I use lots of legislative examples to illustrate the LoUC in my lectures.  And when I touch on banking, fees, and regulation I frequently use payday lenders as my example.  They provide a needed service to those who would not GET the serive elsewhere.  Dodd-Frank is driving them out of business, which the Left sees as a good thing, but it's being done to the detriment of those least able to pay for it.  LoUC.  Bastiat's unseen.

“Hefty Bank Fees Waylay Solders.” According to the article, many members of the military are frequent users of bank overdraft protection, which has caused some concern in some quarters. The article provides no hard evidence that usage of overdraft protection has risen in recent years, but implies that the general impression is that it has.

Assuming that the perception is correct that usage of overdraft protection by military members has risen in recent years, why would that be?  Well, how about the enactment of the Military Lending Act in 2007, which imposed a 36% APR cap on payday loans to military members, effectively outlawing payday loans (and some other products for military members):

 Congress cracked down with the Military Lending Act, which, starting in 2007, limited to 36% the APR interest on many payday-style loans to military members.

Since then, overdraft programs have replaced payday lending as the leading financial problem for many military personnel, says Adm. Abbot of the Navy-Marine relief society. Some financial institutions serving the military have reined in overdraft fees, he says, while others are engaged in “predatory or punitive overdraft practices.”

Eliminating access to a particular product (payday loans) doesn’t eliminate the need for credit. It is entirely predictable that eliminating payday loans to service members will result in increased use of bank overdraft protection–just as it does for civilians.

Moreover, as we note in the article, in many situations payday loans are less expensive than overdraft protection (it appears from the article that the break even point in favor of overdraft protection is lower than for payday loans because overdraft fees on military bases are lower than typical market rates) and consumers understand this and use the products rationally. So the net impact of the MLA in some cases will be to take away a less expensive product and lead to greater use of a more-expensive product.

In the end, the article doesn’t report the data as to whether usage of overdraft protection rose after the MLA was enacted. But it would violate the predictions of economics if it didn’t.

from the Volokh Conspiracy.

U.S. economic conditions in 2014 continue to languish, as millions of Americans remain jobless. Seven economic facts underscore America’s increasingly dire economic outlook.

1. A Record 91.8 Million Americans Are No Longer in the Workforce

The latest Labor Department figures reveal that a record 91.8 million Americans are no longer in the U.S. labor force. To be included in the Labor Department's calculations for this statistic, a person must be 16 years or older, a civilian, not in an institution (such as prison), and someone who has not looked for a job in the last four weeks.

Minorities have been hit especially hard. As Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research noted to PBS, last month’s jobs report also saw “the lowest rate of labor force participation among African-American men since we have kept that count. So that was really striking.”

According to the U.S. Census, 317 million people live in the United States.

2. Since Jan. 2009, the Number of Jobless Working-Age Americans Has Risen 9.6 Million People

As Michael Snyder notes:

The number of working age Americans that do not have a job has increased by nearly 10 million since Barack Obama first entered the White House. In January 2009, the number of "officially unemployed" workers plus the number of Americans "not in the labor force" was sitting at a grand total of 92.6 million. Today, that number has risen to 102.2 million. That means that the number of working age Americans that are not working has grown by close to 10 million since Barack Obama first took office.

OK, not really. But my top ten of those I've SEEN.  Will try to catch the Academy Award nominated ones in the coming months.

221 Gravity 2013 Alfonso Cuarón PG13 97Anything that cracks my top 100 is pretty good.  Wonder if it'd been better in 3D?  And, fwiw, bad science be damned.

3454 Now You See Me 2013 Louis Leterrier PG13 382 A fun, light little heist film.  Not everybody's cuppa, but I was entertained.

1693 The Conjuring 2013 James Wan R 656Good effects, good scares, well acted on a low budget and doesn't TOTALLY fall apart at the end.

35856 Last Vegas 2013 Jon Turteltaub PG13 797It's Vegas.  It'sa good cast.  More mindless fun.

4631 Oz the Great and Powerful 2013 Sam Raimi PG13 1184Not as good as it coulda shoulda been - a better male lead was needed.

7517 Mama 2013 Andres Muschietti PG13 1323Interesting idea, great special effects, good aha moments - COMPLETELY falls apart at the end

3051 42 2013 Brian Helgeland PG13 1390Racism is bad, m'kay?

1206 This Is the End 2013 Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen R 1571More good fun.  Will NOT be on this list in 3-6 months

44566 Pawn 2013 David A. Armstrong R 1985 Don't even remember WATCHING this!

2936 Stoker 2013 Chan-wook Park R 2525 Fair.  I need tosee the winners to get rid of this bottom five

others of note:

Star Trek - ENOUGH with the lens flares already!

The Worlds End - never a big Simon Pegg fan.

Before Midnight - I'm married and therefore never have to sit through a chick flick again.

Iron Man 3 - just not enthused.  3.

Smaug - YES!  Waiting for a time to go with The Boy.

Pacific Rim - below Iron Man 3.

I don't post much of what I find on this site but occasionally one makes me look twice.  Like this one.

Probe Finds White House Wanted to Make Sequestration as ‘Painful as Possible’ for Rural Schools: Over USDA objections, OMB ordered that fiscal year 2012 disbursements be retroactively docked for 2013 sequestration.

One who can read and does not read is foreclosed by his own negligence, and while law affords everyone a reasonable protection against fraud in dealing it is not an indulgent guardian which can go to romantic length of giving protection against consequences of indolence, folly or careless indifference to ordinary and accessible means of information.

Gooch v. Motors Ins. Co., 312 S.W.2d 605 (Mo. Ct. App. 1958)

(answer below)

The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty.

select text for answer: A. Lincoln Address at a Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Apr. 18, 1864