Today’s Links: October 19, 2011

OPINION

JACK BARUTH: “Sign Up For E-Z Pass, Get a Free Privacy-Invading Webcam
“It’s a common misconception that the ‘E-Z Pass’ automated tollbooth system is used to issue speeding tickets. It could be, and similar systems are used to issue tickets in the United Kingdom, but as of right now the only way to get caught speeding on most tollways is to blow by a cop with your foot to the floor and a phone glued to your ear. […] As cash-strapped municipalities become increasingly desperate for revenue, however, it’s a fair bet that some of them will start investigating the possibilities of a nearly endless stream of automatically-generated citations.”

INVESTORS’ BUSINESS DAILY EDITORIAL: “Dems 900 Days of Irresponsibility
“Over the weekend, Senate Democrats passed a dubious milestone — going 900 days without fulfilling their legal obligation to pass a budget. Worse is the fact that this gross dereliction of duty has gone largely unnoticed. You have to go all the way back to April 29, 2009 — just three months after President Obama took the oath of office — to find the last time Senate Democrats managed to discharge their legal obligation to produce a budget plan.”

JOHN HUNTSMAN: “Too Big to Fail is Simply Too Big
“Is Dodd-Frank an appropriate regulatory response to the 2007 financial crisis? Tragically, no. That legislation ignores the government’s pervasive role in causing the crisis, assures future transfers from taxpayers to bankers by institutionalizing a government backstop for “too big to fail” firms, and imposes massive new regulations and unreasonable compliance costs on smaller banks. As a result, lending to small businesses from small banks suffers.”

NEWS

NANNY STATE – Louisiana Outlaws Using Cash for Trading Used Goods More Than Once a Month
“In order to combat the rising threat of metal theft, Louisiana passed a law that prohibits anyone who trades used property more than once a month from conducting that transaction in cash. This should cut down on metal vultures stripping down the infrastructure to turn it into money for their drug habit. However, this also means you can’t really hold a garage sale more than once every 30 days without some burdensome restrictions.”

CHINA – China quizzes audit giants on foreign regulator contact
“China’s financial regulators have asked the world’s biggest audit firms to urgently review their work on U.S.-listed Chinese companies and give details on information they may have provided to overseas regulators, two sources told Reuters.”