Discovery Institute

^{Christopher Rufo

June 13, 2019

Economics}

An Addiction Crisis Disguised as a Housing Crisis

_{Christopher Rufo

June 13, 2019

Economics}

By latest count, some 109,089 men and women are sleeping on the streets of major cities in California, Oregon, and Washington. The homelessness crisis in these cities has generated headlines and speculation about “root causes.” Progressive political activists allege that tech companies have inflated housing costs and forced middle-class people onto the streets. Declaring that “no two people living on Skid Row . . . ended up there for the same reasons,” Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, for his part, blames a housing shortage, stagnant wages, cuts to mental health services, domestic and sexual abuse, shortcomings in criminal justice, and a lack of resources for veterans. These factors may all have played a role, but the most pervasive cause of West Coast homelessness is clear: heroin, fentanyl, and synthetic opioids. Read More ›

^{The Center for Science and Culture

June 5, 2019

Intelligent Design}

Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture Launches Provocative New YouTube Series Titled “Science Uprising”

_{The Center for Science and Culture

June 5, 2019

Intelligent Design}

“This is unlike any film project we’ve done before,” said Discovery Institute vice president John. G. West. “Science Uprising directly confronts the false views of science held by the growing number of science popularizers like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye.” The episodes are 6-8 minutes long each and address issues such as the existence of an immaterial mind, the Read More ›

^{Scott S. Powell

June 1, 2019

Religion and Civic Life}

Far More Than a Culture War Rages in America

_{Scott S. Powell

June 1, 2019

Religion and Civic Life}

America’s two greatest presidents, Washington and Lincoln, both believed that the ultimate threat to the United States wouldn’t come from abroad in the form of a foreign enemy but rather from within. In his Farewell Address, Washington warned of the dangers of “party passion,” and the “disposition to retaliate… [giving] ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens… facility to betray, or sacrifice the interests of their own country…sometimes even with popularity…” Lincoln said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” On another occasion he said, “…if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.” Read More ›

^{Discovery Institute

May 24, 2019

Economics}

Christopher Rufo on Fox News

_{Discovery Institute

May 24, 2019

Economics}

Chris Rufo was featured in a Fox News piece this week on Seattle’s Homeless Crisis and why locals seem to be reaching a breaking point with the city’s lax or non-existent enforcement policies.

^{Discovery Institute

May 24, 2019

Human Exceptionalism}

Smith a Hit in Poland

_{Discovery Institute

May 24, 2019

Human Exceptionalism}

Discovery Senior Fellow Wesley Smith’s book, The Culture of Death, has now been translated into Polish and was the center of attention at his addresses this week to a conference on bioethics and to another gathering of 1000 doctors in Krakow. Wesley was interviewed by at least three print media, featured in a book review and hosted on TV and Read More ›

^{George Gilder

May 20, 2019

Economics, Technology}

Huawei Is an Asset, Not a Threat

_{George Gilder

May 20, 2019

Economics, Technology}

Among the world’s most inspiring business voices is Ren Zhengfei, founder-philosopher of Huawei, the disruptive and now condemned Chinese telecom-equipment company. Vilified as a cat’s-paw of the Chinese government, Mr. Ren has decided to place his trust in America’s legal system and launch a court challenge to the U.S. government’s campaign against his company—and family. His daughter, Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, is fighting extradition to the U.S. from Canada on murky charges that she helped financial institutions violate American sanctions on Iran. She has been under house arrest in Vancouver, British Columbia, since December. Read More ›

^{Stephen C. Meyer

May 16, 2019

Foreign Policy}

The Best Brexit Strategy is to Leave First, and Then Deal

_{Stephen C. Meyer

May 16, 2019

Foreign Policy}

Last month, the European Union’s Council of Ministers voted to allow Britain another extension in its Brexit deliberations. Despite Prime Minister Theresa May’s “success” in negotiating this extension, her Conservative Party recently experienced massive losses in local council elections with more than 1,300 Conservative councillors losing their seats. Since then, May’s party has tanked further in opinion polls. One recent poll has only 11 percent of the electorate supporting Conservative candidates in the upcoming May 23 elections for the European Parliament. Three years after voting to leave the European Union (EU), British voters must now suffer the indignity of voting to send representatives to a body they no longer wish to represent them. Read More ›

^{Bailey Takacs

May 16, 2019

Education}

Students and Parents Badly Hurt by the Legislature

_{Bailey Takacs

May 16, 2019

Education}

The 2019 legislature missed out on a big opportunity this year. Instead of working to reform how our schools operate, the legislature took a step backwards by undoing much of the good work that was done in response to the McCleary court ruling just two years ago. In 2017, Democrats and Republicans approved a bi-partisan school funding bill, reforming state and local property taxes to ensure that the state met its constitutional obligation to fully fund K-12 education. The law reduced inequities by capping local property taxes, so wealthy areas would not have an imbalanced benefit, by providing equitable state funding to all schools on a per-student basis. All parties, including Governor Inslee, lauded and moved forward with the agreement. Read More ›

^{George Gilder and Steve Forbes

May 13, 2019

Economics, Technology}

Steve Forbes Podcast with George Gilder: The Creativity of Capitalism and the Post-Google Era

_{George Gilder and Steve Forbes

May 13, 2019

Economics, Technology}

Discovery co-founder George Gilder sat down with Steve Forbes on Forbes’s podcast What’s Ahead. There are not many minds that have been able to predict what’s ahead quite like Gilder who has proven to be a true visionary in economics and tech. In this conversation with Forbes, Gilder discusses his new book Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data Read More ›

^{Scott S. Powell

May 10, 2019

Economics}

How the U.S. Can Solve the Current Trade Tariff Impasse With China

_{Scott S. Powell

May 10, 2019

Economics}

Trade talks between the U.S. and China have hit an impasse, but there is surprising bipartisan support for the Trump administration to stay the course on what will be a long process to resolve the full range of trade problems specific to China. Success on this first round of trade negotiations in the form of ending the tariff penalties that are at the heart of a year-old trade war, with further reduction and even elimination of tariffs on as many categories as possible, should actually be attainable in the near term. Future rounds of trade talks to find remedies for China’s intellectual property and trademark theft, national security threats, and forced technology transfer from American companies doing business in China will be far more problematic. China is already feeling the pain of our tariffs, just as American farmers are feeling the pain of their retaliatory tariffs against U.S. agricultural products. Both sides benefit from more trade with minimal tariffs that come naturally because of comparative advantage — a theory that has worked consistently since David Ricardo developed it in 1817. Read More ›