Last week, after attending monetary policy conferences at Stanford, Chicago and Frankfurt, I put forth evidence in EconomicsOne.com of a revival of research on monetary policy rules for the instruments, whether at the conferences, in research papers, or in Fed publications. I offered possible explanations for the revival, also with evidence, including revealed preference by policymakers, the need to deal with the effective lower bound, disappointments with past departures from rules, threats of legislation, and concerns about political pressure.

Now that the Trump administration has offered a blueprint for economic development and reform in the Palestinian territories, the opportunity costs of maintaining the status quo are clear for all to see. Although the Palestinians remain opposed to the plan, at least now they can start to consider the economic potential of peace.

Today, America finds itself in roughly the same waters that drowned British ambitions in the Middle East between 1946–1969. In less than two decades, Washington has vacillated from direct intervention to calls to “share the region,” which have now been supplanted by the “America First” diplomacy of bold declarations that favor smaller, “face-saving” compromises. 

As I indicated last week, I plan to spend the summer writing about whether our schools have improved over the past quarter-century or so—essentially the “reform era. ”There’s little doubt, I argued, that outcomes improved dramatically for the lowest-performing students and for children of color from the mid-1990s until the onset of the Great Recession, at least in the key subjects of reading and math.

Hoover Institution fellow Harvey Mansfield discusses the pressures that lead universities to disinvite guest speakers, the reasons for the uptick in disinvitations, and how campus leaders can protect the essential contributions invited speakers make in preparing students for informed, thoughtful citizenship.

On Sunday night’s episode of Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News, LevinTV host Mark Levin was joined by constitutional expert and former federal Judge Michael McConnell to discuss how the framers constitution really intended for impeachment to work.

President Donald J. Trump promised to drain the D.C. Swamp and to keep his administration clear of lobbying interests. The president has done a good job of keeping promises to cut taxes, reduce regulations and show restraint in foreign policy, yet he needs to focus more on keeping special interests out of the decision-making process in his administration.  The Pentagon of course is naturally involved in defense contracting, with many being promoted to jobs at the Department of Defense having come right out of the defense industry.

A "No War on Iran" rally is planned for Tuesday in San Francisco at the BART Plaza at Mission and 24th Streets, with protestors calling for the Trump administration to end economic sanctions against Iran and back away from military conflict. 

The insight was conjured by Brexiteer historian Niall Ferguson on BBC Politics Live on Tuesday afternoon. Exasperated by what he saw as the false promises of a no deal scenario, Mr Ferguson told host Jo Coburn: “On the present trajectory, the Conservatives are going to lose heavily at the next election unless the Brexit Party is disbanded and Nigel Farage endorses Boris Johnson, which seems to me highly unlikely to happen. We’re in the midst of a major realignment in British politics.