One of the themes that seems to be emerging in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s second term is geography, and specifically cartography. He has already renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, he has floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, and he has also expressed interest in bringing Greenland...
My colleague, Maggie Anders, recently made an insightful post on X. As Trump begins to shutter government bureaus (or at least pieces of them), many are highlighting an obvious downside: government employees will lose jobs if you shut down government agencies. Some articles are calling it the biggest layoff in history, and saying it will...
When I served in Congress, I was regularly lectured about how the people needed big government to keep them safe and secure, whether it was through welfare and regulations to ensure their economic security, the Patriot Act to protect their personal security, or forever wars to protect global security. Of course, the government’s track record...
The first month of the Trump administration featured among other things a highly-publicized spectacle of Elon Musk and his DOGE team being unleashed on various parts of the federal bureaucracy and sparking sharp partisan exchanges, with Democrats raging about a “constitutional crisis” triggered by Trump crudely ignoring many of the finer legal points regarding appropriated...
The public is invited to experience the Free Market Road Show, a prestigious international lecture series that travels to the world’s largest cities. On April 14, it will bring global economic experts to Midland, Michigan, for a morning of engaging discussions on free-market principles and policy reforms at Northwood University. The Free Market Road Show,...
July 20, 1969, is a day no 13-year-old (at the time) boy in America can forget. The Eagle landed and there was one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. America had won the race to put a man on the moon. The competition was between the American capitalists and the Soviet...
I was recently taken aback by a lengthy piece that I read (very oddly) in the Wall Street Journal. Jacob Berger is a professor of philosophy at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He authored an article in the WSJ on January 23 entitled “Why MAGA Folks Should Read Marx,” in which he wrote: [G]iven the...
Quincy Jones Jr., an influential American musician, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, passed away Nov. 3, 2024, at his home in Bel-Air, California, at 91 years of age, surrounded by his friends and family. Jones was born March 14, 1933, on the South Side of Chicago. His father, Quincy Jones Sr., was a carpenter and semi-professional baseball...
The emergence of right-wing leaders in various parts of the world and their counter-offensive against wokeism, global elites, and liberalism has given rise to a narrative according to which the “far right,” the “nationalist right,” or the “populist right” (whatever you want to call them) is taking over from the left and establishing itself as...
In April 2023, nearly 80 percent of Wisconsin voters supported an advisory referendum favoring work requirements for work-capable adults receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. The message was clear: people want welfare programs encouraging work and self-sufficiency, not permanent dependence. Yet, despite overwhelming public support for reforms that promote economic mobility, Washington remains unwilling to act. This leaves...
When Argentines go abroad, they usually go shopping. Many of the products they want cannot be bought at home, ranging from clothes to smartphones and all kinds of home appliances. Because of this, it has become a tradition to return from a trip with one or two extra suitcases filled with smuggled goods. Did you...
Members of the Biden-Harris administration went on a massive spending bender during their final four months in office. By that, I mean they figuratively blew a hole in the U.S. government’s budget as they headed out the door. This assessment is not included in the January 2025 Monthly Treasury Statement, which provides data on the...
In November 2023, the warning came, as clear as an omen. A political upstart was seeking office and, if elected, his policies were likely to cause “devastation” in his own country and “severely reduce policy space in the long run.” The threat was a chainsaw-wielding disciple of Austrian economics from Argentina who embraced laissez-faire economics....
It’s been reported that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is looking at changing money forever. Musk’s plan? Kill the penny. Killing the penny is a popular idea, and it sounds like a no-brainer when you look at some of the details. After all, when was the last time you actually used a penny?...