The Democrats running for president all promise large spending programs if elected—Medicare for All (or for all who want it), free or cheap college, infrastructure development, and (for Andrew Yang) a $12,000 annual income grant. Given the interest generated by my two recent Washington Spectator pieces on wealth taxes and financial transaction taxes, it seems […]

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When a well-known person denounces a specific group of people—claiming for instance they don’t deserve full citizenship, or they are a threat to the nation—the result can be a violent act against any person perceived to be in the targeted group. How do we know this? Sadly, the answer emerges from the horrific mass murders […]

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After World War II, the American dream became a reality. A large fraction of the U.S. population enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle while working, followed by a secure retirement with virtually no change in their standard of living. This dream, especially its second part, slowly died over the past 40 years. Americans increasingly worry about retirement. […]

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An abridged version of this article appears in the December print edition of The Washington Spectator. Wildfires raging in the Amazon . . . deliberately set by farmers illegally deforesting land for cattle ranching . . . have hit a record number this year. . . . The surge marks an 83 percent increase over the same period of 2018 . . . and is the highest since […]

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There’s a rich menu of political and gotcha goodies to choose from if you watch the impeachment hearings as entertainment. If you watch as a lawyer there are emerging battles that are more consequential. It isn’t yet clear how the varying legal positions of Democrats and Republicans will affect the practical results. But both the […]

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