Economics

In the last half-century, under which president did the economy perform the best? Most Americans would answer Ronald Reagan, while some Democratic commentators have argued it was Bill Clinton or John F. Kennedy. What is the truth? A president has a major influence on tax, spending, regulatory and trade policies that largely determine the rate of economic growth, but he Read More ›

IN LATE APRIL, a Beaumont, Texas, jury voted to award $1 billion to the family of a plaintiff who allegedly lost her life as a result of taking fen-phen, a drug combination popular among dieters in the 1990s before it was linked to heart-valve damage. The woman, who was morbidly obese and whose family had a history of heart problems, Read More ›

Did you know that the U.S. has the fastest-growing economy among all of the rich nations? During the past year, the U.S. has been growing threefold the rate of the average of the European Union countries and about 50 percent faster than Japan, and is now experiencing the fastest rate of GDP growth in 20 years. The unemployment rate is Read More ›

Imagine a club where members of the volleyball teams enjoy drinking and eating more than exercising and, as a result, are very fat and out of shape. The club decides to expand its membership to include a group of men who only recently gained their independence from abusive parents and now are working hard on bettering themselves. The newcomers wish Read More ›

Have you seen any of the photos of Jane Fonda and John Kerry together back when he was a war protester? Do you know which of the photos are real and which are phony? Digital technology has made it easy to create pictures that purport to show something that never was. The late-night television comedians and many Internet pranksters create Read More ›

If you ask anyone with the most casual knowledge of baseball which team won the most World Series games in the last 80 years, the Chicago Cubs or the New York Yankees, you would expect to get the right answer at least 90 percent of the time. Even diehard Cubs fans would tell you it was the Yankees because they Read More ›

The following speech was given by Discovery Institute Senior Fellow George Gilder to The Philadelphia Society at their national meeting in Chicago, Illinois on May 1, 2004. This is a great celebration. Forty years of the Philadelphia Society devoted to the concept of ordered liberty under God. Through this it reconciles the two great themes of conservative thought: free markets Read More ›

An old Washington political rule goes like this: “You get blamed for things you didn’t do, so you might as well take credit for things you didn’t do.” The Bush administration has put this rule backward when it comes to economic policy. It is accepting blame for things it didn’t do and not taking adequate credit for good things it Read More ›

When considering the Swedish model, one can be forgiven for thinking of a comely statuesque blond with blue eyes. However, to economists and policy junkies, the Swedish model refers to the “third way” between socialism and capitalism many on the American left laud as the ideal. Does the Swedish model work as advertised? According to a new paper by the Read More ›

Letter to the Editor: In her April 1 editorial-page commentary “The ‘Privacy’ Jihad1,” Heather Mac Donald fails to understand why many think tanks and privacy advocacy groups across the political spectrum are concerned about a number of government proposals that would further diminish privacy rights. We have had a long history of law-enforcement agencies going well beyond original mandates and Read More ›