Money-Making Monday: The Roundup

Sam Ryan of the Lexington Institute, writing for National Review Online, says we should eliminate the U.S. Postal Service monopoly and privatize it "without delay":

If USPS were a private company, now would be the time to get serious about cutting costs and downsizing. Instead, the organization plans to do what it always does when the going gets tough — raise stamp prices...

If USPS were a competitive company — as opposed to bloated federal bureaucracy— stamp prices would be falling, not rising.

The U.S. Senate has defeated two proposals, by Democrats and Republicans respectively, to increase the minimum wage. Why not abolish the federal minimum wage altogether?

Democratic leaders in Washington are still taking their talking points from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

On February 18, Krugman had this to say: "By repeatedly shilling for whatever the Bush administration wants, he has betrayed the trust placed in Fed chairmen, and deserves to be treated as just another partisan hack."

Then last week, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nevada) was interviewed by Judy Woodruff on CNN's Inside Politics, saying, "I'm not a big Greenspan fan...I voted against him two times. I think he's one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington." (Link: Drudge)

A bill in the Alabama legislature would prevent local governments from taking land through eminent domain to build commercial retail space. Aside from the legal question of whether such a taking constitutes a legitimate "public use," using the coercive power of government to transfer private property from one owner to another in the guise of "economic development" undermines the operation of the free market and is an unjustifiable form of corporate welfare. The legislature should pass this law.

A coworker of mine told me today that on a recent trip to one of Huntsville's ABC stores (those are Alabama's state-owned and operated liquor stores), a clerk told him that they had not received a new shipment of liquor in months. Yet another reason to get the state out of the liquor business.

Deregulation of phone service would make it like going to a fast food restaurant? I was thinking more along the lines of a buffet.

PSC Commissioner George Wallace Jr. remains opposed to the plan to deregulate incumbent carriers, objecting to the notion that rates will likely go down as the industry becomes more competitive: "Wallace says he's never seen BellSouth lower rates during his tenure on the PSC." Hmmmm...could that be because BellSouth's rates are regulated by the PSC?