From the Republican presidential primary debate, April 23, 1980, excerpted in today’s Wall Street Journal: Ronald Reagan: Can I add to that? I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors, particularly our neighbor to the south, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we’ve ever had.......
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In the last decade or so, police reactions to political protests in this country, including completely peaceful protests, have become increasingly brutal and indefensible. MSNBC has unusually good coverage of the last such incidents, noting that there were some civilized officers who handled these protesters with respect, but also giving appropriate exposure to the...
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President Obama, asking for $1.5 trillion in new taxes, says “It’s only right we ask everyone to pay their fair share.” Few would disagree. The disagreement comes in terms of defining each taxpayer’s fair share. The top 1% of taxpayers pay 38% of total income taxes. The top 5% pay 59% and the top...
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The Fall 2011 issue of The Independent Review is hot off the press! We have posted selected articles and all book reviews online, as indicated below. This issue addresses a host of fascinating questions on topics as diverse as intellectual history, economic development, political theory, and government policy: Why do progressives and social democrats...
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CNN reports that the “Increase Diversity Bake Sale” hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans is causing quite a stir in the People’s Republic of Berkeley. Seems like the demonstration of just how out of hand it is to use race in school admissions or anything else is bothersome to some folks.

Financial markets and analysts fear a new global recession. Data point to a growth slow-down that might eventually lead to a fall in production. Some pundits, who bought the idea of a recovery in previous years, seem to be surprised by the negative data of the latest months. The stock market probably shared this...
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Over at Opinionator, Linda Greenhouse of the NYT has a post expressing bewilderment at how anyone could urge the repeal of the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act. At base she avers that those arguing against the constitutionality of the individual mandate are neo-Confederates who forget that, in her words, “the Civil...
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Rick Perry’s having been a Democrat years ago has become a point mentioned by some of his Republican critics. As the Christian Science Monitor points out, that archetypal hero of Republican conservatism—Ronald Reagan—was himself a Democrat before moving to the GOP in the early 1960s. Reagan is a great example of the meaninglessness of...
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Today Georgia’s pardons board rejected a petition for clemency from Troy Davis, a high-profile death row inmate whose guilt in murdering a police officer has been seriously brought into question. He is scheduled to die tomorrow. The police officer, Mark MacPhail, was shot and killed in 1989 after intervening in a heated argument, one...
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Dr. Brendan Brown, Head of Economic Research at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International (London), recently cited Senior Fellow Robert Higgs‘s work on regime uncertainty—both as the cause of the prolongation of the Great Depression as well as today’s economic malaise—suggesting that his premise could well be expanded to explain today’s global economy. In his Economic...
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