Chris DeMuth, formerly head of the American Enterprise Institute, has written a sharp piece on America’s debt problem. In short, good economic ideas were corrupted by politics, which is now corrupting the public. Part of fixing this problem will require changing the way we discuss it. DeMuth writes, “Our rhetoric must teach that, although government […]
Henry Wiencek, “The Dark Side of Thomas
“That Jefferson set out clearly for the first time was that he was making a 4 percent profit every year on the birth of black children. The enslaved were yielding him a bonanza, a perpetual human dividend at compound interest. Jefferson wrote, “I allow nothing for losses by death, but, on the contrary, shall presently […]
Jason Hollander, “The Opposition of Abso
I had a course with Fred Ulfers at NYU, who was endlessly entertaining and provocative. Perhaps it’s no wonder that a childhood full of such conflict and confusion would provoke a desire to understand. Ulfers emigrated with his family to New York in 1951, and after attending City College for accounting, which failed to enchant […]
Kevin Fallon, “Story of the Streets.” NY
“Two hundred years ago, the crux of the city was crammed south of Canal Street. In 1811, commissioners Simeon De Witt, Gouverneur Morris, and John Rutherfurd announced that they would transform the overcrowded area by imposing an orderly system of roads stretching up through the island’s rural and rocky reaches, from Houston Street to what […]
Abigail Tucker, “The Great New England V
“The particulars of the vampire exhumations, though, vary widely. In many cases, only family and neighbors participated. But sometimes town fathers voted on the matter, or medical doctors and clergymen gave their blessings or even pitched in. Some communities in Maine and Plymouth, Massachusetts, opted to simply flip the exhumed vampire facedown in the grave […]
Masha Gessen: The Wrath of Putin, Vanity...
“Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the richest man in Russia when he dared confront then president Vladimir Putin, criticizing state corruption at a meeting with Putin in February 2003. Arrested that fall, then convicted in two Kafka-esque trials, Khodorkovsky has been imprisoned ever since, the once powerful oligarch now an invisible hero for the growing opposition to […]