July 2009
Up one levelAll Cost, No Gain
By supplementing their cap-and-trade program with expensive mandates, Congress levies heavy costs with no environmental gain.
Obama, Sotomayor, and the Political Limits of Personal Experience
Will Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s life experience, including attending a private Catholic school, lead to an uncomfortable conclusion—that government-supported school choice is just?
Free Markets, Envy, and Olasky’s Law
In a recent interview, the architect of compassionate conservatism, Marvin Olasky, discusses how evangelicals should think about free markets, what constitutes true justice, and when bad charity drives out good.
Australia Understands the China Threat. Does the U.S.?
The U.S.-Australia military relationship remains strong, but Australia would be justified in questioning whether the United States is taking the China threat as seriously as they are.
First Stimulus, We Hardly Knew Ye
The first stimulus was controversial among economists; it seemed to discard a great deal of what had been learned about macroeconomics in recent decades. The calls for a second stimulus seem to discard logic altogether.
Irresponsible Leadership for an Unsustainable Future
The G-8 rhetoric on trade is not being matched by reality, particularly in Washington.
Trial Lawyer Tactics Exposed in Latin America
The shenanigans cited by a California judge are typical of cases where U.S. 'multinationals' are shaken down by trial lawyers supported by populist, politicized foreign courts.
Obama’s Economic Box
Despite the administration’s aggressive and costly economic policy initiatives, there is trouble all around.
These Fighter Numbers Don’t Add Up
As Congress debates funding America’s most advanced fighter aircraft, it should begin with the realization that the proposed cap of 187 is not nearly the number it seems at first glance.
When They Were Young
Why look back to the last time that Messrs. Geithner and Summers ‘saved the world’? Because they are doing it again in the same way.
Healthcare Dreams, Healthcare Realities
President Obama is not the first chief executive to discover that it was much easier to promise grand dreams on the campaign trail than to reconcile them with stubborn realities.
Morals, Markets, and the Pope
The desire for the worldwide redistribution of wealth in Pope Benedict’s encyclical is a stubborn temptation. It is the siren song of utopianism.
A Stimulus That Would Work
The first stimulus failed. Here is a plan to encourage the 90 percent of taxpayers who are still employed to re-energize the economy by putting their purchasing power to work.
The Blue-State Meltdown and the Collapse of the Chicago Model
This should be the moment the Blue Man basks in glory. An urbane president sits in the White House and a San Francisco liberal runs the House. But blue states are undergoing a meltdown.
Crisis of a House Inflated
Nick Schulz interviews Thomas Sowell about the housing boom and bust—and who deserves the blame.
Human Rights and Democracy Betrayed
The early months of the Obama administration suggest that it has fallen prey to a false and foolish choice. The values and impulse of idealism that animated United States foreign policy have flatlined.
Capitalism, Jewish Achievement, and the Israel Test
Israel has become one of the most important economies in the world, and is second only to the United States in its pioneering of technologies benefitting human life, prosperity, and peace.
Ten Ways to Do Better in the Next Financial Cycle
We can do better next time provided we take these steps.
The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals
Farming has always been messy and painful, and bloody and dirty. It still is. This is something the critics of industrial farming never seem to understand.
The Perfect Financial Storm Fallacy
Calling what has happened over the past two years a ‘perfect storm’ treats problems in financial markets as if they were imposed from outside by a force of nature.
Is Foggy Bottom Ready for Irregular Warfare?
This decade the U.S. military, led by its mid-ranking and junior leaders, has adapted to the demands of irregular warfare. It has thus renewed centuries of American tradition. Now American statesmen must show similar powers of adaptation.
Simple Rules for a Complex Financial World
Complexity has been the bane of our financial system for decades and cannot be the solution going forward.
The Amazon, Western NGOs, and the Romantic Fallacy
The Amazon’s indigenous groups regularly embrace technology, formal education, and modern healthcare. Yet Western NGOs prefer a romanticized caricature.