The Economy

The Stimulus Didn’t Work
Government transfers and rebates were just pebbles in a pond. Private-sector resilience made the real waves. By John F. Cogan, John B. Taylor, and Volker Wieland.

Myths of the Multiplier
The administration promised that every dollar of federal spending would produce more than a dollar of economic growth. Look at the data—it hasn’t worked out that way. By Robert J. Barro and Charles J. Redlick.

Demanding Debt Discipline
The rising tides of deficit spending may do more to drown growth than everything that went before. By John B. Taylor.

Feeding a Sane and Lasting Recovery
Lead with a cut in the payroll tax, and millions of jobs will follow. By Michael J. Boskin.

A Statistical Mirage
Did stimulus spending really “create or save” more than 1 million jobs? By Edward P. Lazear.

We’re Not All Dismal
Some economists can’t see mankind for the math. The latest Nobel Prize went to two who focus on how humans actually behave. By David R. Henderson.

Health Care Reform

The Bill for This Baby
Enthusiasm for universal coverage plummets when people find out how much they’d have to pay. By David W. Brady and Daniel P. Kessler.

Trouble, Doubled
Comprehensive, low-deductible, low-copayment insurance isn’t the solution—it’s the problem. By John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel P. Kessler.

California

Lead On, California
How sweeping tax reforms could put the Golden State back on its feet. By Michael J. Boskin and John F. Cogan.

Bipartisan Tax Advice? You’ve Got It
California’s politicians are famously addicted to division and status quo. Can’t this time be different? By John F. Cogan and Christopher Edley Jr.

The Morning After
Voters on the left coast have had their fling with the politics of hope and change—and ended up disappointed. As Arnold goes, so might go Barack. By Bill Whalen.

Amend at Your Own Risk
Californians and New Yorkers, both clamoring for constitutional fixes, might want to take a lesson from each other’s mistakes. By Thad Kousser.

National Security

Visited by Furies
Since 9/11, Americans have relaxed. The terrorists haven’t. By Fouad Ajami.

Energy Extortionists
Why do the dictators rage? Because, thanks to oil, they can. By Victor Davis Hanson.

Afghanistan

No Commitment to Victory
A “new” Afghanistan strategy with all the failings of the old. By Kori N. Schake.

Pakistan

Why Pakistan Must Succeed
The war in Afghanistan, a primitive land of 28 million, now threatens Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 180 million. The collapse of Pakistan would place in danger a third nation: ours. By Thomas H. Henriksen.

Iran

Iran’s Most Wanted
The new defense chief in Tehran is wanted by Interpol. He’s hardly the only criminal working there. By Christopher Hitchens.

The Middle East

Why the Peace Process Is Stalled
The Obama administration is acting—publicly, at least—as if Israeli settlements were the only obstacle to Mideast peace. It will never be that simple. By Peter Berkowitz.

Tattered Road Map
Even in a land divided so bitterly and so long, modest hopes persist. By Robert Zelnick.

Where the Autocrats Rule On
Now that the U.S. freedom agenda has quietly been shelved, Arab lands can only reflect on what might have been. By Fouad Ajami.

Politics

Hail on the Chief
Crackpot! Socialist! Tyrant! Oh, how we Americans love to pillory our presidents. By Lou Cannon.

Taxes

Dollars Adrift
Corporate taxes already drive U.S. companies offshore. The administration should think twice before making matters even worse. By Peter Robinson.

Biotechnology

International Harvester
Goodbye to Norman Borlaug, who saved millions from starvation. By Henry I. Miller.

Education

Test Your Social Literacy
A decent education doesn’t merely confer good grades. It confers the ability to understand complex social issues—the health care battle, for instance. By Chester E. Finn Jr.

Law and Justice

Refocusing Civil Rights Law
Enforcement needs to keep moving forward, just as society does. “Disparate impact” lawsuits have outlived their usefulness. By Richard A. Epstein.

Values

Utopia Is Overrated*
In accepting something short of perfection, we learn to accept our freedom. By Thomas Sowell.

Start-Ups to the Rescue
No matter how dangerous the waters, entrepreneurs plunge in. How government can stay out of their way. By Jeffrey M. Jones.

Interview

Risks, Recessions, and Rewards
Markets may not be perfect, but do they still perform better than governments? And how. Martin Wolf interviews Hoover fellow Gary S. Becker.

History and Culture

Universal Questioner
Hoover fellow Peter Berkowitz on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the late Soviet dissident and honorary Hoover fellow to whom “one word of truth outweighed the whole world.”

It’s Declinin’ Time Again
The doomsayers are back. Regardless of what they say, the United States remains first on any scale of power that matters—economic, military, diplomatic, or cultural. By Josef Joffe.

Hoover Archives

Agents of History
Secret police keep wonderful records. Researchers who study Lithuania can thank the KGB—and some hardworking archivists—for a priceless historical collection. By Maciej Siekierski and Richard Sousa.

Secret Justice Is No Justice
Moscow hunted, caught, and punished three terrorists in the late 1970s. Or did it? KGB documents show how a climate of secrecy may leave the case forever in doubt. By Mark Harrison.