Lots of good stuff in this Glenn Reynolds TCS piece:
[T]he single biggest aid to energy conservation is probably technological and economic flexibility, because that lets people reorder their lives in ways that seem most efficient to them, without the burden of complex regulation or inflexible infrastructure. Looking at things this way, the demands for more regulation in order to save energy seem backward. Perhaps instead we should start looking for things to deregulate, to make shopping, shipping, and otherwise doing business more flexible, and more efficient.
In another piece he rolls his eyes at a North Dakota plan that would require people who sell on eBay or other online auction sited to get an auctioneers license.
To get a North Dakota auctioneer’s license, applicants must pay a $35 fee, obtain a $5,000 surety bond and undergo training at one of eight approved auction schools, where the curriculum includes talking really fast.
He also notes this interesting bit from Jeff Jarvis:
eBay is fast becoming one of the largest employers in America. Of course, it hardly employs anyone, but it enables a lot of people to employ themselves and run their own businesses: 724,000 people are using it as their full- or part-time employment, up 68 percent from a year go; another 1.5 million use it to supplement their income. Walmart is America’s largest employer with 1.1 million workers.
Related stuff at the bottom of this post.