Recommended reading

• Andrew Sullivan published my response (first one) to this blog post.

• Authorities in Montgomery County, MD shut down a kids' lemonade stand for operating without a license. To me the issue is not whether the stand should have been shut down, but why they needed a license in the first place.

• The UK, which has been trying to cut spending, is now seeing its unemployment rate drop at the fastest rate in a decade. While I wouldn't argue that one caused the other, it does seem to undermine the case that cuts in government spending are disastrous for the economy. 

• Scott Lincicome hails a new report from a left-wing policy shop that highlights the steep costs to the poor from tariffs. Oddly, the Democratic party -- which claims to most concerned with helping the poor -- is also home to the anti-free trade camp. And here's some more free trade cognitive dissonance from the Obama administration. 

• Jonah Goldberg on our shovel-unready president.