If I were a state . . .

I’d be Colorado (or perhaps Washington.) Colorado was the first state to legalize pot. In the recent election, they decriminalized psychedelics.

The Democratic Party is full of big government fools, while the GOP is completely beyond the pale. So what’s a reasonable person to do? Here’s Reason:

Jared Polis—once called “the most libertarian governor in America” by Reason‘s Nick Gillespie—was reelected by Colorado voters by a wide margin, maintaining a 16-point lead on his Republican opponent as of Thursday morning. Polis’ decisive victory indicates the broad popularity of Polis’ left-libertarian leanings, in a time when many Democrats are increasingly calling for increased state power to solve political problems. Polis’ embrace of policies that seeks to give “more freedom” to Coloradans shows that a turn away from authoritarianism may be a bankable strategy among the left. . . .

Polis has also voiced strong support for lessening or entirely removing the state’s income tax, telling one audience in 2021 that the Colorado state income tax “should be zero.”

In this earlier Econlog post, I mention a number of other libertarian positions held by Polis.

Slightly off topic, but I get a lot of criticism for arguing that MAGA lunacy is even more dangerous than woke insanity (although I believe both are dangerous.) Here’s Andrew Sullivan, re-evaluating his view on this question after the midterms:

But these trends were overwhelmed by other issues, and did not amount to the kind of decisive rejection of Democratic leftism I favored and suspected would happen. I was wrong. I remain convinced that wokeness is terribly destructive to liberal society, but my obsessions are obviously not everyone’s. And my fault was in not seeing how MAGA extremism — the sheer anti-democratic crazy of the GOP — was seen by independent voters as far more dangerous than the crazy left. I actually agree — see this recent piece, for example — and if I didn’t live in a super-blue city, I might have felt differently about my protest vote. But from the broadest perspective, I was simply wrong to emphasize the impact of the far left as much as I have. You’ve told me this many times. I should have listened more, and I will.

Even more off topic: Every time a big financial firms fails without a government bailout, it’s a win for capitalism. FTX’s bankruptcy might be one of the best moments for capitalism in my entire life.

Unless . . . it leads to more “regulation” aimed at making crypto more appealing to investors. Keep crypto dangerous!


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24 Responses to “If I were a state . . .”

  1. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    19. November 2022 at 12:10

    Colorado and Washington have it wrong. They should legalize the sale of recreational drugs. Prohibit their use.

  2. Gravatar of Ricardo Ricardo
    19. November 2022 at 18:03

    Crypto is NOT dangerous.

    The only reason why centralized companies like coinbase continue to ask for regulation is because they want to create entry barriers to increase their profit margins.

    You do realize that one can own and transfer any public coin on the blockchain without a centralized exchange, right? You do realize that anyone can create a wallet on their computer? I suspect not, which is why you sound stupid again. Stick with economics, and let the tech people do tech. Blockchain is decentralized. Thuggish centralized crypto exhanges, operating on private chains, are not. There is a difference.

    And once again, you are attempting to invert reality. You cannot hate wokeness and also support BLM and packing the courts, and dismantling the electoral college, and claim that asking for an ID to vote is racist. You also supported the protestors who threatened to kill supreme court justices outside of their home.

    Your views on drugs are also “woke” and not sensible. Sensible policies don’t legalize all drugs, because sensible, rational people know that drugs don’t just affect them, but the community as a whole. Most people don’t want to live in Philadelphia, or Chicago, SFO, Baltimore, or any other democrat city where the crime rates and drug rates are high.

    High because people are literally “high”, and because “high” people do aggressive and dangerous things, like shoot other people.

    Even if its legal, Scott, you have to buy it. It’s not free. And if you don’t have a job and your addicted, where do you think you’re going to get the money. Oh…the light bulb is now going off in your mind.

    Yes, you get it buy stealing. By killing if you have to.

    And don’t mess with Brazil, you white globalist thug.

    Please stop masquerading as a libertarian when you’re a hard left globalist. Your globalist party should be tatooed on your forehead so everyone knows who the tyrants really are.

  3. Gravatar of Sara Sara
    19. November 2022 at 19:53

    Ricardo, I think you misread the last part.

    But his views on drugs are not suprising.

    I was wondering how someone could watch so many movies, and now I know why: i.e, lot’s of marijuana and crack cocaine.

    In this world order, are we allowed to separate the flithy degenerates and other addicts from our communities, or will that also be imposed on us by a centralized actor?

  4. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    20. November 2022 at 10:31

    dtoh, That would be a big improvement, as it’s 100% impossible to police use–that’s why the cops focus on sales.

  5. Gravatar of Tacticus Tacticus
    20. November 2022 at 13:12

    ‘Every time a big financial firms fails without a government bailout, it’s a win for capitalism. FTX’s bankruptcy might be one of the best moments for capitalism in my entire life.

    Unless . . . it leads to more “regulation” aimed at making crypto more appealing to investors. Keep crypto dangerous!’

    100% agree.

  6. Gravatar of Edward Edward
    20. November 2022 at 19:29

    https://www.scribd.com/document/608946807/221119-Letter-to-Maricopa-County-Re-2022-General-Election-Administration#fullscreen&from_embed

    Exit polls were like 58/42 in favor of lake. Hundreds of complaints were filed on election day – now an investigation has been launched by AG of Arizona – yet whenever the GOP claims election fraud in democrat run counties they are called “conspiracy theorists” and “beyond the pale.”

    We have outlets claiming that election fraud never happens? What? Really?

    Do people really believe the government somehow has perfect certidude and moral rectitude? They can’t be serious!

    Then people say Trump is a criminal, Pelosi and Cheney are heroes. Russia is evil. Putin is the devil.

    I often wonder whether the propagators of this line of thought ever question their convictions? How many countries does America have to bomb and overthrow before America is considered a threat? When is the last time Russia even engaged in war? A very brief conflict with Georgia over land a few years back? Afghanistan, 40 years ago, under the old USSR in the 80’s?

    But when they protect Donbas, after Donbas requested help from them, suddenly Russia is Nazi, Germany and America is a Mother Teresa, and the attack was out of the blue without any provacation whatsoever. Do people really believe this nonsense? Do they really believe that countries attack with no provacation? That they wake up one morning and decide to attack everyone? When in human history has that ever happened?

    I mean…it’s really bizarre. It’s got to be delusional. Too many people are buying into this spoon fed propaganda.

    I don’t think legalizing drugs will reduce crime, but I support states rights. If Colorado citizens feel the need to shoot herion in their veins, let them do it. The people who don’t like it can leave and go to another state where it’s banned. We don’t need the Federal government involved.

  7. Gravatar of Negation of Ideology Negation of Ideology
    20. November 2022 at 19:37

    “Slightly off topic, but I get a lot of criticism for arguing that MAGA lunacy is even more dangerous than woke insanity (although I believe both are dangerous.)”

    MAGA lunacy is more powerful amongst Republicans than woke insanity is amongst Democrats, so it that sense it is more dangerous. But the most dangerous ideas, such as Defund the Police, comes from the woke insanity. Thankfully the grownups in the Democratic party were able to get Biden nominated to stop most of that nonsense. The grownups in the Republican party were unable to stop the MAGA inmates from taking over the asylum in 2016.

    Sullivan notes that the Republicans won the popular vote in 2022. The Republicans won more House elections (219 to 212 with 4 still counting) and Senate elections (20 to 14 with one runoff). By any objective measure, the Republicans won the midterms. It’s being portrayed as a loss because they didn’t live up to the Fox News hype of a “red wave”. It was a victory for sane Republicans. They took the House, and they would have taken the Senate if Trump hadn’t intervened to get two unqualified MAGA celebrities nominated.

    Unfortunately, it is a sign that Trump still has control over the primaries. Trump will almost certainly win the nomination. Thankfully, Biden will likely beat him by an even wider margin than he did last time.

  8. Gravatar of msgkings msgkings
    20. November 2022 at 20:13

    @Negation:

    Trump is quite unlikely to get the nomination over DeSantis, and Biden won’t even run for a 2nd term.

  9. Gravatar of steve steve
    21. November 2022 at 13:33

    “Exit polls were like 58/42 in favor of lake. Hundreds of complaints were filed on election day – now an investigation has been launched by AG of Arizona ”

    Just like in 2020. Bring in the cyber ninjas again, the conservative auditors. All they found were some errors that were made favoring the GOP. With all of these thousands of supposedly fraudulent votes you ought to be able to easily find hundreds and thousands of the people committing fraud, if they existed.

    Steve

  10. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    21. November 2022 at 19:55

    Scott,

    It’s not impossible to enforce a prohibition on use. Take a walk on the streets of any major American city. Arresting drug users would go a long toward identifying and getting help for the people who need it and at the same reducing the massive vagrancy problem many cities are experiencing.

    I don’t really care about people who smoke dope at home, but if you did a sweep on the streets and put people into rehab or community service, it would be a great thing….particularly if it identifies and helps younger drug users before their life are ruined.

  11. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    23. November 2022 at 08:48

    dtoh, If you arrest people who use drugs in the street, they’ll simply switch to consuming at home. People haven’t stopped smoking cigarettes, just because it’s illegal in most public places.

    I’m not saying your proposal is bad, just the opposite. My point is that it’s pretty close to legalization–it makes it almost like cigarettes.

  12. Gravatar of Jim Glass Jim Glass
    23. November 2022 at 10:28

    Every time a big financial firms fails without a government bailout, it’s a win for capitalism.

    I doubt you really mean that. I think you mean ‘when big financial firms fail in the market’, not when they fail due to non-market factors like sudden ludicrous govt regulations, or sudden unexpected “thieving” expropriations of assets by governments or massively corrupt insiders (in cahoots with the govt?)

    Or I could be wrong. Maybe you like to see big financial firms fail, the more the better? We can help that happen, and do it in a way that is both “fair” and “libertarian” too. Just reduce the regulatory requirements on today’s fiat-money banks and brokers (Chase, Schwab etc.) down to match the level on crypto-money banks and brokers. You know, down to this…

    “Look, you guys are going to accuse me of making this up because it sounds too ridiculous to be true, but I’m not and we’re only getting going…”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVrMpk4lGjA

    FTX’s top people built a software system designed to conceal misuse of customer deposits, a messaging system that auto-deleted their own messages, and had no (zero) accountants in house — they had an outsourced accountant … in the Metaverse! (Hmmm … what could motivate such odd behavior?) For starters. Watch the whole vid.

    Keep crypto dangerous!

    Investments — high-yield bonds, gold, bitcoin — should be as risky as they are in a functioning market, no more no less.

    Financial firms that facilitate investments for customers — banks, brokers, etc. — should be as risky as they are in a functioning market, no more no less.

    There’s a lot of literature showing that functioning markets require trust, investors must believe they aren’t going to be robbed of their investments.

    That’s why banks and brokers are required to have accountants who publish public statements of deposits and reserves etc., so their customer-investors can fairly evaluate risk — without firms claiming they have $5.5 billion of assets securing deposits when they have $595,000, like Sam did.

    So ISTM that if we want both crypto investments and — separate thing — banks and brokers dealing with crypto investments to perform with as much risk as they should in a functioning market, no more no less, those banks and brokers should be regulated into having accountants who publish those audited financial statements. And then good luck to them, let the chips fall where they may.

    OTOH, if you are serious about liking to see major financial firms fail, and want to crush crypto regardless of its merits, and are opposed to any new regulations on anybody, and to regulatory double standards that hit some but not others, then just slash the rules on fiat banks and brokers down to the crypto level.

    Let Morgan, Citi, Schwab, the rest, and all the new entrants (there’ll be plenty) fire all their accountants so they can claim and do whatever they want too, just like not only FTX but the 140+ crypto financial firms that have “disappeared without a trace”. You’ll get a four-fer. And the free market will straighten everything out — as fiat investors move their money into shoeboxes.

  13. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    23. November 2022 at 10:43

    Jim, The net effect of all of our financial regulations has been to make our banking system less safe. The ideal system would look more like the pre-1966 Canadian system, which didn’t have much regulation (and didn’t have deposit insurance.) The US system has been much more heavily regulated, and far more unstable.

    The big problem today is moral hazard. You reduce moral hazard by having people suffer when they make poor investments, not bailing them out.

    “There’s a lot of literature showing that functioning markets require trust, investors must believe they aren’t going to be robbed of their investments.”

    Yes, they do require trust, but they do not require government regulation.

    Much of your comment is an unhinged rant:

    “OTOH, if you are serious about liking to see major financial firms fail, and want to crush crypto regardless of its merits”

    . . . to which there is no point in me even wasting my time responding. Have you become a troll? (I never even implied what’s in that comment.)

  14. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    23. November 2022 at 14:39

    Scott,
    IMHO the goal of drug policy should be a) to stop the criminal activity associated with the drug trade (gone if you legalize the sale of drugs) and b) reduce addiction and dependence. (I don’t think we should worry about recreational use.)

    A lot of drug use associated with addiction takes place on the street and users can’t use at home either because they are a) homeless or b) kids whose parents won’t let them use drugs at home.

    Not saying it’s a perfect solution, but it’s better than what we have now, where the laws can’t or aren’t enforced and it’s a lot better than legalizing use which IMHO makes the addiction/dependency problem a lot worse.

    I think the whole legalization movement is tragic because it says we don’t care about helping all the people who have real problems with addiction and dependency.

  15. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    23. November 2022 at 14:51

    Scott,
    As a practical matter we will never get rid of TBTF because in a crisis central bankers and politicians will always panic and cave to private financial firms. (I watched it first hand on a Wall Stree trading floor on Black Monday.)

    The better and simpler solution is to have the Fed guarantee to bail out all banks above a certain size but require that all annual compensation to any employee above $500k (or 50% of the minimum NBA salary) gets paid as equity or subordinated debt, which can only be withdrawn over a 5 year period after retirement. Any time the Fed is required to provide even a dime of emergency financial assistance, 100% of equity and subordinated debt gets wiped out.

  16. Gravatar of H.S. H.S.
    27. November 2022 at 06:51

    Your treatment of FTX looks very peculiar to me. It’s a high level corruption that is eroding the US democracy. Democratic party, Ukraine, SEC, Stanford law professors, money Laundering, Ponzi Scheme, collective silence of media. May be you are more candid at dinner table.

  17. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    27. November 2022 at 08:33

    dtoh, I was once a kid, and I assure you I would have had no problem finding a place to use drugs, out of the eyes of the police.

    If homeless people use drugs and engage in anti-social behavior, then they should be put in prison. Laws should apply to output, not inputs.

    H.S. Don’t be silly—I did not endorse fraud. I praised the fact that the bankruptcy was occurring without a government bailout (which usually occurs when a big financial firm fails and depositors lose money.) Capitalism only works if bad companies like FTX are allowed to fail and their creditors lose money.

    I’ve never taken a position on the crypto industry.

  18. Gravatar of Russ Abbott Russ Abbott
    27. November 2022 at 12:29

    Virtually everyone who talks about “wokism” complains about it. I don’t see any pro-“wokism” comments anywhere. I suspect that if the complainers would just shut up about it, it would go away.

  19. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    29. November 2022 at 11:54

    Russ, You said:

    “I suspect that if the complainers would just shut up about it, it would go away.”

    Yes, and if the Ukrainians would just stop complaining about the Russian military, it would just go away.

  20. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    29. November 2022 at 16:15

    Scott,

    “I was once a kid, and I assure you I would have had no problem finding a place to use drugs, out of the eyes of the police.”

    Yes, but a) criminalization reduces the amount of use, and b) suburban Madison is not the same as downtown San Francisco.

  21. Gravatar of Ken P Ken P
    29. November 2022 at 16:37

    The FTX wasn’t a “big business failing”. SBF and his GF (CEO of ALamada) were worse than Bernie Madhoff.

    According to WSJ,Sam Bankman-Fried personally took $300M out of the $420M raised in FTX’s 2021 funding round.

    FTX bailed out companies out by giving them a “line of credit” and requiring them to put all company assets under FTX’s control. Here’s a $400 million line of credit (ex. BlockFi) to make your creditors/customers feel comfortable, now hand over billions of dollars worth of your customers’ crypto for us to “hold”.

    They invested/spent customers’ money which is not allowed by any type of financial service company except hedge funds and to a small extent banks.

  22. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    29. November 2022 at 16:54

    dtoh, I’d rather just put people in prison for bad behavior.
    Don’t try to figure out who can handle drugs and who cannot, just put those who cannot into jail. K.I.S.S.

    Ken, You said:

    “The FTX wasn’t a “big business failing””

    Really? That’s news to me. I thought FTX went bankrupt. Do you think FTX should have been bailed out by the government? If not, precisely how do you disagree with me? I can’t imagine why people think my argument is so controversial. I’m certainly not defending SBF.

  23. Gravatar of Ken P Ken P
    29. November 2022 at 17:53

    Scott, Do you consider Bernie Madoff an example of a “business failing”? If so, then my disagreement is just a matter of terminology.

    No, FTX shouldn’t have been bailed out. We definitely agree on that.

  24. Gravatar of dtoh dtoh
    29. November 2022 at 20:46

    Scott,
    Take a walk in any major urban area in the U.S. There are clearly a lot of people who should be put in jail, or maybe more efficiently just a good whack with a billy club.

    At the same time, there are a lot of people with serious mental and emotional issues who need help… not jail time.

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