Mr. Washington said, "Government is like fire - an uncertain servant and a fearful master," but he missed the essence. At its core, governance boils down to two questions: "Who says?" and "Who pays?"

We need an inheritance tax to periodically level the playing field so that new businesses can continue to grow our economy.

Every June, schools send the social security numbers of all their graduates to the IRS. Every May, after tax season, the IRS adds up all the taxes paid by all the graduates of each school and tells everybody the average amount paid...

Bureaucracies never die, and India's still uses genuine red tape.

If you buy something, that ought to mean you can do whatever you like with it - but big companies want to end that right.

Everybody ignores the only health care question that matters - how do we limit demand for it?

"It is the duty of every officer of His Majesty's Navy, to discharge powder and shot in the general direction of the enemy."

Americans can show good judgment, and do have a conscience, and are willing to be reasonable - if the other side is being reasonable too.

Brazil serves as an object lesson in how government incompetence - not greed, not really bribery even, certainly not totalitarianism, just simple incompetence - can make life difficult on an otherwise free and vibrant economy.