The most popular state attractions are all privately run and owned places

(Click to enlarge, though the picture will be pretty blurry.)

#1: Mall of Americas: 40 million
#2: Times Square, NY: 37 million
#3: Las Vegas Strip: 30 million
#4: Faneuil Hall Marketplace: 20 million
#5: Walt Disney World: 17 million
#6: Disneyland: 14.7 million

Others
Navy Pier (Chicago): 8.6 million
San Antonio River Walk: 5.1 million
French Quarter (New Orleans): 5 million
Grand Canyon: 4.4 million
Independence National Historical Park: 4.1 million
Yellow Stone National Park (Wyoming): 3.1 million

Privatize currencies?: It is being seriously talked about

Private companies providing currency have a much better incentive to keep price levels constant.  But it is unlikely that governments will want to give up the power to earn seigniorage (the difference in value between what the currency can buy and the cost of making it -- so a $50 bill may only cost a few cents to make, it buys $50).  Some system of taxation might allow governments to extract that seigniorage, though government taxation might go well beyond that amount.  The UK Guardian has an interesting article:

The UK should privatise the pound and replace it with a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, according to a paper published Wednesday by the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs. 

Kevin Dowd, a professor of finance and economics at Durham University, says that although bitcoin isn't the first example of private money, it is the first that governments can't shut down. Therefore, he says, authorities should admit that it's here to stay, and allow competition on a level playing field between all alternative forms of money. 

That might include allowing taxes to be payed in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and dogecoin, or even fully privatising the pound, selling off the right to mint the currency to the highest bidder. 

"Let's suppose that bitcoin became a very prominent currency," Dowd told the Guardian. "[To ensure a level playing field], the government itself would accept bitcoin in tax payments. So, in effect, the government should not be favouring its own currency, or any particular currency, through any of its unique powers. Nor have regulations against them. 

"The natural analogy is with some of the old, bad, monopolies like British Gas or British Telecom. Telecom is a very good example: for a long time, we had a government monopoly, which stifled innovation, and the service was poor. Once that got opened up, competition opened, new innovation prospered, and we got all sorts of innovation that we couldn't possibly anticipate, and we're a lot better off for it." . . . .

When police disappear, people forced to defend themselves: Josephine County, Oregon

People in one Oregon county are substituting private for public provision.  From Fox News:

. . . The government in Josephine County, where nearly 70 percent of the land is owned by the U.S. government, had long relied on federal timber subsidies to pay the bills. When the feds terminated the funds, county officials scrambled to pass a May 2012 tax levy to make up a nearly $7.5 million budget shortfall. 

However, the county's residents voted against the levy, and as a result the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office was gutted. The major crimes unit closed, dozens of prisoners were released from the county jail and the department reduced operations to Monday-Friday, eight hours a day. 

The Sheriff’s Office then issued a press release announcing their deputies would only be responding to what they deemed “life-threatening situations.” 

Ken Selig -- who was the longest-serving law enforcement officer in all three local agencies when he was forced to retire from the department due to cuts -- told FoxNews.com he found the sheriff’s declaration unacceptable. And he felt compelled to guard his community’s vulnerable members. 

“Who else is going to protect you when your government can't?” Selig said. . . . .  

Selig's community watch group, looking to fill in the law enforcement cracks, now meets once a month to discuss crime and teach its approximately 100 members about personal safety. The group also has a trained “response team,” which consists of 12 people who will respond to the scene of a reported non-life-threatening situation if called. . . .

Over 95 percent of the highest paid state employees who work for Kansas work for the university system

Not too surprising, but it is useful to document.  From KansasWatchDog.org:

. . . Of the 1,000 highest-paid public employees in Kansas last year, nearly all of them were on the payroll of one of the state’s six public universities. 

I pulled the data on state employee salaries from KansasOpenGov.org. While the site is operated by the Kansas Policy Institute, a free-market think tank that emphasizes small government and fiscal prudence, all the figures were compiled through information provided by the Kansas Department of Administration. 

In all, only 46 of Kansas’ top 1,000 highest-paid state employees work somewhere other than a state university. That’s less than 5 percent. . . .

How Detroit's bankruptcy could be solved and also lead to more freedom, but Democrats will fight strongly against this

So what would be a legitimate argument against selling off this property?  Why does the Financial Times think that this is so outlandish?  Don't people think that it would be nice to get a large amount of money to pay off some of the city's debts?  From the Financial Times:

Among all the helpful suggestions the Motor City has received during its slide into bankruptcy, selling off Belle Isle, a picturesque island park in the Detroit river, to a group of billionaires intent on creating a libertarian city-state ranks among the most outlandish. 

Yet Rodney Lockwood, the local property developer who has been pushing his idea for a “Commonwealth of Belle Isle”, is not alone in imagining there is value locked up in city-owned assets, which could be put up for sale to help pay creditors. . . .

Obama TSA 'cooked the books' to inflate screening costs, by more than $420,000 in one case alone

From The Hill newspaper:

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said Monday that the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) has “cooked the books” to inflate its operations costs.
“It has once again been confirmed that the agency has cooked the books and inflated the cost of private screening under federal supervision as opposed to the cost of operating all federal screening,” Mica said. “TSA has done everything possible to maintain its bloated administrative bureaucracy.”
Mica’s comments were a response to a report Monday from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general that Mica said showed that the TSA’s cost analysis for the Screening Partnership Program (SPP) is “flawed.”
Mica said the TSA incorrectly inflated the cost of private screening operations, by more than $420,000 in one case. . . .

Something that I agree with the Obama administration on: Privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority

Obama might be doing this for a weak reason, solely to reduce Federal debt and not for the increased efficiencies produced by private ownership, at least he is doing it. From Fox News:

. . . Created in 1933 by President Roosevelt, the TVA brought electricity to Appalachia, with the goal that wiring up Tennessee, parts of North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi would help bring prosperity to an impoverished region.
But in his new budget, President Obama ordered a strategic review of the TVA with an eye toward selling it to private interests.
Though the TVA operates solely with income from ratepayers, it has a debt of some $25 billion. While that debt is not backed by the federal government, it is included in the overall federal debt numbers.
By selling the TVA, Obama can give the appearance of immediately erasing $25 billion in red ink from the books.
Or can he?
Some are now questioning whether shedding the TVA would yield the kind of payoff Obama anticipates, while Republican lawmakers in the region remain uncharacteristically protective of this government-sponsored company. And ratepayers worry that if the TVA changes hands, their power costs could go up. . . .

Privatizing police and personal security

With police officers being cut in cities, people are turning to themselves to keep safe.  For example, there has been a massive increase in people carrying permitted concealed handguns (going from about 4.6 to 9.3 million between 1997 and 2012).  Because of budget cutbacks, some police are recommending that people move to protect themselves.  Yet, some have also gone in a different direction and are hiring security guards to help protect them.  

Oakland, California:  

On the streets of Oakland, budget cuts have made the beat cop a rare breed, and some of the city’s wealthy neighborhoods have turned to unarmed security guards to take their place.
After people in Oakland’s wealthy enclaves like Oakmore or Piedmont Pines head to work, security companies take over, cruising the quiet streets to ward off burglars looking to take advantage of unattended homes.
“With less law enforcement on the streets and more home crime or perception of home crime, people are wanting something to replace that need,” says Chris de Guzman, chief operating officer of First Alarm, a company that provides security to about 100 homes in Oakland. “That’s why they’re calling us and bringing companies like us aboard to provide that deterrent.” . . .

More on Oakland is provided here: 

. . . . A few weeks ago, it was reported that even Mayor Jean Quan's own Oakmore neighborhood had hired a private security firm to patrol streets after a rash of brazen daytime break-ins in the area.
However, the Oakmore neighborhood was far from the first neighborhood to hire private security. The number of Oakland communities relying on private companies to keep them safe has been snowballing in the past couple of years. . . .
"Private security is extra eyes and ears out on the street for us," said the Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson. "We look at it as a partnership. Even with a couple of hundred more officers, we can't be on every block around the clock. Individuals investing private security to deter and reduce crime, that's helpful for everyone." . . . 

Here is a similar case in Houston, Texas:

A Houston-based company with offices in London and Dubai that helps protect cargo ships from pirates is now helping a southwest neighborhood protect itself against common thieves.
As Officer Leroy Bill patrols the streets for the Sharpstown Civic Association, he looks and sounds like a cop. . . .
He and his fellow officers are certainly armed like cops and even have their own K-9 units. In reality, they are security officers for Seal Security, and they’ve been contracted by the subdivision since November.
“We actually patrol districts and subdivisions like this one to give them a little more security for their money,” said James Alexander, Seal’s director of operations.
“The civic association used to contract with the constables office for a deputy to patrol the area, but now that it's gone with Seal security, it has three to four officers patrolling the streets at any given time, and at half the cost. Also cut in half: the number of monthly burglaries.
When a young mother in the neighborhood was recently stabbed multiple times in front of her children, a Seal security officer was the first to arrive on scene.
“Our guy was on duty making a routine patrol. He comes around the corner and was flagged down, sees the assault, draws his weapon and breaks it up,” said Jim Bigham, president of the Sharpstown Civic Association. . . . 

In Chicago, they will let private philanthropists pay extra money to hire additional police for parts of the city.  I would worry a lot about fungibility of money.  You add more money and the city could move then to reduce how much it is spending.

Under his plan, off-duty officers would work minimum six-hour shifts and make $30 an hour. The money would be paid by businesses, civic groups and churches at a time when city finances are stretched thin. The officers would be in full uniform and under the command of police supervisors. . . .

It will be interesting to see what happens to crime rates in these areas.

Long Island Power Authority, a government-run utility

A 25 year old computer system?  From Fox News:

. . . The New York Post reported that Long Island residents received an estimated rate that covered the entire billing cycle, and the statements made no mention of potential refunds to account for the prolonged blackouts.
"I can't get LIPA to acknowledge my existence on earth to talk to me about anything," Jonathan Saporta told the paper after getting hit with $649 for a home he left in October and $281 bill for his new place. "But I guess they had power, so they could print my bills. Nice, right?" . . .
LIPA also acknowledged that an outdated computer system for keeping customers notified has added to people's frustration.
But some say the government-run utility should have seen it coming. It was recently criticized in a withering state report for lax preparation ahead of last year's Hurricane Irene and for the 25-year-old computer system used to pinpoint outages and update customers. . . .

Three years in prison for stealing $800,000?: No wonder there is massive theft by TSA officials

Major airports with a history of significant theft problems.

There are only a few airports (San Francisco and Kansas City being the most prominent) with private screening, but those do not seem to have a problem with theft.  It would be nice to have a more careful comparison being made.

"Private city in Honduras will have minimal taxes, government"

My son Maxim has this news story up at Fox News:

Small government and free-market capitalism are about to get put to the test in Honduras, where the government has agreed to let an investment group build an experimental city with no taxes on income, capital gains or sales. 

Proponents say the tiny, as-yet unnamed town will become a Central American beacon of job creation and investment, by combining secure property rights with minimal government interference.  

“Once we provide a sound legal system within which to do business, the whole job creation machine – the miracle of capitalism – will get going,” Michael Strong,  CEO of the MKG Group, which will build the city and set its laws, told FoxNews.com. 

Strong said that the agreement with the Honduran government states that the only tax will be on property. 

“Our goal is to be the most economically free entity on Earth,” Strong said. . . . .

Another reason Amtrak is losing so much money

From the Washington Times (Jim McElhatton, "Fraud, abuse found rampant at Amtrak," Thursday, September 6, 2012):

One Amtrak employee spent much of his time in the office sending emails to women he met through a half-dozen online dating sites and claimed overtime pay for hours he spent officiating high school sporting events. Another worker may have received more than $100,000 in bogus overtime, records show.In what Amtrak’s watchdog agency is calling a host of “serious abuses,” an undercover surveillance operation during 2010 and last year has found multiple employees in the mid-Atlantic region’s communications and signal department claiming overtime pay for hours they didn’t work.Amtrak’s inspector general’s office declined to release its full report Thursday, citing what it called “sensitive information” in its findings of overtime fraud and abuses.But officials released a two-page summary this week saying they found that overtime abuses weren’t the only problem in the department.“We also identified other serious abuses, including misuse and potential theft of property, misuse of computer resources and a pervasive lack of supervision,” the summary said. . . .

Three completely privately run cities being set up in Honduras

I assume that this is the project that Patri Friedman (David Friedman's son) is involved with.  It is presumably a lot cheaper than the old sea steading concept, but it does run the risk that the Honduras government could change and not honor its agreement (though I assume that the private investors feel that they have an ironclad agreement and some type of collateral).  If competition can attract people from the rest of the country to live there, the project could succeed even if they don't get people from the rest of the world to move there.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- Investors can begin construction in six months on three privately run cities in Honduras that will have their own police, laws, government and tax systems now that the government has signed a memorandum of agreement approving the project. 

An international group of investors and government representatives signed the memorandum Tuesday for the project that some say will bring badly needed economic growth to this small Central American country and that at least one detractor describes as "a catastrophe." 

The project's aim is to strengthen Honduras' weak government and failing infrastructure, overwhelmed by corruption, drug-related crime and lingering political instability after a 2009 coup. . . .

$50,000+ fine for woman giving out free food to those in need

A woman with three kids of her own who also takes care of foster kids and runs a basketball program for neighborhood kids is being fined over $50,000 for giving out free food to others.  Good thing the government is there to make it a crime to give out free food to those who want it.

A woman may be fined $600 for each day she provided free food to children in a poor Philadelphia neighborhood for the past few months.Angela Prattis, 41, of Chester Township has been distributing free healthy lunches in a neighborhood that has a per capita income of $19,000 a year.Prattis made no money from the meal distribution, and gave out food provided by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The “lunch lady” ran the charity out of her garage, to which about 60 children came, five days a week.After the city council was alerted of the free lunches, it ruled that she would have to acquire a variance to give away food next summer – or pay a fine of $600 a day. The council considers Prattis’ deed a zoning violation. Three months of distributing food would instigate a fine of more than $50,000.“It’s not like I’m selling food,” she objected. “These kids are hungry. I’m not tearing down the community. I’m keeping the children out of harm’s way,” she said in a Fox News interview.But a variance to distribute food would also be costly. Administrative fees for a variance would cost up to $1,000.“You have houses here. The roofs are falling in, and they could be focused on a lot more serious issues than me feeding children,” Prattis said in response to the city council’s ruling. . . .

An update from Fox News:

A Pennsylvania woman has vowed to continue doling out free lunches to children in her hardscrabble neighborhood, even though officials there have threatened to fine her $600 a day.
Angela Prattis, 41, was ordered by the Chester Township Council to wind down the makeshift dining room she runs in the driveway of her modest home during the summer for the hungry kids who come to her daily in search of a good meal. Under pressure from the community, the local leaders agreed to let Prattis finish her mission this summer, but told her she would need a zoning variance to resume the operation next summer.
"I'm going to continue to feed the children," Prattis told FoxNews.com. "I'm just doing this for the kids. I don't want a big fight. . . . 

A video news report is available from Fox News here.

Amtrak's $16.15 burgers, riders paying $9.50

Remember the huge tens of billions of dollars expenditures that I pointed to for Amtrak just yesterday?  From Politico:

“I just went into this McDonald’s, and I could buy a drink for a dollar and a hamburger for a dollar. But if you buy a hamburger on Amtrak, it costs the taxpayers $6.65,” Mica said.
The media event was a follow-up to a Thursday hearing that focused on the railroad’s food and drink losses. A hamburger costs Amtrak $16.15, with riders paying $9.50, according to committee figures. Taxpayers pick up the remaining $6.65, Mica said.
“You may even see me on an Amtrak train with a sign that says, ‘Don’t eat the food, it adds to deficit spending,’” Mica said.
Toward the end of the presser, a train went by on the nearby elevated tracks, loudly blowing its horn. Mica seized the moment. “How much waste is going by? Please don’t buy the hamburgers!” he yelled at the train.
Mica also said Amtrak is violating a law, on the books since 1981, that states the railroad can’t lose money on food and beverage service. “They’re violating the law,” he said, “and I may look at some legal recourse to stop them from doing it.” . . .

"Bureaucracy Still Seen by Britons as Biggest Problem with NHS"

So much for the notion that government provision will make health care more responsive to patients' care.  Here is a survey from Angus Reid:

. . . While there has been a noticeable spike in the proportion of Britons who are satisfied with the National Health Service (NHS), more than a third of respondents believe bureaucracy and poor management remain its biggest hurdles, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.In the online survey of a representative national sample of 2,033 British adults, 35 per cent of respondents (+6 since October 2011) think the NHS works well, and only minor changes are needed to make it work better.
Half of Britons (52%, -5) believe there are some good things in the NHS, but many changes are required. Only one-in-ten respondents (9%, -1) believe the NHS has to be completely rebuilt. . . .

Very Slowly Privatizing Airport Security

Is it a big question of who is most likely to run airport screening most effectively and efficiently? If weapons get through, a private company will get fired. If the government has a monopoly on these services, what incentives do they have to get things right? From CBS in Sacramento:

The Sacramento International Airport is considering making a security change, and it could mean getting rid of TSA agents.

Long lines and long faces are usually what TSA security checkpoint employees see everyday.

But now the airport may be the third largest airport in the country to replace these government workers with ones from a private company.

“It’s a win-win for everything has no bearing on security procedure or the processes the public has become accustomed to,” said Linda Beech Cutler, Sacramento International Airport.

So far passengers at large airports like San Francisco and Kansas City are becoming accustomed to the same plan already in place.

Fourteen smaller airports around the country have also joined the screening partnership program. . . .

US Post Office about to declare bankruptcy

From the WSJ:

While lawmakers continue to fight over how to fix the ailing U.S. Postal Service, the agency's money problems are only growing worse. The Postal Service repeated on Wednesday that without congressional action, it will default—a first in its long history, a spokesman said—on a legally required annual $5.5 billion payment, due Aug. 1, into a health-benefits fund for future retirees. Action in Congress isn't likely, as the House prepares to leave for its August recess. The agency said a default on the payment, for 2011, wouldn't directly affect service or its ability to pay employees and suppliers. But "these ongoing liquidity issues unnecessarily undermine confidence in the viability of the Postal Service among our customers," said spokesman David Partenheimer. The agency says it will default on its 2012 retiree health payment as well—also roughly $5.5 billion, due Sept. 30—if there is no legislative action by then. . . .

Very cheap, energy efficient transportation, and the government wants to kill it

Personally, I don't care about "energy efficient" transportation per se.  I figure that the market will figure out the most efficient way to transport people and energy costs are no more important than other costs.  Yet, it seems more than a little hypocritical for the government to try making this type of transportation so difficult and costly.

Let's say you wanted to get from New York to DC this evening. You could take the government-supported train system - which would cost you $153 or more - or you could take a bus, which gets no government subsidies, for... $19. . . .
[These buses] are now, as CATO transportation expert Randal O'Toole puts it, "the nation's fastest growing transportation mode." He adds:
"They do so with almost no subsidies... Intercity buses are safe and environmentally friendly, suffering almost 80 percent fewer fatalities per passenger mile than Amtrak and using 60 percent less energy per passenger mile than Amtrak." . . .

I did a quick search and I found that for this coming Monday the average Megabus fare is $14.73.  The average Amtrak fare is $160.

If you want to see more on the efficiency of these buses, this is of some use.

Private travel to the moon?

Note that Americans are having to set up this company in the UK.  From the Financial Times:

Britain could become the first country to fly a tourist around the moon, after an Isle of Man-based company announced that it would be ready to take passengers on private lunar expeditions by 2015.Excalibur Almaz will charge wannabe astronauts an average of £100m for a six-eight month journey exploring deep space.
Three wealthy individuals, or astronauts from emerging powers will be crammed into a reusable capsule the size of a waste skip and launched by rocket to a space station. After the two vehicles link up, they will travel on to the Moon. “It is like how private British companies led expeditions to the South Pacific in the 17th century,” said Art Dula, founder of Excalibur Almaz. “We’ve just gone from seafaring to spacefaring.” The company, run by Americans, chose to be based in the Isle of Man because of the island government’s commitment to the space industry, which ministers forecast will soon make up more a third of its gross domestic product. The lack of corporation tax and proximity to the City are also advantages. . . .