The web startup Airbnb is finding itself in hot water lately. A peer-to-peer service that matches renters with rentiers, the company is under attack by entrenched lodging businesses such as hotels. It’s easy to see why. The company, which is fairly decentralized, breaks through the thicket of established chains. It matches real people with real people, each seeking to mutually profit from one another. As Jeffrey Tucker writes, Airbnb allows “regular people to cut through stultifying regulations and make better lives for themselves.” It breaks a sacred rule of economics: anything that bypasses the hold of legacy businesses is bound to garner unwanted interference.

As Americans prepare to celebrate Independence Day, the Internal Revenue Service has unleashed a massive new regulation under the guise of reducing tax evasion. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act - FATCA - took effect July 1, imposing substantial new compliance requirements and paperwork burdens on foreign financial institutions, which must now track the financial activity of U.S. citizens and report that information to the IRS. While there is scant evidence that this regulation will add significantly to federal revenues, there is more than a sinking feeling that the new law infringes upon the civil liberties of American citizens.

Taxi drivers created traffic gridlock in downtown D.C. last week to protest app-based ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft.