.

""It's a sad day in the state of Michigan," Dillon told reporters. "It's just not a productive way for us to spend our time."

Flanked by House members from both parties, Dillon said the fight will distract him and other lawmakers from dealing with the housing crisis, energy restructuring and needed jobs in a state that leads the nation in unemployment"

This seems to be ... Read More »

The Competitive Enterprise Institute provides this great clip with Dr. Jospeh D'Aleo, fisrt Director of Meteorology at The Weather Channel on global warming alarmism, the natural cycles of the climate and weather, and what kinds of scare stories to look for in the future.  D'Aleo warns that the search for and sensational reporting of WMD (weather of mass destruction) will be the next phase of hype from the "man is a plague on the earth" crowd.

America is always changing, no doubt about it.

We've probably all heard that services are on the increase and that manufacturing is on the decline.

Services, however, include government. In August 1989, government became a larger industry than manufacturing, and never went back.

Data from the BLS.

Is this evidence of a long road to serfdom? Perhaps. To check, I decided to see whether government is getting bigger as a proportion of the total economy.

Right now, employment in all facets of government is at 16.2 percent of the total employment. It's been higher. It was 19.4 percent in July 1975. The lowest it's been, at least since 1939 when the dataset began, was 12.5 percent in October 1947.

And remember, this is employment in all of government. Everyone from the supreme court to the community college cafeteria is i ... Read More »

If you haven't already, check out my Current Comment on Monday about the growth of RTW states versus nonRTW states. In all of the metrics that I looked at, RTW states had an advantage. I especially liked the housing price information -- current recession fears hinge on securitized loan losses as a trigger, but the housing market has been strong in RTW states.

As an aside, a coworker wondered whether nonRTW states were doing poorly just because of Michigan's poor performance. For those that are curious, here's what some of those charts look like without Michigan in the nonRTW column.

As you can tell, taking Michigan o ... Read More »

Great letter by economist and Cafe Hayek blogger Don Boudreaux, sent to the editor of The New Republic:

Jordan Stancil alleges that "rural Americans have seen their ownership of their communities hollowed out by relentless consolidation in the retail and financial sectors" ("It's the Wal-Marts, Stupid," April 18).  He laments that he and his fellow thirtysomethings from rural America are "the first generation of non-owners."  To support these claims, however, he offers only personal anecdotes and impressions.

Fortunately, economists Andrea Dean and Russell Sobel have investigated this oft-told tale using data.  Their findings cast serious doubt on t ... Read More »

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The Man

Not long ago, I heard someone jab, "We should change our state motto. It should be, 'If you seek a pleasant peninsula, move to Florida.'"

So, being the data-minded person that I am, I decided to run the numbers to see whether that's been the case. The Census Bureau is nice enough to give estimates for how population changes for each state on a year-to-year basis. Basically, you can have 'natural' changes due to births and deaths and you can have migration. Census even adds extra fun to it by estimating increases due to international immigrants and internal migrants. Are people moving out of Michigan? Are people moving into Florida?

I plugged the numbers into the chart below. (Unfortunately, our graphics person was out right now, so you get the dull-looking Excel version)

So, while less people are moving into Florida, more people ar ... Read More »

Some areas in Michigan have seen some decent growth, according to new figures were released today on county-level income growth from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The northern lower peninsula looked pretty solid in 2006. Lake County was the fastest growing county in 2006. Its per capita personal income grew by an inflation-adjusted 6.8 percent, followed by Oscoda at 5.6 percent and Leelanau at 4.8 percent. 

Being a new Midlander, I was glad to see that PCPI grew 2.5 percent, the 10th fastest growing county. Midland has the third highest per capita personal income in the state.

In today's Wall Street Journal, Senator Sherrod Brown bemoans the trade deficit.

"In just 15 years, our annual trade deficit has mushroomed to over $800 billion from $38 billion in 1993. With Mexico, our trade surplus evolved into a $90.7 billion trade deficit. With China, our trade deficit jumped to $250 billion today from about $22 billion," he writes.

To give context that you might not receive from the senator, the current account deficit is the value of exports minus the value of imports.  You can have increased trade deficits even when the value of trade is growing.

So, to add the value of exports where he discusses deficits, in just 15 years, our annual exports have mushroomed to over $1.16 trillion from $465 billion in 1993 ... Read More »

How many governments are there in the United States? According to the 2007 Census of Governments, there are 89,527 governmental units in the US.

It's up a little bit since 2002 where there were 87,525 different governments. Michigan has 2,893 of them, from school districts and Tax Increment Financing Authorities to the state, we've got an awful lot of fiefdoms.

The sheer number of governments is impressive to me, especially considering that 42 percent Americans that can't name the three branches of the federal government.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is pleased to host monthly Issues & Ideas Forums in Lansing. These luncheons, which feature experts on a diverse array of subjects, offer a forum that enhances and broadens the policy debate to include theoretical and philosophical ideals — and suggestions for achieving them.

Legislators, staff, news media and other interested friends are cordially invited to the

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The Man

How can we market freedom in the age of the iPod?

Why is pop culture full of anti-freedom myths? Why do advocates of big government make better bumper stickers than advocates of liberty? How can the ideas of freedom be communicated in today’s culture?

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Good morning Michiganders!  I hope today finds you well - even after late-night trips to the Post Office to mail in your taxes.

Leon Drolet writes in the Detroit Free Press about several Michigan business owners who discovered that the elimination of the state's hated Single Business Tax (SBT) only resulted in higher taxes.  The advent of the new Michigan Business Tax (MBT) and the addition of a 22% "surcharge" puts Michiganders in a worse position now than last year.

"A Ferndale electrical contractor who paid $142,000 in SBT in 2007 is now required to send Lansing $215,000 under the MBT -- a 52% increase. One Livonia excavating company has it worse; last year's $76,000 SBT has tripled into this year's $239,000 M ... Read More »

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The Man

Originally posted at the Prometheus Institute

Mike Getlin’s post yesterday chalked up the sub-prime ‘crisis’ (I hesitate yet to call it a crisis) to, basically, greedy profit-seekers who lacked foresight and made risky loans then sold them to other greedy profit seekers.

This certainly seems plausible. What loan agent is not interested in making more money by closing on more loans? What investment firm doesn’t want to see greater returns? If these parties took undue risk – either because of greed or any other reason – that's their choice so long as they reap the benefits or the costs. Read More »

In an article for the Miami Herald, comedian Dave Barry offers some tax planning help.

If you go to the official Internal Revenue Service site on the Internet (www.irs.gov) and start poking around among the thousands and thousands of forms, instructions, bulletins, etc., you would be amazed at the range of deduction options. For example, according to IRS Rev. Proc. 2006-50, certain individuals recognized by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission may deduct up to $10,000 for whaling expenses. Could this deduction apply to you? Think about it!

He also talks about why we need taxes. After all, they go to fund things like the Catfish Genome Project (really). Why?

Th ... Read More »

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An observation or two