How should a civilized society respond when A crashes his car into a car driven by B, causing injury to B and damaging his property? The common law of tort is predicated on the notion that people who are harmed by the actions of others are owed restitution by those responsible for their losses. But what if the responsible party lacks the financial wherewithal to provide full compensation? Unless he has purchased liability insurance, the accident victim will have to absorb the losses himself. The law can assign responsibility, but it cannot redistribute wealth that does not exist.

I make mistakes. For example, last weekend the one tie that I brought to an out-of-town wedding did not match my suit. I took responsibility for poor wardrobe selection and wore the tie anyway. However, there were other choices. It would have been possible to purchase a new tie, borrow a tie, or go to the wedding with no tie at all. In the end, I chose to wear the tie and accept the ridicule associated with that decision.

Imagine the following headline: "Policymakers Panic in Fear of Merger Mania!" Although it could be true, in reality, there is little to fear. With the economy growing rapidly for the past eight years, we have witnessed a record increase in the number of corporations merging with one another. Common reaction to mergers is a suspicion that corporate America is gobbling up its competitors, which will mean higher prices for consumers.

Members of Congress have only a few weeks before they go home and learn whether voters want them to return to Washington or stay put. Though they have much to do between now and Election Day, Congress and the president need to correct three dangerous errors they made that are threatening America’s health care. Mistake #1: Crippling Patient Access to Medical Savings Accounts.

In the current debate over auto choice insurance reform, a formidable critic of the proposal now before Congress has emerged in George Priest of the Yale Law School. Professor Priest, who carries impressive credentials as a market-oriented legal scholar, recently called the federal auto choice bill a "lemon" in a widely noticed Wall Street Journal op-ed. On September 1 he reiterated his critique in a speech delivered at The Heritage Foundation that was televised nationwide on C-SPAN.

Last month, Lady Margaret spoke and the House moved. The remarks of Great Britain’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the World Congress on Information Technology reinforced the idea that information is an essential component of freedom. As such, it should not be heavily taxed.