Commentary

June 25, 2009 -- In December 1989, I stopped in Moscow, on my way to Estonia as part of the first group from the West to hold a conference on free markets in the Soviet Union. A colleague and I met with scholars and others who we thought would be sympathetic to our mission. Not infrequently we were told that they had heard and, we gathered, been inspired by the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher about the nature of their regime, an evil empire, and what should be done: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Aug 15, 2012

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Edward Hudgins

Congratulations to the Institute for Justice on a victory for business rights in Utah. A federal court has ruled that the state's requirement that hair braiders get cosmetology licenses -- which require 2,000 hours of training that might not even cover hair braiding! -- is unconstitutional .

Aug 10, 2012

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The Washington Post yesterday gave us a piece covering antitrust law as a competitive field: BRUSSELS — Europe may be a financial disaster and a faded military force, but in at least one arena it has emerged as champ: Regulators here are challenging the power of America’s technology titans. And they are winning.

Jul 23, 2012

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How scared would you be if I said on this blog that you were a bad person? How about if I blogged, not for The Atlas Society, but for President Obama's reelection campaign? Much more in the latter than in the former, I imagine, and with good reason: there's not much The Atlas Society could or would do based on my comment -- certainly not by comparison of what's within the power of a U.S. president.

Jul 20, 2012

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What does it take to get a small-business owner arrested? Not much, sometimes. Take Kentucky pawn shop owner Randy Hale. A man came into his store and claimed a tiller Hale was trying to sell was in fact his; when Hale wouldn't give it to him, but offered to sell it to him, he called the authorities. What happened next, according to police spokesman Shane Jacobs:

Jul 19, 2012

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Ronnie Gilley built a business in Alabama, and then- Gov. Bob Riley wanted to shut it down . Now Gilley's bound for prison -- for defending himself improperly.

Jul 18, 2012

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July 12, 2012 -- In the middle of the last decade, two business professors and a handful of Wall Street Journal reporters called attention to wide­spread backdating of employee stock options, launching a rich-hunt that cost numerous executives their jobs and five of them, at least for some time, their freedom.Now, The Atlas Society’s Business Rights Center has published a book by Roger Donway on one of those five cases—and on the victim at its center.

Jul 17, 2012

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As the SEC produces yet more regulations, the New York Times gives us a striking quote: One man’s loophole is another man’s livelihood. The speaker is Bart Chilton, a Democrat on the SEC who advocates regulation and opposed this regulation for having, in a Times blogger's words, "loopholes wide enough for Wall Street to exploit."

Jul 11, 2012

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I'd like to take a moment to applaud the Pacific Legal Foundation and the legislature and governor of Missouri for putting an end to that state's certificate of necessity law for moving companies. The law gave established moving companies "the privilege of basically vetoing" a newcomer's application for a license, PLF says.

Jul 11, 2012

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Travis Kalanick's Uber helps city dwellers get rides on demand in luxury cars, and he wants to launch a cheaper service, one closer in price to taxis. But Washington, D.C., Councilmember Mary Cheh proposed a law that would have imposed a price floor on such services -- and effectively prohibited the new service.

Jul 11, 2012

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How many people got HIV because the FDA didn't even want to consider approving a home test for the deadly virus? That's the question Roger Parloff over at Fortune raises now that the FDA has approved one:

Jul 10, 2012

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Our Atlas Summit was held Jun 28-July 1 in Washington, D.C., with an enthusiastic crowd--including a fair number of students--in attendance. If you missed the Summit, don't fret. We'll be publishing video of each presentation. Just sign up for our email updates (at left) to stay informed of releases.

Jul 9, 2012

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Over last week's holiday, New York businesses continued to advocate your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of a very large Coke . It's good to see them fighting back, but a spokesman for Mayor Michael R.

Jul 9, 2012

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Here comes the government, like some red-white-and-blue monster, crushing people’s livelihoods and aspirations almost without noticing: a typical political horror story. That’s what the Las Vegas Review-Journal article about the amendment to the transportation bill that snuffed out the industry of selling people tobacco and paper, then letting them use roll-your-own-cigarette machines, sounds like at first. But if you notice three facts mentioned in the article, you might second-guess that judgment.

Jul 9, 2012

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A businessman was accused of "structuring" cash deposits of his income from farmers market sales, and now the federal prosecutor who took his money is accused of retaliating against the businessman for protesting to the press: In an e-mail to [Baltimore City Paper], Watt [the businessman's lawyer] paraphrases what he recalls [prosecutor] Cassella saying: “Well, Dave, now I have a problem. Your client spoke to the press and now I have to file charges. Otherwise it will appear that I was influenced by your client speaking to the press. Also, I don’t want the next person who I file against to think that he/she can gain leverage by talking to the press.”

Jul 6, 2012

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It's "hard to find another social group persecuted on such a large scale" as businessmen, says Boris Titov. Ayn Rand, of course, called big-business men "America's Persecuted Minority," but as bad as things were for American businessmen in her time, and as much worse as they are today, Titov is ombudsman for business rights in a country where things are even worse: Over the past decade, he tells the BBC, "Russia has imprisoned nearly three million entrepreneurs, many unjustly."

Jul 5, 2012

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Remember the Abacus case against Goldman Sachs that the BRC's Roger Donway said involved a "moral counter-revolution" ? Well, Goldman is still facing litigation over that deal: a judge recently refused to dismiss a lawsuit by people who'd bought Goldman stock .

Jun 27, 2012

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Along with Congress , the Federal Trade Commission, and the European Union , the state of Texas has been investigating Google for possible antitrust violations.

Jun 22, 2012

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Among the challenges businesses face as a result of President Obama's health-insurance reform law is uncertainty . But even if the Supreme Court puts an end to that law, the Wall Street Journal notes, it won't put an end to the regime uncertainty surrounding health reform .

Jun 22, 2012

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