Weak Dollar Builds American Muscle
As of the afternoon of Friday, September 28, the Euro was trading at an all-time high of $1.4279. The Canadian dollar was worth as much as the American dollar for the first time since 1976. The US Dollar Index, which compares the value of the dollar against the Euro, the Japanese Yen, the British Pound, the Canadian Dollar, the Swedish Krona, and the Swiss Franc, was down to 77.378, marking the least valuable dollar by this measure since the inception of the index in 1973.
On June 7, 2007, Governor Phil Bredesen signed the Tennessee Non-Smoking Protection Act. This law, which will take effect on October 1, prohibits smoking in “all enclosed public places within the State of Tennessee.” The only exceptions are venues in which no one under twenty-one is admitted at any time, smoking rooms at hotels (although no more than 25% of a hotel’s rooms may be designated smoking rooms), and tobacco manufacturers and wholesalers. Obviously, the law is meant to guarantee a healthy environment for non-smokers. While the motivations behind it are noble, the law represents a gross disregard for citizens’ ability and responsibility to manage their own health as well as the rights of business owners to decide what legal activities will be allowed to take place on their property.
