What is going on with Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act? Spirits were high about quick action in the House and even the Senate. Ideas have not been lacking—there are several plans out there to replace the present law. The obstacle seems to be the usual collective suspect—politicians and their obsessive worry about […]
Archives
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What Will Congress Do About Obamacare?
29 Jan 2017
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Executive Orders and “Extreme Vetting”
29 Jan 2017
President Trump issued a very broad executive order yesterday, banning immigration for up to 120 days, and including so-called “Green Card” holders, holders of permanent visas. This order was effective immediately and almost immediately protests erupted. Moreover, several Federal judges have issued temporary injunctions against the order’s application to certain individuals. Political types on roughly […]
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The Trump(et) Sounds
21 Jan 2017
Well, Donald Trump is now officially our president. He delivered an interesting and a bit controversial inaugural speech yesterday, which I would like to try my hand at analyzing. Before I do, may I mention others’ comments on it. George Will called it “a most dreadful inaugural address” (National Review Online, January 21, 2017) and […]
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The City of Man
15 Jan 2017
I am sitting in the San Antonio airport, waiting for my flight back home, reflecting on an excellent Values and Capitalism retreat here and–the subject of this blog–my walk yesterday. My goal was to walk to a bookstore about two miles from my downtown hotel. I had mapped it out using Googlemaps and set out […]
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I have written on this blog before about the importance of the liberal arts, but I now have an interesting negative example of how universities have been marginalizing not only the liberal arts but also American civilization in particular. Let me begin with a quote from this article by Ian Tuttle in the National Review […]
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A Real-Life Story of Bureaucratic Dysfunction
21 Dec 2016
If you want to read a classic insider narrative of the degeneration and dysfunction of a large and powerful (and unlimited) federal bureaucracy, read here: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443227/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-tragic-failures. The article chronicles the work of one highly placed lawyer in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before it was slapped hard by the Federal courts. I have frequently written about […]
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Bureaucracy and the New President
20 Dec 2016
I was reading an interesting article in Reason today that directly addressed one of the major issues I have raised before and frequently alluded to (see http://reason.com/archives/2016/12/19/trump-versus-the-we-bes, December 20, 2016). It has to do with the theme of “Trump versus the bureaucracy.” One could substitute any president’s name in that slogan since the 1930s at […]
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This blog is generally about current policies or issues in the news or that are still current to a degree in the realm of political economy, politics, and economics. I have been reading a really interesting book by Jonathan Wight, entitled Ethics in Economics: An Introduction to Moral Frameworks (Stanford University Press, 2015). Wight addresses […]
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In an article from CNS News dated December 16, 2016, we have the new but predictable Census Bureau statistics on median income for households in counties of the United States. The first four richest counties are, …, you guessed it, all in the Washington, DC area, and range from about $99,000 per year to $122, […]
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Trump’s Trumps
15 Dec 2016
A new controversy–well, not really new, just renewed–has now taken the stage regarding President-Elect Donald Trump’s transition. This one concerns the “flavor” of his cabinet choices, taken collectively. The media and Democrats are trying to figure out (1) what they tell us about Trump and (2) what the supporter–stakeholders think about the choices. Those are […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach