United Liberty

Frédéric Bastiat was born on this day in France in 1801.

Bastiat is best known for The Law (which laid out his case against collectivism), the candlemaker’s petition (where he satrically dismantled economic protectionism) and the “broken window” fallacy (which explains the economic effects of what we would call Keynesian economics today).

Take a moment read the works of this brilliant man who we could learn so much from today.

Karen Bass, the Speaker of the California legislature, isn’t all that fond of talk show hosts (emphasis mine):

How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature’s work?

The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: “You vote for revenue and your career is over.” I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.

Say what? Neither Republicans or Democrats are what I would call defenders of free speech, as evidenced by McCain-Feingold and the Fairness Doctrine, but I’ve never read or heard where talk radio hosts have been equated with terrorists.

After a long legal battle, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that Al Franken defeated Norm Coleman for United States Senate:

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state’s long-running Senate race.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

Coleman hasn’t ruled out seeking federal court intervention.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) envoked Smoot-Hawley in the debate over cap-and-trade on the floor of the House on Friday. He published his speech as an editorial today:

When you discuss the folly of the Hoover administration — how it turned the recession of 1929 into the depression of the 1930s, the first thing that economists point to is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that imposed new taxes on more than 20,000 imported products.

Waxman-Markey is our generation’s Smoot-Hawley. In fact, it’s worse, because it imposes new taxes on an infinitely larger number of domestic products on a scale that utterly dwarfs Smoot-Hawley.

[…]

Using CBO data, the Minority Report has put together this map showing how states are hurt by the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House of Representatives on Friday. According to the date, the red states have considerably less allowances than the green states:

H/T: Club for Growth

Greg Mankiw explains why a “public option” doesn’t make sense and will give an competitive advantage to the government:

Phillipe Legrain doesn’t believe that immigration is the cause of Europe’s social and economic ills. In fact, Legrain makes the case that immigration, as experienced through globalization, might actually be a good thing. Currently working on a new book about the effects of globalization, Legrain will be examining the “risks to globalisation from the ongoing crisis (such as protectionism, nationalism and political extremism)” and try to find what needs to change in the global economy, as well as what doesn’t need to change.

In a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down a ruling from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that said New Haven, Connecticut could throw out a test for a promotion because no African-Americans would be given a promotion based on the results:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.

“America started with a concept of limited government, designed to protect and improve the life, liberty and property of citizens, and has ended with a concept of unlimited government, capable of restricting our life, liberty and property in the name of protecting us from ourselves. America started with a concept of residual individual sovereignty, designed to respect the autonomy and equality of citizens, and has ended with a concept of limited liberty, presumptively unavailable and parsed out reluctantly by an all-powerful sovereign. America started with a concept of federalism, designed to better protect individual liberty, and has ended with a concept of nationalism, exercised vigorously to stifle controversial liberties recognized by the state. We have done all of this, experienced these foundational changes, without the benefit of a constitutional amendment.