Are the BLS and Different Authorities Statistical Companies Partisan? Right here’s What My Analysis Discovered
by Vincent Geloso, The Every day Economic system, August 18, 2025.
Excerpt:
There may be little to substantiate the declare that the BLS produces low-quality information. The BLS (and each different statistical company) regularly points preliminary studies from surveys it conducts.
As such, revisions are frequent. How huge are these revisions? Fairly small!
The graph under (courtesy of my co-author Gary Wagner on the College of Louisiana at Lafayette) reveals error charges in month-to-month payroll employment estimates. It plots the share distinction between the preliminary and ultimate estimates. On this graph, a optimistic worth means the preliminary estimate was decrease than the ultimate one. As might be seen, the errors (since 2000) are usually between ±0.5 %. More often than not (greater than 90 %), it’s inside ±0.25 %. On a pure absolute benchmark, this isn’t dangerous. In reality, if something, the errors are getting smaller relative to the early interval.
Why Collectivism Is Surging
by Paul Mueller, Legislation & Liberty, August 19, 2025.
Excerpt:
Collectivism additionally appears to reply many individuals’s cultural insecurities. On the political left, many rich, educated individuals really feel deeply uneasy about their success and blessings, which they label “privilege.” And others, who haven’t carried out so properly economically and are saddled with 5, generally six, determine debt from their school years, resent the hand they have been dealt and the way they’ve performed it. Collective authorities applications of welfare, redistribution, and hire management appear to be interesting options.
The political proper has totally different cultural insecurities. Many fear about declining labor drive participation amongst working-age males, concerning the opioid disaster, about falling start charges and falling household formation, about declining manufacturing employment, and about decreased nationwide protection capabilities. They counsel a naïve free commerce, free market, and restricted authorities philosophy allowed firms to wipe out communities and their corresponding civic establishments, particularly in center America.
D.C. Residents Are Proper To Protest Unconstitutional Police Roadblocks
by C.J. Ciaramella, Cause, August 15, 2025.
Excerpt:
NBC Information and different shops reported that greater than 100 protesters turned out on Wednesday night time to heckle federal legislation enforcement at a checkpoint on 14th Road Northwest and warn drivers of the police forward.
And good for them.
Leaving apart the doubtful total legality of the White Home’s takeover—the D.C. legal professional common filed a lawsuit over that concern Friday—the usage of such generalized roadblocks is obnoxious, impinges on People’ conventional freedom to journey, and is unconstitutional underneath the Fourth Modification’s protections towards unreasonable searches and seizures.
Decontrol the Remittance Business
by Jeffrey Miron, Cato at Liberty, August 20, 2025.
Excerpts:
Remittance rules drive cash service suppliers to behave as legislation enforcement, accumulating detailed private information, performing intensive buyer screenings to bar sanctioned people, acquiring licenses in each sending and receiving nations, and hiring extra compliance personnel. US monetary establishments spent $46 billion in 2022 on compliance.
And:
Not solely does this regulatory regime impose prices on customers, nevertheless it additionally decreases competitors. As a result of regulatory necessities, entry into the remittance market is troublesome, so the variety of operators is small. This usually leads to an almost oligopolistic market, together with main banks with pricing and markup energy.
Georgia Girl May Lose $30,000 After Native Authorities Denies Her Allow To Open Hair Salon
by Tosin Akintola, Cause, August 21, 2025.
Excerpt:
When Khalilah Few opened her salon, Artistic Crowns Collective, in 2023, she didn’t assume her enterprise savvy would put her at odds with the native authorities. However two years later, she now finds herself in a authorized battle with Clayton County, Georgia.
After outgrowing her unique studio house, Few signed a two-year lease for a brand new salon housed in an outdated barbershop in Jonesboro, a metropolis in Clayton County, in March. She invested over $30,000 into the property and utilized for a Conditional Use Allow (CUP) in April to open her salon. Regardless of assembly the authorized necessities for a allow [sic: misplaced modifier in original], the Clayton County Zoning Advisory Board and the Board of Commissioners denied Few’s utility in July.
Fixing Larger Ed: The Bailey-Caplan Convo
by Bryan Caplan, betonit, August 22, 2025.
Excerpt:
Final month, Michael Bailey interviewed me on greater training, specializing in my most controversial views. Right here’s his listing of questions:
1. Though I wish to focus consideration on what in greater training is value saving, let’s start by discussing what’s flawed. Simply this week you cosigned what I consider is a crucial assertion from the Manhattan Institute, “The Manhattan Assertion on Larger Schooling.” Are you able to inform us extra about that assertion? Like how did it occur, and what are its details?
2. The assertion pinpointed two latest crises that exposed huge issues: the 2020 Summer time of George Floyd and the previous two years of pro-Palestinian protests. To what extent do you assume that universities have declined, and when did this occur?
DRH Be aware: Bryan Caplan is on hearth. He’s at his scintillating greatest.
Postscript: It is a longer listing of highlights than regular. The reason being that it’s the final “spotlight reel” I’m doing. I’ll clarify in a weblog publish tomorrow.
