David R. Henderson    Proposition 65: When Government Cries Wolf
Margaret Thatcher's Legacy... Immigration and Bubbles...  There
was some confusion a few days ago about whether certain kinds of
licorice are legal in California. I had pointed out that an out-
of-state firm was unwilling, because of Proposition 65, to ship
its licorice to California. That does not mean that the licorice
is illegal in California. It is not. But, under Proposition 65,
it must be accompanied by a warning label saying that certain
ingredients may cause cancer.  Presumably, the firm was not
willing to add such a label. Why? Think about the rest of the
U.S. market outside California, which would probably be over 85%
of the market. Californians have learned to ignore Proposition
65 labels because they are white noise: they don't communicate
anything about degrees of danger or probabilities. But if people
in those other states see such a warning, many of them might get
nervous.  There does seem to be a simple solution: add a
Propositio