Subject: What's worse than thieves? Thieving police.
From: "Bloomberg View" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2017 05:03:17 -0400 (EDT)

A daily digest of opinions and analysis

Don’t Revive the Asset Seizure Program. End It.

The Justice Department is once again allowing local police to take whatever they want from citizens, no charges required. Really! It’s called civil asset forfeiture, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reversing an Obama-era policy that tamped down on it. Megan McArdle is baffled by the move, calling it an “egregious abuse of property rights, which conservatives are supposed to hold dear,” and she’s not alone: Stephen Carter charts a constellation of critics opposing the practice, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and just about every libertarian.

Lashing Out Under Pressure Is What Trump Does

The president had some harsh words for the special counsel investigating his Russia links and business deals, and GOP lawmakers seem rather surprised. But maybe they shouldn’t be. Biographer Tim O’Brien notes that Trump has a history of attacking when threatened — whether the threat comes from a judge, a reporter or a beauty queen.

The U.S. Needs to Rethink Its Special Relationship With the U.K.

Not diplomatically, of course, and not economically. But Noah Smith argues that the U.K. is no longer a source of the kind of great ideas that shaped American politics and culture. (If anything, today it seems to be exporting extremism.)

Maybe Spending Too Much on Health Care Is the American Way

Which isn’t to say the U.S. is perfect. It’s a nation of consumers: Big houses, the latest gadgets, and huge hospital bills. Economists have long puzzled over why Americans spend so much on medical care, especially compared with their rich-country counterparts, and Tyler Cowen has an extremely novel theory.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. Learn more.

Ritholtz’s Reads

Atul Gawande on priorities, big and small (Medium)

The man who got Americans to eat trash fish is now a billionaire (Bloomberg)

Why the grim reaper of retail hasn’t come to claim Best Buy (Los Angeles Times)

(Read Barry Ritholtz’s full daily news roundup here.)

Bloomberg Gadfly

Draghi’s warning to the bond market

Another golden age for corporate technology

Blackstone: More reliable than Steph Curry

(Read more from BV’s sister site for fast business commentary.)

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