Clik here to view.
The 2016 Award for “Politician of the Year” Goes to…
I have a collection of columns about “honest leftists” and they mostly fall into two categories. One group is comprised of people who are willing to admit that the statist policies they generally...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hold the Presses: We Have a New Contestant for Politician of the Year!
Two months ago, I decided that the new President of the Philippines was the winner of the 2016 award for politician of the year. It takes a remarkable amount of chutzpah, after all, to freely admit to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Assessing Trump’s Acceptance Speech at the GOP Convention: Fact-Checking the...
Since I’m not a fan of either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, I think that puts me in a good position to fairly assess whether the candidates are being dishonest. And since several media outlets just...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Predatory and Corrupt Behavior by Politicians
Here’s an interesting issue to ponder. Is corruption rampant in government because the perverse incentive structure of politics turns good people into bad people? Or do bad people naturally gravitate...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Smaller Government Is the Best Strategy for Reducing Corruption in Romania
In 2016, there were three very worthy candidates for the highly coveted Politician of the Year Award. In May, I gave the prize to Rodrigo Duterte, the newly elected president of the Philippines,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Limiting Taxpayer-Financed Vacations and Political Junkets
When I write about politicians in their role as politicians (rather than their policy prescriptions), it’s usually to mock them for venality, corruption, immorality, sleaze, incompetence, or hypocrisy....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Humorous Version: It Ain’t Easy Being Libertarian
In my collection of libertarian humor, my favorite item is probably the video mocking us for reflexive anti-statism. It presumably was put together by a statist, but I’ll be the first to admit that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Politician of the Year?
Back in 2016, I had an informal “politician of the year” contest. The three candidates were: The Prime Minister of Malaysia, who took normal cronyist corruption and added several zeroes to the total....
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Preview of the Trump-Warren 2020 Election
Time for some political humor. Though some may consider this tragedy rather than comedy since the theme will be the potential contest between Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren in 2020. But some people...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Everything You Need to Know about Tax Competition in One Story
I’m a big fan of tax competition because politicians (i.e., stationary bandits) are far more likely to control their greed (i.e., keep tax burdens reasonable) if they know taxpayers have the ability to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The World’s Most Depressing Tweet
I periodically will make use of “most depressing” in the title of a column when sharing bad news. And new data from the Census Bureau definitely qualifies as bad news. It confirms what I’ve written...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Paul Ryan’s Legacy
Most politicians are contemptible. They are shallow, grasping, insecure clowns who want to expand the size and scope of government so they have more power to dictate how the rest of us live our lives....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Politician Humor
To the best of my recollection, it’s been several years since I shared a collection of anti-politicians jokes. Given the odious behavior of people in government, that’s an oversight I’m going to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In One Picture, Everything You Need to Know about Government
Having written more than 5000 columns over the past ten-plus years, I’ve learned that policy analysis doesn’t “go viral.” But I got a small taste of what that would be like when I shared an image in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The State With the Greediest Politicians, Part III
Two days ago, I looked at top income tax rates for the various states. Yesterday, I shared the data for the states on sales tax rates. The big takeaway from those two sources of data is that California...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Make-Believe Postal Service Panic and the Tenth Theorem of Government
Politicians and interest groups periodically fan the flames of temporary panic to push for misguided policy. We’ve already seen three big examples this century. The so-called PATRIOT Act was enacted in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two Rivals for the Politician of the Year Award
Back in July, I asked “Why are there so many bad and corrupt people in government?” and suggested two possible explanations. Shallow, insecure, and power-hungry people are drawn to politics because...
View ArticleClik here to view.
America’s “Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy”: Part I
Earlier this year, I asked “Why are there so many bad and corrupt people in government?” and suggested two possible explanations. Shallow, insecure, and power-hungry people are drawn to politics...
View ArticleClik here to view.
America’s “Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy”: Part II
Earlier this month, I reviewed some evidence and analysis about the corruption in Washington. Today, let’s look at some tangible examples of how the political elite routinely exploit their positions to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy Thanksgiving from America’s Hypocritical Politicians
I’m going to break tradition. Normally, I use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to explain how the Pilgrims almost starved to death because they initially used a socialist system for farming, but then...
View Article