I was talking to one of my graduate students on Friday about the European economic crisis and the inevitable collapse of socialism. He had an interesting reaction: “Well, of course, a welfare state in Greece, or Italy, or Spain is a really bad idea. But Germany is doing fine. Economists don’t appreciate the importance of culture. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the welfare state; it … Continue reading The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Socialism

Five hundred fifty-seven years ago today, Constantinople fell, ending the Eastern Roman Empire and subjecting Greece and the Balkans (including many of my own ancestors) to more than 400 years of Islamic oppression. Continue reading The Fall of Constantinople

M3 is plunging at a rate not seen since the Great Depression. The Obama administration shrugs; the Keynesians inhabiting it have never read Friedman and Schwartz’s Monetary History of the United States, and don’t think money supply is interesting enough even to report. They pile on debt at unprecedented rates, and are now contemplating further “stimulus,” since earlier attempts, though dwarfing all previous deficit spending, … Continue reading The Monetarist’s Nightmare

Walter Russell Mead lists ten lessons from the economic crisis: 1.  The American Century isn’t over. 2.  Liberal capitalism works. 3.  The rogue states are parasites. 4.  The old left is dead. 5.  Nobody really understands the world economy. 6.  That goes double for financial markets. 7.  The Battle of Financial Markets is over; the Battle of State Finance has begun. 8. The demographic crunch … Continue reading Aristotle’s Impossibility Result

William A. Jacobson points out that ‘little noticed’ is the new ‘unexpected.’ It’s not just the law of unintended consequences; it’s the law of unintended law. He lists twenty recent examples concerning the Obama health care bill alone. That’s what happens when people vote on bills they can’t be bothered to read. Continue reading How Little They Notice

Barack Obama spoke at West Point, laying out his vision for a foreign policy based on multilateralism. And Joe Biden spoke in Brussels, proclaiming it as the Capital of the Free World. Just as Copernicus held that we are not the center of the solar system but instead revolve around the sun, Obama and Biden are announcing that we are not the center of the … Continue reading Obama’s Copernican Revolution

WSBTV Atlanta does a powerful segment on an under-appreciated risk: Middle Eastern terrorists entering the United States by way of Mexico. Continue reading Terrorists Crossing the Border

Congratulations to the Texas State Board of Education, which has withstood a ferocious assault from the Left and passed new social studies curriculum guidelines. The new guidelines are a significant improvement over what were already excellent guidelines: They give students similar academic experiences in lower grades that create a common basis for further coursework but give high school teachers and students more flexibility. Most of the … Continue reading Texas Social Studies Standards