Two Wars and We Don't Feel a Draft
In war as in life, what doesn't happen is often as significant as what does. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with their setbacks, victories, and casualties, have many things in common with past...
View ArticleAmerica's Most Successful Stop Snitchin' Campaign
Last month, when she awardedBarron Bowling $830,000 for the beating he suffered at the hands of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 2003, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson went out of her way...
View ArticleA Takeaway from the CBO Estimate that the 2010 Deficit was $1.3 trillion
The CBO on Friday announced it projected the 2010 fiscal year deficit (which ended September 30) to be $1.29 trillion, about $125 billion less than last year's record $1.4 trillion deficit. That puts...
View ArticleThe Last Action Hero
Arnold Schwarzenegger has embodied nearly every archetype known to California: immigrant, athlete, movie star, raconteur, real estate developer, humorist, pundit, politician, cyborg. Yet there’s one...
View ArticleThe Not So Great Great Recession
I have a commentary on National Review OnLine pointing out that the so-called Great Recession hasn't been that great. In fact, it's really just on the more severe side of normal. Yet, supporters of...
View ArticleThe Small Business Myth
Who better embodies the American dream than a small-business owner? Independent, self-reliant, flexible, and hardworking, small-business owners, we are always told, are the cornerstone of economic...
View ArticleIndia Follows China's Sporting Folly
The Commonwealth Games concluding in New Delhi last week were supposed to do for India what the Beijing Olympics allegedly did for China: Prove to the world that it had truly arrived. But through a...
View ArticleThe Eternal Return of Overpopulation
Overpopulation panic is back. Concerns about a world too full of “filthy human children” motivated eco-terrorist James Lee when he held employees of the Discovery Channel hostage at gunpoint in...
View ArticleThe Amazing Elastic Commerce Clause
In 2005 the Supreme Court said the federal government's power to "regulate commerce…among the several states" extends to the tiniest speck of marijuana wherever it may be found, even in the home of a...
View ArticleRise of the Bitter Clingers
Many of my more enlightened friends like to ask me: How could someone as intellectually gifted, delightfully urbane, profoundly moral, and breathlessly handsome as you not want to spit at these stupid...
View ArticleSacramento Über Alles
Elections between Republicans and Democrats usually come down to a barely discernible difference between two shades of lawyer, but the race for governor of California presents a rare clear choice: one...
View ArticleRahm's Residence and the Appeal of Absent Pols
To many people who dislike the Obama administration, Rahm Emanuel is the sordid embodiment of the Chicago Way. But to his enemies on the shores of Lake Michigan, he is to Chicago what Brett Favre is to...
View ArticlePublic-Sector Unions Choke Taxpayers
"I thought unions were great—until at Chrysler, the union steward started screaming at me. Working at an unhurried pace, I'd exceeded 'production' for that job."That comment, left on my blog by a...
View ArticleTransit-Oriented Development Leads to "Undesirable" Neighborhood Change
The Antiplanner, aka Randal O'Toole, has a useful and (as usual) engaging critique of a study on neighborhood change surrounding transit-oriented development published by the Dukakis Center for Urban...
View ArticleRadio Theater
Get ready to suspend your disbelief. One of the most resilient acts in theatrical history is returning to the D.C. stage: the We're Going To Defund Public Broadcasting show.Every time this play gets...
View ArticleThe Man Who Could Really Fire Pelosi
While none of her Republican opponents for her congressional seat in California’s 8th district have ever garnered more than 22 percent of the vote (and many less than half that), win or lose, Nancy...
View ArticleNational Electronic Tolling Gets Boost
Tollroadsnews.com is reporting that North American tollers have agreed to create a "hub" for clearing license plates captured on video to assess user fees for cars without transponders. This is a...
View ArticleLeaving Taxes or Candy on the Table
State lawmakers in Washington State have claimed the projected revenues from the new taxes on candy, pop, and bottled water are needed in order to help close the budget deficit for 2011-2013. And if...
View ArticleObama's False Alarm on Corporate Electioneering
At a campaign rally the other day, President Barack Obama decried those who say "you can't overcome the cynicism of politics; no, you can't overcome the special interests; no, you can't overcome the...
View ArticleUpdated Cost of Fannie and Freddie Bailout
Barney Frank is fond of pointing out that the losses being experienced by Fannie and Freddie aren't because of their current activities, and in a way this isn't totally off. The $148.3 billion Treasury...
View ArticleMore Democracy, More Incarceration
Last year the U.S. prison population declined for the first time in a generation. That's good news, but it doesn't begin to offset the damage done by a 30-year incarceration binge that has made America...
View ArticleReforming the Housing Market By Phasing Out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Taxpayers have already spent over $140 billion bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and total losses could rise to $259 billion by 2013 according to a recent government estimate. To bring stability...
View ArticleRethinking Homeownership: A Framework for 21st Century Housing Finance Reform
The government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were significant contributors to the build-up of the housing bubble. Yet, virtually no substantive action has been taken to reform...
View ArticleStrange Love
In August a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage, violates the 14th Amendment’s command that no state may “deny to any person within...
View ArticleTea Parties and Urban Planning
My most recent post on Planetizen.com focuses on how Tea Party fiscal conservatism will likely influence urban planning. I write in part:Much of the political support for this fiscal conservatism is...
View ArticleUnsubsidized Ford Profitable for Six Straight Quarters
Ford Motor Company has recorded its sixth straight quarter of profits and expects to have its net debt down to zero by the end of 2011. Ford was the only domestic auto manufacturer to avoid bankruptcy...
View ArticleChina Bashing Is for Losers
China bashing has become a bipartisan sport this election season. But if the bashers won’t heed the economic case for not knocking down America’s second largest trading partner, they ought to consider...
View ArticleDon't Pressure Buybacks
The GSEs and collection of investors have been applying a lot of pressure to Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and others—all potentially liable for billions in toxic mortgage backed securities they sold....
View ArticleWill a Republican Congress Knock Science Back Into the Stone Age?
In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama famously promised to “restore science to its rightful place.” Now liberals fear that a Republican landslide in next week’s congressional mid-term...
View ArticleDivision Dividends
In my neighborhood of Dallas, not far from where George and Laura Bush moved after he presided over eight years of big-government conservatism, I often see signs that say, "Had Enough? Vote...
View ArticleNot Paying Attention? You Wish
Who's going to argue with Sen. John Kerry's recent claim that the American electorate "doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on, so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than...
View Article"Secret Money from God Knows Where"
There’s no doubt that having cash on hand helps win elections, up to a point.And thanks to Citizens United, there are some new ways for candidates to pull corporate and special interest cash for...
View ArticleDid "Most" Economists Support the Stimulus?
During the run up to the February 2009 vote for the Stimulus Program, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the press was awash with repeated claims from the White House that...
View ArticleOne Reason the Economy Sucks in Graphs
Yesterday I was talking with a medium-sized, regional bank vice president at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in Atlanta about what it is going to take for banks to start investing...
View ArticleThe Incumbent Protection Racket
This year's election will be exciting. Given the disenchantment of voters with President Obama and the Democratic Congress, there is every prospect that your Democratic representative will be shown the...
View ArticlePlastic Water Bottles Won't Hurt You
Canada has announced it will ban the chemical bisphenol A—known as BPA—which is used to make plastic water and baby bottles.The head of the Canadian environmental group Environmental Defence is...
View ArticleAre We All Friedmanites Now?
One year ago, I argued in Reason that Milton Friedman’s writings on the Great Depression inspired the Federal Reserve’s response to the current economic crisis. Friedman held that artificially induced...
View ArticleHousing Policy Mistakes: How We Got Here
In my recent paper, Rethinking Homeownership, I noted that there were a number of policy mistakes that got us to this point. I wanted to expound on what was in the paper and note some of the ways that...
View ArticleHow the Great Depression and the Great Recession Are Similar
I've been critical of those who compare the Great Recession to the the Great Depression, noting in National Review that the Great Recession is still a recession and nowhere close to the decade- long...
View ArticleKiller Queen
There’s no mystery about why Stieg Larsson’s three Millennium novels have sold some 40-million copies worldwide. The late author’s anti-corporate politics and stern feminism must resonate with many...
View ArticleCorpses, Crimes, and Comic Books
Rotting corpses. Plotting spouses. A jealous cactus that goes on a murderous rampage. In the early 1950s, Charlie Brown and Howdy Doody weren’t the only pop culture phantasms delighting America’s...
View ArticleThe Root of All Evil?
My tart-tongued mother, of Scotch-Irish mixed-with-German descent, and with Southern Illinois wisdom to boot, would have had some good advice for President Barack Obama’s political message consultants...
View ArticleHampton Roads Mega Project Shows the Way for P3s
Tollroadsnews.com is reporting on a potentially large public-private partnership budding in Norfolk-Virginia Beach. One of the best features of Virginia's PPP legislation is that it allows...
View ArticleSeason of the Regulator
If you're a kid, Halloween is a time to be scared of witches, werewolves, and the undead. If you're an adult, it's a time to be scared of child snatchers, serial killers, and easily offended members of...
View ArticleBig Education and Big Labor Election Spending Round- Up
From the stuff you already know but cringe to see spelled out department, The Atlanticreports today that:The nation's largest union will have spent $40 million on the 2010 elections by Tuesday,...
View ArticleEnding Government Liquor Monopolies
There are currently 18 states in the U.S. that have monopolies on the sale of liquor. It's a longstanding remnant of prohibition, but one that might be finally going away in a few states soon. The...
View ArticleProspects for Transportation Reauthorization
C. Kenneth Orski polled several knowledgeable people on transportation policy about the prospects for a reauthorization bill passing in the next Congress and the results are probably not encouraging...
View ArticleElectric Car Takes the Carbon Out of Driving
For anyone hoping that the crusade against global warming, the pursuit of universal reductions in carbon emissions, and faltering human ingenuity would finally send automobiles to the junkyards of...
View ArticleCalifornia Props 20 & 27: Redistricting, Round 2
On November 2, Californians will decide two propositions relating to the drawing of their elected representatives' districts. As the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office explained in its analysis...
View ArticleAnother Study Claims Government Workers Are Undercompensated
A recent study by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment claims that public-sector workers are actually undercompensated compared to their private-sector counterparts. This is not the...
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