The Compass Point

The second most awkward fact for proponents of free trade is that the advent of globalization has coincided with trends the opposite of those promised. Globalization was supposed to unleash growth, but growth has slowed. Productivity gains, sure to accelerate, have stalled. Many jobs were lost, but the better ones never materialized. And nations destined […]

I heard a baby crying while I was working recently. It wasn’t my child, though over the past 20 years, my professional work—nearly always carried out at home and part-time—has been punctuated by such cries. Nor was it one of the young students at my children’s elementary school in which I now use a third-floor […]

When Elon Musk announced plans to seize control of Twitter, the story was not just for the technology or finance columns. Rather, it provoked all of the hopes and fears, rants and cheers of a political transfer of power—and rightly so, for the bid was nothing if not a political act. The prospect of Musk […]

A few weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration as President, the New Yorker published a cartoon depicting a mustached, mostly bald man, hand raised high, mouth open in a sort of improbable rhombus, tongue flapping wildly within, saying: “These smug pilots have lost touch with regular passengers like us. Who thinks I should fly the plane?” […]

I fell in love with politics as a little kid in 1956, when I spotted a big neon sign atop a downtown office building flashing its four capital letters to spell I . . . L I K E . . . I K E. Campaign ad budgets were not as lavish back then. I […]

Henry Clay is especially appropriate for a lecture series focused on the long-term interests of our country. During his time in public life, he was known for taking the long view on the best interests of a then-infant republic. He had a very specific vision for American economic policy. To summarize: First, he didn’t want American […]

For the last generation, one nation has wielded unmatched military power, bent the international financial system to its will, established almost unilaterally the standards of global communication and infrastructure, and dominated culture and media. For Americans, these seemed good years. And for most others, America’s tutelage was easy, its burden light—certainly compared to history’s other […]

Once upon a time, two learned men lived in a city of legends hard by an ancient river. The first of these was a magician of sorts, whose incantations have been passed down through the ages more or less unchanged: “supply and demand functions,” “marginalism,” “utility,” the “costs of production.” Even at the remove of […]

Commentators and culture warriors have popularized the term “snowflake” in recent years to describe the people, mostly younger Americans, who demand “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” to protect them from the harm of “microaggressions” and “cultural appropriation.” Just last week, a controversy erupted at Yale Law School because a Native American student who belongs to […]

There are two kinds of people: those who want politicians to “keep your government hands off my Medicare,” and those who think that’s the dumbest thing they’ve ever heard. When an angry constituent made the declaration at a town hall meeting convened by Rep. Bob Inglis during the 2009 health care debate, pundits across the […]