Those of us who like to believe that human beings are rational can sometimes have a hard time trying to explain what is going on in politics. It is still a puzzle to me how millions of patriotic Americans could have voted in 2008 for a man who for 20 years — twenty years — was a follower of a preacher who poured out his hatred for America in the most gross gutter terms.
Western culture is deservedly exceptional. No other tradition has given the individual such security, freedom, and prosperity. The Athens-Jerusalem mixture of Christian humility (and guilt) and the classical Socratic introspection combined in the West to make it a particularly self-reflective and self-critical society, in a way completely untrue of other traditions.
Two years ago I published a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled The Economic Hokum of ‘Secular Stagnation.’ I wrote it after Larry Summers presented the secular stagnation view at a joint Brookings-Hoover conference.
Nobel Laureate James Heckman of the University of Chicago talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of econometrics and the challenges of measurement in assessing economic theories and public policy.
In what could end up as a lot of daggers unsheathed in the weeks ahead, consider this the first long knife in Jeb Bush’s direction: this Politico article claiming that “supporters, staff and donors” are “pointing the finger” at Mike Murphy, the longtime GOP campaign consultant and head of Jeb’s Right to Rise super PAC, for the Bush candidacy winding up as anything but a coronation.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin is an intelligent person, contrary to how liberals have tried to portray her. So it seemed to me that, if anybody could explain why they were promoting the candidacy of Donald Trump, it would be Gov. Palin.
The January 21, 2016, edition of National Review declared war against Donald Trump. Editor Rich Lowry assembled a cast of 22 thinkers, who share a “vision of the self-anointed conservatives,” to inform America’s conservatives that Trump is not one of them.
In a recent article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences entitled "Private algorithms for the protected in social network search", Kearns et al describe algorithms for searching social networks that distinguish between good guys (those whose privacy should not be violated or violated only minimally) and bad guys (those who have fewer or lesser privacy rights).
Firecrackers and dancing dragons will welcome the Chinese New Year of the Red Fire Monkey in early February. The Monkey is one of 12 Chinese horoscope years that can predict wild success or portend catastrophic failure, depending on one’s level of superstition or gullibility.
by Paul R. Gregoryvia What Paul Gregory Is Thinking About (Blog)
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Central bankers and the financial press worry about deflation. They aim for a moderate amount of inflation and then worry when their “inflation targets” are not met. Deflationophobes link deflation and recession. They point to stagnant Japan as an example of the ravages of deflation.
Progress on health care? Really? While Obama is President? The Obama who said you can keep your doctor and your insurance and oh, by the way, your insurance will cost less? That Obama?
How free is India? The country boasts of its democracy, often with reason. India’s record of regular elections is enviable, especially when one considers its political and linguistic diversity, the size of its population, and its shameful levels of education. We can all agree that the country gets the formal mechanics of democracy right — against heavy odds.
Hoover Institution fellow Niall Ferguson notes that the public mood is mad as heck, but he’s not convinced Donald Trump will even make it to Super Tuesday
Monday, January 25, 2016 to Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
The National Security, Technology, and Law Working Group at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University is hosting a symposium on “The Next Wave of Surveillance Reform,” taking place on January 25 and 26, 2016, at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, CA.
If a private company distributed thousands of bottles of water with high levels of lead and other contaminants, lawsuits would chase it toward bankruptcy. So why should authorities in Michigan get a pass?
Clearly the recent market activity has rattled Mario I’ll-do-whatever-it-takes Draghi’s cage. He is already signalling the possibility of more QE and interest rates moving further into negative territory.
In his otherwise low-key State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown saved his most impassioned plea for transportation issues, telling lawmakers they're going to have to "bite the bullet and enact new fees and taxes" to pay for repairs to California's crumbling highways.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is calling for the U.S. and its coalition allies to "accelerate" efforts to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria and around the world, but experts are unsure whether it will be enough to decisively defeat the terrorist group.
At the top of the lengthy list of worries was Europe, whose policymakers remain deeply divided in their approach to the refugee crisis at a time when the bloc faces a host of other threats
The fourth Hoover Book Soiree, held this week in Hoover's beautiful Washington, D.C. offices, featured Gayle Tzemach Lemmon on her newest book, Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield.
Conservatives shaken by the rise of Donald Trump have appealed to Republicans not to support his presidential candidacy, uniting in a full-blown attack from the pages of an influential conservative magazine.
In his otherwise low-key State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown saved his most impassioned plea for transportation issues, telling lawmakers they’re going to have to “bite the bullet and enact new fees and taxes” to pay for repairs to California’s crumbling highways.
