I have an op-ed in the Missouri Record today discussing the proposed payday loan ban ballot initiative and why I think that this prohibition undermines the ability of society to order itself through the rule of law:
I am suggesting that as a society we evaluate carefully the kinds of prohibitions we are willing to tolerate. Alcohol prohibition is a classic example of when black markets created a society at war with itself, unable to tolerate the shackles of its own laws. This was not just because people chose to continue producing and consuming alcohol; it was also because the enforcement of alcohol prohibition further fractured society by creating black markets, places where no government can hope to long retain the consent or the good will of its own citizens.
Ducks and Economics 