Do we have any potent checks on Trump, after voters overwhelmingly supported Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the biggest wave election in years? Yes, definitely, but none of the formal or legal checks on a president are immediate. Still, one formidable constraint—and a curb on the power of Trump’s Republican enablers—has […]

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November’s midterm elections served up a revised portrait of our political landscape, with harbingers of hardening political fault lines and clues to the future direction of the country. The national map was remade by the introduction of new pockets of blue in places where before there had been only, or mostly, red. To Democratic National […]

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Britain seems stuck in a comedic Charles Dickens novel. At this point in time the chances that the U.K. will remain in the European Union appear slim, and the economic consequences of Brexit appear bleak. Our story begins in 1963, when the U.K. seeks to join a European free-trade zone that is to become (in […]

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Imagine for a moment being William Barr. You are 68 years old and healthy and have a lovely family. You’ve enjoyed a fine career in Washington, in and out of public service, and now you are making good money in private practice at a big firm. You are remembered, if you are remembered, fondly as […]

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NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, was the brainchild of Ronald Reagan when he first ran for president. Following years of negotiation, an agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States was signed (by President Clinton for the United States) in December 1993 and finally took effect on January 1, 1994. The trade deal […]

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