RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kudos-andy-for-ball-of-collusion/

Today is the official publication date for Andy McCarthy’s long-anticipated, meaty, wise must-have: Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency. We offer kudos to our colleague. What an undertaking. The product of Andy’s relentless toil is a detailed, dot-connecting, intricacies-explaining, unvarnished analysis of a dark chapter in American history. Order your copy from Encounter Books (the publisher) at the link just provided, or get in the car and drive over to your local bookstore, where starting today you can grab a copy. 

Need your whistle whetted? Here’s how the book’s introduction commences:

This is a story about hubris. Sure, there’s plenty of collusion. But hubris is the more fitting word. This is a story about what happens when those we trust to be the guardians of our system anoint themselves the masters of our system. For our own good, of course. 

As for collusion, that word we’ve heard so incessantly from pundits and leaky government officials, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has rendered his judgment that there was none—at least, not the collusion he was hunting for. There really was a collusion plot, though. And it really did target our election system. It absolutely sought to usurp our capacity for self-determination. It was just not the collusion you’ve been told about. It was not “Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia.” 

Here is the real collusion scheme: in 2016, the incumbent Democratic administration of President Barack Obama put the awesome powers of the United States government’s law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus in the service of the Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, the Democratic party, and the progressive Beltway establishment. This scheme had two parts: Plan A, the objective; and Plan B, a fail-safe strategy in case Plan A imploded—which all the smartest people were supremely confident would never, ever happen . . . which is why you could bet the ranch that it would. 

https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030253271

Using the basic economic principle of making decisions using a cost-benefit framework—and how changes in one or the other can result in a different decision—this book uncovers how various groups responded to incentives provided by the Prohibition legislation.

Using this calculus, it is clear that even criminals are rational characters, responding to incentives and opportunities provided by the 18thAmendment and the Volstead Act. 

The book begins with a broad look at the adaptations of the law’s targets: the wine, beer, and liquor industries.  It then turns to specific people (Violators, Line Tip-Toers, Enablers, and Hypocrites), sharing their stories of economic adaptation to bring economic lessons to life.  Due to its structure, the book can be read in parts or as a whole and is suitable for short classroom reading assignments or individual pleasure reading. 

Alice Louise Kassens is the John S. Shannon Professor of Economics at Roanoke College, USA. She is a Senior Analyst with the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research, a Past-President of the Virginia Association of Economists, and a member of the Governor of Virginia’s Joint Advisory Board of Economists. She produces the quarterly reports on consumer sentiment, inflation expectations, and real estate indexes for Virginia and is the founder and director of the Center for Economic Freedom.