The concept of minimum wage has its origins in the United States in a rather forgotten purpose.  Minimum wage was first proposed as part of the legislation that created the National Recovery Administration that Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal created in 1933.  FDR pursued the NRA because he was embracing the new economic theory of progressive […]

We often lament the ever burgeoning national debt ($18T+), and especially so when we consider the unfunded liabilities (some estimates well north of $100T).  Yet while the national debt captures the public’s attention periodically, the disastrous condition of state finances is seldom discussed.  There are few good states, albeit red states are typically much better […]

As Robby Soave of Reason.com pointed out in a March 22 article, students today come to college with a basic problem.  They are scared on ideas that challenge them.  Soave gave an illustration of this from a debate between a left-feminist, Jessica Valenti, and a libertarian feminist, Wendy McElroy at Brown Univesity.  Apparently some students […]

In 1964, Barry Goldwater was about to accept the Republican presidential nomination. Reporters covering the convention were curious how the firebrand Senator from Arizona would present himself to the electorate. They were convinced that Goldwater would have to file off the rough edges and trim his positions to appeal to the moderate middle of American […]

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has decided to use his chain of coffee houses to provoke a national conversation about race. By encouraging baristas to write slogans–like “Race Together”–on coffee cups, Schultz hopes that customers and employees will have honest discussions about the racially based disparities still prevalent in the U.S. Yesterday, at the company’s recent […]

You’ve heard me say this before (but not this strongly) that the monetary machinations of the global central banks (led by the Fed, and buttressed by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan) are flooding the world with liquidity and causing all sorts of malinvestment. In the video above, Ed Yardeni agrees, perhaps […]

The ideas of most humans are formed by their basic worldview combined with their existential circumstances.  I believe this fairly self-evident statement applies in particular to the talk given by Dr. Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute at Cedarville University, Thursday night, March 12.  Murray is a brilliant man and his talk was a […]

Earlier in the week I criticized the results of Dodd-Frank, because it has miserably failed at its ostensible purpose of preventing future “too big too fail” incidents. Indeed, not only did it not succeed in this–in the sense of reducing the number of potential risks–it has significantly exacerbated it as the banks are increasingly consolidating […]

University of Oklahoma President David Boren has expelled, so far, two students involved in the vile, racist chants that have garnered national media attention. The problem, as pointed out by Eugene Volokh and David French, is that Boren’s actions are almost certainly unconstitutional. In essence, the government is unable to punish speech, and this was […]

New York Magazine has a superb piece on the recent chaos at NBC News. While there is little new information, the narrative’s clarity puts many pieces together. In short, trouble at NBC started well before Brian Williams forgot how to tell the truth. Deborah Turness (NBC News President), Patricia Fili-Krushel (NBC News Chair) and Steve […]