One of the projects that President Obama’s close to trillion dollar stimulus package is designed to pay for will be a much delayed subway line in New York City. The line has been authorized and paid for by taxpayers time and again through bond issues and federal aid over more than 60 years. Yet the line is years away because of cost overruns and various public sector problems.

Given the porkish nature of all these federal and state make-work programs, it is unlikely the subway line will be operating any time soon, yet riders are already being told of the marvels of public-sector projects. FULL ARTICLE

Republicans used to talk about reducing the welfare state. I remember when candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980 promised to end the Energy and Education departments. Some Republicans, who themselves have caught the entitlement-spending/social-engineering bug, now propose the creation of a federal department of families.

Indeed many Republicans, who once said they were against the welfare state, now brag they are better at running the welfare state than the Democrats. FULL ARTICLE

Did you hear the recent giant sigh of collective relief from the securities industry? It was the sound of those securities professionals who, for now, dodged a regulatory bullet. Regulation National Market System’s June 29th trade-through rule mandate had become a dead letter. But the regulatory state — massive, expensive, and Byzantine — survives. FULL ARTICLE

It was a time of a Republican administration waging an unpopular war. It was a war some Democrats said they opposed but seemed to do very little to stop. Inflation was starting to become a problem. There were calls for price controls on gasoline and many other items. The Republican president increased domestic spending but never enough to please the Democrats. FULL ARTICLE

Much of the left is against the Iraq war, and so far so good. But they theorize that the driving force behind the war is capitalism, with imperialism as the highest stage. The makers of “Why We Fight”–an antiwar documentary–make this mistake time and again. These imperial interventions are anything but the fault of unsubsidized elements of the American business community. Did the average American businessperson — often struggling to pay the huge costs of empire — actually want the United States to embark on this path of empire? The producers have no answer to that question. Although “Why We Fight” sometimes attacks capitalism, we rarely hear from American capitalists, who historically have opposed much of the inflation and disasters that have been the result of the imperial policies of at least the last half-century. Their opposition was well founded. FULL ARTICLE

Lenin once dismissed the question of how socialism would work by pointing to the workings of the post office. Socialism, he said, means only to “To organize the whole economy on the lines of the postal service.” Well, I tried my best to avoid this pocket of socialism, this museum piece that mysteriously remains part of the modern world, but it was just unavoidable. I lived to tell my story. [Full Article]

The government stumbles or runs into crisis after crisis, then the government insists that this justifies it arrogating more power. That, of course, always must include a bigger bit of your property. The pattern is predictable. The crisis never ends as far as our rulers are concerned. That’s because they need the leviathan; it serves their interests. [Full Article]

Most hedge funds aren’t anything like the infamous Long Term Capital Management (LCTM). And, even if most hedge funds were dogs, why is it the business of the government to regulate them? Most investors in hedge funds are well-heeled folk who can afford the risks that come with this volatile investment style, which is designed to generate robust returns by taking big risks. I consider it none of my beeswax if someone makes a million dollars in one of these things or loses his shirt. [Full article]