June 2009
Up one levelThe High Cost of Getting the Story Wrong
The narrative first written about the Great Depression was wrong in many important respects. Likewise with today’s crisis, the initial narrative is badly mistaken. And it will cost us dearly.
The Greenspan Gamble
In the wake of the burst tech stock bubble and the shock of the terrorist attacks, the Greenspan Gamble was to purposefully ignite a housing boom. Ex ante, it was a reasonable gamble and it almost worked.
A Public Health Disaster in the Making
Congress is poised to pass one of the worst public health laws ever conceived.
Shooting the Messenger: CBO in the Crosshairs
The official scorekeeper for health reform legislation in Congress has stated that the overhaul proposed by the administration could increase costs. What to do? Shoot the messenger.
White Makes Right? Steven Chu’s Helpful Idea
Energy Secretary Steven Chu made headlines when he proposed ‘soft’ geoengineering by painting roofs and roads white in order to reflect sunlight back into space. That idea might seem absurd to some, but Chu has done the nation a service.
No Bed of Roses for Democrats in the Garden State
The outlook is good for Chris Christie in the New Jersey governor’s race.
Banking on Delusion
The government has just pumped into GM more than five times what the company was worth to its owners over the last decade. Will U.S. taxpayers ever get their money back?
Baseless Bias and the New Second Sex
Claims of bias against women in academic science have been greatly exaggerated. Meanwhile, men are becoming the second sex in American higher education.
The National Kidney Foundation’s Bizarre Logic
The public is receptive to the idea of rewarding organ donors. It’s time to leverage that receptivity.
The Problem with the Biggest Tax Break in America
How can we cut back on employer-provided health insurance and at the same time reduce the number of households that are uninsured? We must reconceive the very concept of health insurance.
The Next Regulatory Fight: Avoiding Another AIG
As Congress weighs the benefits of a new federal insurance regulator, it is worthwhile to pause and consider the weaknesses of the current system, and whether a new regime would effectively fill that gap.
Old and in the Fray: The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom
It’s no secret the population of the United States is aging rapidly. The country may be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom—not in spite of this aging population but because of it.
Twitter Takes Tehran
As the mullahs have increasingly restricted the freedom of Western and Iranian journalists—essentially forbidding them from covering the demonstrations—amateurs and professionals alike have turned to Web 2.0 tools to get their message out.
Emissions Control, Myths, and Realities
The United States is having better luck at controlling its emissions than most other countries, without the multi-billion-dollar mandates of Kyoto.
Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing Challenge
The focus of the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting will be on how recent financial market developments, mainly in reaction to a perceived overly expansionary longer-run budget policy, are putting the incipient recovery at risk.
A Healthcare Free Lunch?
Will the government taking over responsibility for healthcare reduce the total cost of it?
Offsets Chipping Away at the Cap
The House of Representatives recently received a painful lesson in the pitfalls of carbon offsets. Despite this, it has decided to ignore this important lesson in its cap-and-trade bill.
The Transformers at the Supreme Court?
The Supreme Court’s examination of Bilski this summer will not be quite as big a blockbuster as “Transformers,” but in the world of patents and technology, it will be pretty close.
The Court Kicks the Can—What’s Next?
Although the Supreme Court dodged the constitutionality question of Section 5, most Court observers believe that the opinion unambiguously foretells that this Court is prepared to declare the provision unconstitutional.
The Cap-and-Trade Giveaway
A cap-and-trade system with freely allocated permits is equivalent to a carbon tax in which the tax revenue is given to stockholders.
Despite the Doubters, It’s Still Top Dollar
There’s much chatter that the Chinese renminbi will eventually replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s preeminent international reserve currency, but this supposed inevitability is highly questionable.
The GOP's Real Problems for 2012
The Ensign and Sanford scandals are beside the point. The Republican Party is going to have a hard time coming up with a strong presidential nominee in 2012.
RSSted Development
Tyler Cowen has written one of the most stimulating defenses of Internet information culture.
Does Bernanke Really Deserve a Second Term?
The Federal Reserve chairman’s tenure has been checkered at best. There must be other candidates who could be expected to do a better job.
Voting Rights and the Beneficiaries of Selma
The judiciary is following the nation’s growing sentiment that race and ethnicity should play a smaller role in our public policies. Here’s how Congress can follow.