In electing Barack Obama, many liberals thought we might be closer to an America where race wouldn’t matter. But for California progressives, the same election proved that race mattered more than ever. California’s gay marriage ban referendum, known as Proposition 8, passed 52-48%. While whites narrowly opposed the ban 51-49%, blacks overwhelmingly supported the measure 70-30%. The trouncing of gay marriage … [Read More]

Before the current economic crisis became apparent to all, the most popular fable used to describe America’s uncanny economic resiliency was the story of Goldilocks. It was argued that our economy was skipping down a sunny path of moderate growth, low inflation and rising asset prices. However, a much better parable for our economy over the last decade would have been … [Read More]

I don’t know if it’s my reckless, Napoleonic march into middle age, or the decline of our infrastructure, but with each trip I feel more and more like travel is hell. This week, a “simple” overnight trip from Manchester to D.C. felt longer and took more out of me than my long-ago, grad school Amtrak jaunts from New Orleans to New … [Read More]

“Laissez-faire is finished, the all-powerful market that is always right, that’s finished,” said Nicholas Sarkozy, speaking ex cathedra, last month. As a result, said the diminutive French president, it is “necessary to rebuild the entire global financial and monetary system from the bottom up, the way it was done at Bretton Woods after World War II.” Sarky’s history is a bit … [Read More]

Over at Chronicles, Scott Richert comes to the defense of Tom Piatak and, referring to my last blog, accuses me of “individualism” and of not properly understanding economics. Unfortunately, in his justification of the proposed 25-50 billion dollar bailout of Chrysler, Ford, and GM, Scott stumbles into an economic fallacy or two along the way—and classic ones at that. Scott claims … [Read More]

I want to make something very, very clear. This column’s review of the autobiography of Cheeta, Tarzan’s chimpanzee, has absolutely nothing to do with the man who just got elected to the White House last month. Cheeta’s opus was published in Britain two months ago (Fourth Estate, 336 pages)  and has become a runaway best-seller. Is it a spoof? Obviously, but … [Read More]

In 1980, when the U.S. economy was last in serious trouble, Ronald Reagan offered the correct diagnoses that government was the problem and not the solution.  His message resonated with voters, propelling him into the White House to implement an agenda of lowering marginal tax rates, reducing government spending and business regulations, restoring sound money, abolishing entire government departments, and basically … [Read More]

This essay is the second in a three-part symposium on the GOPacolypse. Daniel Larison’s contribution can be read here.  Nov. 4 was a lucky day for Republicans. Barack Obama crushed John McCain by a landslide, but voters hedged their bets on Congress. The sheer weight of turnout for Obama shifted 24 seats in the House of Representatives and six in the … [Read More]

Back in the 1950s, when Americans knew from recent experience just how important it was to have a dominant manufacturing sector, Ike’s Defense Secretary, “Engine Charlie” Wilson, formerly of General Motors, famously declared, “What’s good for America is good for General Motors, and what’s good for General Motors is good for America.”  Charlie Wilson, whose former company had turned out the … [Read More]

According to the British Telegraph a high turnout of California blacks supporting Barack Obama helped to pass Proposition Eight, banning gay marriage, in a statewide referendum last week. Since Obama’s presence on the ticket increased the black percentage of the vote total from 6 percent in 2004 to 10 percent this year, the referendum passed easily. Over 70% of the black … [Read More]