Monthly Archives: November 2016

Archive of posts published in the specified Month

A Brief History of the Great Depression

From George Melloan at the Wall Street Journal,  Whoever Wins, Capitalism Will Survive: The seeds of the Depression were planted with the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916, in a two-year interval in which President Woodrow Wilson had a compliant Democratic Congress.

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Greenspan

I am reading an excellent biography of Alan Greenspan by Sebastian Mallaby titled The Man Who Knew.  I recommend it as much for its illumination of the economy, the Fed’s role, and political decisions as for its portrayal of Mr.

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Shifting Coalitions

The two-party system oversimplifies the political landscape.  What we really have are two coalitions of interests and governing philosophies. The Democrats include Progressives, socialists, Capitalists (Wall Street), social justice warriors, unionists, and populists. It is the home of the environmentalists,

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The Contempt Factor

Perhaps you have experienced the conversation when you are constantly interrupted and talked over.  When this happens our first response is to raise our voice over the interrupter, but try the opposite.  Stop mid-sentence, even mid word and see if

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A Better Way to Tax the Rich

Some advice for the new president from economist John Cochrane in the Wall Street Journal, Don’t Believe the Economic Pessimists: The ideal tax system raises revenue for the government while distorting economic decisions as little as possible. A pure tax

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Thoughts on the Electoral College

The Electoral College was carefully designed to fulfill a similar purpose of the constitution, to apply a break on majoritarian tyranny.  The framers understood that democracy and demagogue had the same root. To the greatly disappointed Democrats who lament the

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Competition Trumps Meritocracy

From The Washington Post Ana Swanson writes Why The Industrial Revolutions didn’t happen in China The article is mostly an interview with Joel Mokyr about his new book , A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy.  It

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Understanding Republicans

from John Podhoretz at Commentary The Truly Forgotten Republican Voter But the truly forgotten Republican voter never bought Trump’s new outfit. I mean the Republican person who believes in limited government and a strong national defense and some kind of

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Eisenhower’s Footprint in The Middle East

Ike’s Gamble by Michael Doran is an account of the 1956 Suez Crisis with a perspective different from many previous ones which were directed from narratives from CIA players at the time. The United States under Eisenhower supported the rise

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The Rebellion Against the Politically Correct

From Joel Kotkin at The Daily Beast, Trump Will Go Away, but the Anger He’s Stirred Up Is Just Getting Started: And then there’s the mountain rebellion against political correctness. Relative few Americans have much patience with such things as “micro-aggressions,”

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The Price of Contempt

If I could pick one word to describe the upset it would be the word ‘contempt’. This was a Brexit election, a revolt against the elites, but the problem is not elites.  The founding fathers were elites and a large

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President Trump

A few thoughts on the great upset. Un-freaking -believable I was wrong. Consistently wrong throughout his whole campaign. I will not go back and delete all of my posts that assumed he would lose.  I am OK with being wrong

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A Nose for Prejudice

From Kevin Williamson at National Review, The Irredeemables, Hillary Clinton and the politics of leftist consdescention  

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The Unity of Vice

Kevin Williamson in The National Review, The Irredeemables Hillary Clinton and the politics of leftist condescension The progressive mind believes in the unity of vice, the flip side of the Socratic unity of virtue, the belief that all good characteristics are

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The Night Of Broken Glass

November 9 and 10  is the anniversary of  Kristallnacht (literally “Crystal night”) or the “Night of Broken Glass”.  In 1938 “99 Jews were murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and placed in concentration camps.  267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands

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The Unworkers

From The Wall Street Journal and Nicholas Eberstadt,The Idle Army: America’s Unworking Men Who are America’s new cadre of prime-age male unworkers? They tend to be: 1) less educated; 2) never married; 3) native born; and 4) African-American. But those

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An Incongruous Victory

From Joel Kotkin at The Daily Beast, Trump Will Go Away, but the Anger He’s Stirred Up Is Just Getting Started: Hillary Clinton lacks both Obama’s rhetorical skills and her erstwhile husband’s political ones. Her entire approach in the campaign has

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Effective Gun Regulation

Kevin Williamson gives HRC some advise on effectively addressing gun violence in Some Advice for President Clinton: Let us begin with the basics: The United States of America may be a beacon of liberty and prosperity to the world, but

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The Birth and Reaction to Social Engineering

From The Washington Free Beacon, Matthew Continetti writes Crisis of the Conservative Intellectual.  This is an excellent summary of the history of the conservative movement in American Politics, and should be read in its entirety. The 1964 election also empowered

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Political Suicide

from Kevin Williamson in National Review, So Much (for) Winning The Republican party — stupid and corrupt as it often is — has in fact provided a number of dramatic victories for conservatives in recent years: the spread of right-to-work

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