Year: 2016

When standing today at Hadrian’s Wall on the border between Scotland and northern England, everything appears indistinguishably affluent and serene on both sides. It was not nearly as calm some 1,900 years ago. In A.D. 122, the exasperated Roman emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of an 80-mile, 20-foot-high wall to protect Roman civilization in Britain […]

Is there a more brain-dead concept than to empower the government to fight “income inequality”? What sane, normal, rational human being thinks that human talent, drive, interests and opportunity can — or should — result in equal outcomes? Despite my love of athletics, I knew in third grade that my friend, Keith, could run much […]

My musical tastes do not include rap and hip-hop, but when Snoop Dogg comments on the “Roots” remake, saying he is tired of movies about slavery and would prefer a series “about the success that black folks are having,” he is singing my song. The original “Roots” drew a phenomenal 130 million viewers when it […]

A gorilla has taken control of your TV set. What an apt metaphor for the past year. In fact, of course, I refer to the actual gorilla that was (if you take the word of some of the more unhinged commenters on social media) “assassinated” by zoo officials in Cincinnati. I nearly wrote “who,” but […]

One of the assets of the American economic model is a relatively flexible labor market, especially when compared with labor markets in many European countries. It explains some of the consistently lower U.S. unemployment rates and higher economic growth. Unfortunately, this flexibility is increasingly threatened by government policies that would increase the cost of employing […]

California lawmakers seem intent on making Sacramento the place where reasonable reforms, much like runaway trains, jump the tracks. In that no-speed-limit spirit Tuesday, the California Assembly voted 41-37 to allow convicted felons to vote in jail. (Yes, you read that correctly.) If Assembly Bill 2466 becomes law, the American Civil Liberties Union estimates that […]