As cities across the country face growing deficits, instead of their current strategy of raising taxes and cutting services, they might like to take a look at a few case study examples of how those before them solved their challenges.
As an example, ten years ago we hosted the then-mayors of Indianapolis, Stephen Goldsmith, and [...]

In Newsweek, November 16, 2009, p. 20, Fareed Zakaria says, “There are two general health-care crises in America — one involving coverage and the other cost.  The Obama plan appears likely to tackle the first but not the second.  This is bad economics but also bad politics: the crisis of cost affects 85 percent of [...]

George W. Bush is launching a free-market think tank. The Washington Times reports:
With the Obama administration establishing far-reaching controls in the auto, real estate and financial sectors, Mr. Bush said that “the role of government is not to create wealth, but to create the conditions that allow entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive.”
So the guy who [...]

Women’s rights were always a main argument behind invading and occupying Afghanistan. Now Malalai Joya, a female member of the Afghan Parliament, has called on Obama to withdraw:

Eight years ago, women’s rights were used as one of the excuses to start this war. But today, Afghanistan is still facing a women’s rights catastrophe. Life [...]

The House Republican Conference has just released the following graph on the unemployment effects of Barack Obama’s “stimulus” package:
Also, please see the following, award-winning Independent Institute book:
Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America, Updated Edition
By Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway, Foreword by Martin Bronfenbrenner
(New York University Press)

In a November 3 article, the Wall Street Journal reports that corporate cash holdings have reached extraordinary levels:
Stung by the financial crisis, companies are holding more cash — and a greater percentage of assets in cash — than at any time in the past 40 years.
In the second quarter, the 500 largest nonfinancial U.S. firms, [...]

John Stossel (who’s leaving ABC to join the Fox Business Network) gave a well-received talk at my university yesterday titled “Freedom and Its Enemies.”  Several times during the talk he referred to himself as a libertarian.
Sometimes the libertarian label seems like a liability for people who are both (1) serious about substantially reducing the scope [...]

In a recent commentary titled “Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Political Economy,” I endeavored to show that an analytical understanding of past growth in the government’s size, scope, and power does not permit us to prescribe effective means of stopping or slowing this growth, particularly any simple “silver bullet” remedy, and I specifically disclaimed any personal [...]

When I was younger, we thought the line “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you,” the height of hilarity, invariably greeted with derisive hoots of laughter. Today it seems that any government official’s exhortation to “Trust me” is greeted as holy gospel, with nary more to be said. A case in point [...]

As Congress debates the merits of the “public option” for health insurance, we might look at Florida for some experience, because Florida has had a public option for years, not for health insurance but for property insurance.
After Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992 some Floridians were having difficulty purchasing homeowners’ insurance.  (The reason: rates are [...]