If enough people have a demand for a particular product, whether it is prostitution, gambling, drugs and alcohol, or an anonymous, instantaneous and low-cost money transfer, it will be supplied. Poorly thought out regulation or prohibition raises the cost of...

Do you approve of Congress spending your hard-earned tax dollars on an international organization that lobbies governments, including the U.S. government, to raise taxes? The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was originally created to...

Of those running for president, who will give this speech? "Ladies and Gentlemen, my administration will implement a series of economic policies to cause the economy to grow at an average rate of 4 percent or more a year. Growth of 4 percent-plus per year will create...

If taxpayers suddenly stopped subsidizing Amtrak, what do you think would happen? Before trying to answer that question, it is useful to review U.S. railroad history. The first railroads were built in the United States in the late 1820s, and by 1900, only 70 years...

Over the past 1,000 years, this city on the Baltic has gone through cycles of great prosperity and almost total destruction. This is the city where World War II began 76 years ago on Sept. 1, 1939. And this is the city where the fall of European communism began in...

Last week, there were reports in the Swedish and Finnish press about what was presumed to be a Russia submarine probing the harbors in both Stockholm and Helsinki. This was not viewed as a serious Russian threat but merely an extension of the general and low-level...

What is the happiest place? Last week in its annual “World Happiness Report,” the United Nations reported that Switzerland was No. 1. The United States ranked No. 15, and the African country of Togo came in last, at number 158. Switzerland is arguably the world’s most...

This past week, the International Monetary Fund again lowered its global economic forecast for 2015. From 2003 to 2007, real global growth in gross domestic product averaged more than 5 percent, but during the last five years it has averaged less than 3 percent....

Abolish the Internal Revenue Service? IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has said the government must have an IRS to collect the taxes to fund the government. Mr. Koskinen is right that no matter what kind of tax system we have, there needs to be a tax collection bureau....

Last week, the Obama Justice Department declined to press charges against former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner — even though there was overwhelming evidence that she had targeted conservative groups and may have been complicit in destroying her emails....

Do you think the government should be able to seize your property if you have not been convicted of any crime? Most people are not aware that one of the most odious activities of federal, state and local tax and police authorities is that of "asset forfeiture." Asset...

When someone mentions Peru to you, what is the first visual image that pops into your head? Inca Indians with their llamas in the Andes Mountains, looking at the some of the stone ruins of their ancient civilization? Yes, Peru still does have some of that, but most...

Why have Chile, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Estonia and the Cayman Islands all become relatively prosperous in recent decades while other countries have lagged? The answer is not a mystery, but is often ignored or even suppressed by the political and media...

How would you measure congressional success? Even though the new Congress is only two months old, there has been much criticism of both the leadership and the members. The Republicans promised to reduce government spending, reform the tax code, and reduce the...

The world is a mess, but what will it look like a year from now? No one knows with certainty, but informed guesses can be made, in part, based on the direction of the economies in conflicted areas of the world. Global debt (including that of the United States) is now...

How would you feel if you had to have bodyguards anytime you moved about — not because you were a voluntary celebrity, such as a presidential candidate or movie star, but merely because you exercised your free speech right by publishing cartoons that some found...

The London Times headlined last week, "HSBC helped customers to hide millions from taxman." There are decades of stories about corporations, movie actors, artists and politicians hiding money from the taxman. Many economic studies have shown that once tax rates exceed...

What do you think was the primary cause of the Great Recession — too little government regulation or dictates by the government to banks and other mortgage lenders, requiring them to lend to the unqualified? Peter J. Wallison, former general counsel of the U.S....