Co-editor Fred Foldvary explains over at FEE’s revamped website:

We also need to distinguish economic revenue from accounting revenue.  Suppose a thief enters a house and steals $1,000 of loot.  To break into that house he bought a tool for $100.  Ignoring the opportunity cost of his time, the thief’s accounting revenue is $1,000, and his cost is $100.  Is the $900 net gain a profit in the economic sense?

Stolen loot is not real profit because it is a forced transfer of goods or money from the victim to the thief.  True profit is a net gain from production and exchange.  If someone gives you a gift of $100, it too is just a transfer.

If instead of directly stealing wealth someone uses the government to forcibly take money from some and give it to others, the gain is also not true profit.

Read the rest here.