The FBI tried to use Civil Asset Forfeiture against hundreds of innocent citizens. Then the IJ stepped in. — First, just a reminder that the archives of the Bob Zadek Show podcast hold 15 years of discussion of major issues, including today’s topic of Civil Asset Forfeiture, which I first covered 10 years ago with Sarah Stillman ( The Rise of Civil Forfeiture | The New Yorker), who had…

A concise summary of Michael Munger’s new book. — About the Author Michael Munger is a Professor of Political Science, Economics, and Public Policy at Duke University and Senior Fellow of the American Institute for Economic Research. His research interests include regulation, political institutions, and political economy. Much of his recent work has been in philosophy, examining the concept…

A concise summary of Robert Mahoney’s new book. Big Picture The COVID-19 pandemic could do for biomedical surveillance what 9/11 did for wiretapping. Putin, Xi, and other authoritarians have strengthened their hold over information, using an emergency as the rationale for cracking down on journalists and free speech. The Infodemic also…

A concise summary of Todd Zywicki’s new book. — Not long ago, many businesses competed to extend credit to consumers through unsecured lending, auto loans, home mortgage loans or installment sales. Sadly, true competition is no longer. In today’s consumer lending environment, businesses are nothing other than agencies of federal and, to some degree, state governments…

A concise summary of Joe Cohn’s new book — Key Concepts Due Process Due process means fair procedure: Over time, we have learned that we cannot separate how we reach decisions from the justice of those decisions. Innocent Until Proven Guilty The presumption of innocence — “ innocent until proven guilty ” — is central to our system of justice and our…

A concise summary of Carissa Byrne Hessick’s new book — The Big Picture 97% of convictions come from plea bargains. Most cases have been decided this way for some time but the trend is getting much worse. As courts become more “efficient” we end up with a larger and larger prison population. The Founders placed a strong emphasis on jury…

Mike Munger updates the Broken Window Fallacy for the Modern Age of Environmental Stimulus — Mike Munger (@mungowitz) is a prolific writer and Professor of Political Science, Economics, and Public Policy at Duke University, as well as a Senior Fellow of the American Institute for Economic Research — AIER. His latest article for AIER, “ Green Energy is the Modern Broken Window “ provides a…

Ashley Varner on the 87,000 new IRS employee union members — Thomas Jefferson observed, “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Which of those two are we experiencing today? Does the government fear us, or do we fear the government? Nothing personifies the threat to individual liberties more than the Internal…

Veronique de Rugy on the stealth wealth transfer from taxpayers to sharefholders — We all remember the bank bailouts of 2008, but almost nobody talks about the more recent COVID bailouts. $50 billion here; $25 billion there — pretty soon we’re talking about real money. The airlines were one of several industries that enjoyed special treatment from the federal government on the grounds…