You Must Sacrifice

In an article entitled “We The Problem,” Evan Thomas, editor at Newsweek, is trying to establish what’s wrong with his country. The problem isn’t the political system, he writes. “It’s us.” For decades now, Americans have lived “as if there is no tomorrow,” according to Thomas. “They have racked up personal debt, spending more than […]

Forgotten in the Health Care Debate

Proponents of health-care reform in the United States obviously have the patients’ interests at heart. For millions of Americans today, medical treatment is impossible to pay for while the system altogether is growing evermore expensive. The needs of those who can’t afford care are at the forefront, but the wishes of doctors and nurses are […]

Life, Liberty and the Right to Property

Since the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal warned that, “Government interventions in financial markets and the automotive sector have raised concerns about expropriation and violation of the contractual rights of shareholders and bondholders” in the United States, it is prudent to explore the necessity […]

Bernanke Favors Stronger Fed

Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, offered an aggressive defense of the central bank’s role in the future supervision of the financial sector. “Stripping the Federal Reserve of supervisory authorities in the light of the recent crisis would be a grave mistake,” he said. The Fed […]

Subsidizing Jobs

States are subsidizing jobs, using taxpayers’ dollars to help companies meet payrolls. That’s not something government should be engaged in.

Freeing Children From Government Schools

In spite of ever rising costs and increasingly disappointing results, the government monopoly on education is hardly ever called into question. Education, defenders of the system argue, is too important to leave to the free market. The arguments put forward by those in favor of a state-run system typically boil down to two misleading claims. […]

Rethinking NATO’s Future

It wasn’t too long ago that NATO’s post-Cold War purpose seemed perfectly clear. During the Clinton Administration, the United Stated led allies in humanitarian efforts around the world but in Europe’s backyard especially. Up to this very day, Western forces are actively engaged in peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia and, of course, in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan […]

Too Much on Obama’s Plate?

In an interview with Bob Schieffer on CBS’s Face the Nation this Sunday, Colin Powell expressed no regret for endorsing Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Although the president might have taken on too much too soon during the first year of his administration, the country, said Powell, is not less safe. According to the […]

Turkey and Russia, Sitting In a Tree

Europe may be reluctant to embrace Turkey but the country is well underway to establishing itself as a regional power. As a gateway to the West, it engages with nearby Middle Eastern states, signing free-trade agreements with Egypt, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia. It is currently in negotiations with the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, to […]

Crony Capitalism

Russell Roberts and Marta Mossburg discuss the growth of crony capitalism.

Dutch Government Collapses Over Afghanistan

The governing coalition in the Netherlands was brought down Saturday, unable to bridge a divide between Christian Democrats and socialists over whether or not to keep forces in Afghanistan after 2010. For the fouth time, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had to announce that a government of his had come to its end prematurely. His […]

Euro Resentment Demands New Rules

Euroskepticism is abound anew. Where previously economist Paul Krugman argued that Greece could have weathered its fiscal crisis if it had retained its own currency, Judy Dempsey reports that Germans are increasingly nostalgic for their Deutsche Mark. “For Germans,” writes Dempsey, “the mark was more than just currency.” It represented the country’s postwar recovery, the […]