 Justice for Conrad Black Editorial of The New York Sun | May 16, 2019 https://www.nysun.com/editorials/justice-for-conrad-black/90687/ When Conrad Black stood before a federal judge in Chicago to hear his final prison sentence, all that was left of the fraud case against him was a single count. He was given a chance to make a statement. "I never ask for mercy," he told the judge, "but I do ask for avoidance of injustice." It was a sad thing for our country and for newspaperdom, we wrote at the time, that his request was denied. Continue Reading The President of the United States called. I was being pardoned, at last by Conrad Black National Post May 15, 2019 http://www.conradmblack.com/1478/the-president-of-the-united-states-called-i-was Black on Black: 'A Confluence of Unlucky Events'
By CONRAD BLACK, Special to the Sun | May 16, 2019 https://www.nysun.com/national/black-on-black-a-confluence-of-unlucky-events/90689/  STEVEN MALANGA
Trumped-Up Budgets A robust economy has been a boon for many states, but some still need to rein in spending. NOLAN GRAY Cities As Labor Markets In his brilliant new book, Alain Bertaud offers a new vision for urban planners.
The Economy and Fed Policy Find the Sweet Spot
Peter Ireland, E21 The U.S. economy has regained momentum after a spell of financial-market volatility sparked fears of a slowdown or even a recession late last year. Real GDP grew at a 3.2% annual rate in the first quarter of 2019, surprising many analysts who expected a much weaker report. The unemployment rate, at 3.6%, stands at its lowest level in nearly 50 years. And while inflation continues to fall below the Federal Reserve’s long-run 2% target, Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized at his May 1 press conference that he sees the latest price data as reflecting a variety of special factors, which he expects to be transient, rather than a sign that monetary policy has become overly restrictive. Read more here....  Politics of Evasion on Social Security and Medicare
Robert Samuelson, Washington Post
Trump's Foreign Policy Is Not Chaotic
By Col (Res.) Dr. Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen, April 25, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Though politicians and scholars harshly criticize President Donald Trump’s foreign policy as chaotic, his policymaking seems to be based upon a sound and consistent political approach, contrary to that of his predecessor in the White House. Several decisions taken by Trump can fall under the rubric of the political science theory known as “Supersession,” which stipulates that changing circumstances and the passage of time are formative guidelines to the handling of international conflicts. Continue to full article ->  The health reforms the GOP should embrace (but probably won’t) Joseph Antos and James C. Capretta | The New York Times Rather than searching for a politically safe silver bullet that slays the Affordable Care Act while keeping everyone happy, Republicans should embrace sensible reforms that aim to improve the existing framework. Chasing universal coverage Joseph Antos and James C. Capretta | RealClearPolicy In 2017 only 2.5 million people — or less than 1 percent of the total population — were in the US legally, had low incomes, and did not have ready access to an insurance plan. Medicare for All Hides Obamacare’s Flaws
Chris Pope, National Review In politics, people rarely admit that they were wrong. Instead, they try to change the subject. A decade ago, Democrats insisted that the Affordable Care Act would reduce the health-care costs of Americans and give the nation universal coverage. But the legislation has fallen so far short of its objectives that the party’s new generation is eager to sweep it aside in favor of Medicare for All. The associated promises are even more implausible than those made regarding the ACA, and have been privately disparaged by establishment Democratic policymakers. Read more here....  Time To Turn the G-Men Loose On Trump Accusers
By CONRAD BLACK, Special to the Sun | April 22, 2019 https://www.nysun.com/national/time-to-turn-investigators-loose-on-trump-accusers/90657/ The Mueller Report, despite the best efforts of the chief author and his partisan investigative staff, is a bone-crushing defeat for the president's enemies. There is not a whit of evidence that any American collaborated with any Russian to alter the results of the 2016 presidential election, and there is extensive evidence that the Trump campaign was the subject of enticements to collaborate and rebuffed all of them at all levels. Continue Reading 
National and metro housing market indicators
Edward J. Pinto and Tobias Peter | AEI Housing markets are inherently local, making them notoriously difficult to analyze due to the lack of reliable data at the local level. A new data set from the AEI Housing Center aims to fill this void by analyzing housing market data for the 60 largest US metropolitan areas and the nation as a whole.
The growth of salaries and benefits in the public sector, 1998–2017
Andrew G. Biggs | AEI Economics Working Paper Series Data from the National Income and Product Accounts published by the US federal government make it possible to analyze the growth of state and local government employee compensation by state.
The Democrats Get a Taste of Their Own Medicine by Conrad Black
National Review http://www.conradmblack.com/1471/the-democrats-get-a-taste-of-their-own-medicine
Day of Reckoning Is Now Dawning For Democrats
By CONRAD BLACK, Special to the Sun | April 25, 2019 https://www.nysun.com/national/day-of-reckoning-is-now-dawning-for-democrats/90662/
New Financing Model Could Fix America’s Broken Student Loan System
Preston Cooper & Sheila Bair, Yahoo Finance News reports of jaw-dropping scandals involving corruption and fraud in the admissions process of several elite schools are coming at a bad time for the higher education community. Academia was already playing defense in Washington against perceptions of favoritism in admissions practices and intolerance for diverse political views.But perhaps most damaging has been widespread public concern over high college costs and the $1.4 trillion in taxpayer-backed debt students have racked up to pay for them. Read more here....
The Ideological Takeover of Education
Max Eden, City Journal This weekend, more than 14,000 academics will gather in Toronto to share their research for the American Education Research Association’s annual conference. In past years, I’ve documented the focus of AERA academics on matters that seem only obliquely connected to curriculum, instruction, and policy. It looks like more of the same this year. Read more here....  How to Bring Back Struggling Cities Aaron Renn, CityLab In 2014, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans to build a $15 million film studio near upstate Syracuse, promising 350 high tech jobs. It was one of his many plans to revive the economies of upstate communities with state tax dollars. The facility, in an implausible location for filmmaking, was a flop that attracted little activity, and it was handed off to local government last year for the sum of $1. Read more here.... NICOLE GELINAS
King of New York By taking control of Manhattan streets, Governor Cuomo proves himself the state’s modern master of power.
President Trump and the Crisis of Separated Powers
Editorial of The New York Sun | April 18, 2019 https://www.nysun.com/editorials/trump-and-the-crisis-of-separated-powers/90653/ The denouement of the Special Counsel investigation -- unfolding on the Imax of the Internet -- illuminates nothing so much as the fact that our republic is in a crisis of separated powers. It shows that a special counsel can come close to destroying a presidency even in cases where, as now seems clear in respect of President Trump, there was neither collusion with a foreign power nor obstruction of justice. Continue Reading  Economic report of the president shows success and shortcomings of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty Matt Weidinger | AEIdeas Social capital and public policy
Twenty20 The norms of civic togetherness have largely disappeared from serious discussions about enduring public policy challenges, writes Ryan Streeter. Given the lessons of the past two decades, that needs to change.
MICHAEL BARONE
Why a strong economy isn’t boosting Trump’s approval ratings Success in politics — and in political predictions — depends on the ability to distinguish between old rules of thumb that don’t apply anymore and old rules of thumb that…  Overspent Some states consistently live beyond their means. PETER BERKOWITZ Conservatism and the People From Burke to Buckley to Trump, the Right has always had a populist current. Foundations Of Immigration Reform by Edward Paul Lazear via PolicyEdAmerica’s immigration system needs to be reformed in order to handle modern challenges of immigration. Long lines to get in exist alongside millions of undocumented immigrants already in the country. To deal with both of these problems, Congress should rebalance our system to encourage more work-based visas for those wanting to work in the US, and it should bring illegal immigrants back into the system through a special visa that puts them at the back of the line for permanent residency. Which Adds More To The Deficit? Defense Spending Or Social Security & Medicare? via Budget Matters via America Off BalanceDeficits are projected to permanently top one trillion dollars by 2021. And while the drivers of long-term spending growth come overwhelmingly from Medicare, Social Security, and net interest on the debt, a common claim is that defense spending is a bigger fiscal problem than entitlements because defense doesn’t have any dedicated revenue that helps offset its cost. The Risky Business Of Public Pensions by Joshua D. Rauh via PolicyEdState and local governments all around the country have failed to set aside enough money to pay for the pensions they have promised to workers in the public sector. They’re also making unrealistic assumptions about their future investment returns, further risking their budgets and the ability to pay for promised pension benefits. Confronting the true cost of future pension payments would force state and local governments to save more now and prevent budget problems in the future. Debts No Honest State Can Pay
Steven Malanga, City Journal State and local governments have piled up trillions of dollars in retirement debt for pension and health-care promises that they’ve never bothered to fund adequately. Yet, even as they strain to pay these obligations, some keep handing out other expensive perks, rarely bestowed in the private sector. The most striking example: governments are accumulating billions of dollars in future debt by letting employees store up unused sick days and vacation days, which they can then “cash out” when they retire. Read more here....
Too Much Democracy?
A new book argues that the problem with the U.S. political system is not insufficient participation but weakened parties. CONNOR HARRIS Potemkin MTA Reform The Cuomo–de Blasio plan ignores the subway system’s deepest problems.
Trump Signals a Great Debate on Socialism
Editorial of The New York Sun | March 4, 2019 https://www.nysun.com/editorials/trump-or-the-road-to-serfdom/90595/ Not since Lincoln and Douglas can we remember a call to a national election debate like that which President Trump has been sounding in respect of socialism. He laid this marker in his State of the Union speech, vowing that America would never be a socialist country. He picked up the theme in his speech at CPAC, offering a taste of how the issue will sound in the campaign now gathering. Continue Reading  Getting Serious About Infrastructure Nicole Gelinas, Washington Times California’s indefinite delay of its high-speed rail spine isn’t a failure of a technology that works well from France to Japan. For advocates of a Green New Deal or even a less ambitious vision of a less car-dependent America, it’s even worse than that. It’s a failure of progressive Democrats to execute big, complex infrastructure projects — the last legacy of the Obama stimulus. Most new governors use their inaugural State of the State speech to announce grand plans. New California Gov. Gavin Newsom used his to end a grand plan. Read more here.... Where Millennials Really Go for Jobs
Joel Kotkin & Wendell Cox, City Journal When Amazon decided to locate its second headquarters in New York, it cited the supposed advantages of the city’s talent base. Now that progressive politicians have chased Amazon out of town, the tech booster chorus has been working overtime to prove that Gotham, and other big, dense, expensive cities, are destined to become “tech towns” anyway, because of their young, motivated labor pools. That argument may sound great to New York Times readers or on local talk shows, but it is increasingly untrue. Read more here....  Moms Matter: Evidence on the Gender Wage Gap, Parental Influence, Welfare Reform
Lyman Stone, E21 Do moms really matter? The question seems almost too obvious to ask: of course moms matter! But the extent to which parents or parenting matter for child outcomes is hotly debated. Some researchers have suggested that parents really don’t have much influence on how children develop. But new research supports the idea that parenting counts. Using data on tens of thousands of Israeli students in the 1980s and 1990s, a team of researchers has provided compelling new proof that parents influence kids. Read more here....  How to restore separation of powers John Yoo and James C. Phillips | NationalReview.com The separation of powers is not just about the separation of powers. It’s also about religious liberty, free speech, due process, and every other liberty the Constitution protects and all those not enumerated in its text. Who's Afraid Of Budget Deficits? I Am. by David R. Henderson via Defining IdeasTaking issue with Jason Furman and Larry Summers Who's Afraid Of Budget Deficits?
by David R. Henderson via EconLogIn a provocative article in Foreign Affairs titled “Who’s Afraid of Budget Deficits?” Jason Furman and Lawrence H. Summers argue that we should not worry much about the federal government’s large and growing budget deficits. While they admit that politicians and policymakers “shouldn’t ignore fiscal constraints entirely,” they say that they “should focus on urgent social problems, not deficits.” |
HENRY OLSON: POLITICAL DEMOGRAPHY
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