Butt-Legging

Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 21: It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption, that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit; which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end proposed, that...

Perverse Incentives in Academia

Farid Zaid at Inquisitive: The idea that scholarly excellence could be measured with precision is a relatively recent invention. The Journal Impact Factor (JIF), introduced in the mid-twentieth century, marked the beginning of this shift – offering first libraries and...

More on the Tariff Disaster

Wall Street Journal: Nearly all of the new jobs last month were in social assistance and healthcare (46,800), which rely on government spending. Industries with high tariff exposure shed workers, including manufacturing (-12,000) and wholesale trade (-11,700)....

The Illogic of Protectionism

Michael Strain at AEI: Protectionists can appeal to intuitive economic logic. Tariffs are a tax on imported goods, but not on domestically produced goods. By increasing the relative price of imported goods, price-sensitive consumers will substitute away from imports....

Civility and the Ross Brothers

Mark Z. Barabak at LAT:  Jim Ross has had a long and fruitful career as a Democratic campaign strategist. Among his victories was electing Gavin Newsom as San Francisco mayor. Tom Ross has enjoyed similar success on the Republican side. He counts Kevin McCarthy’s...