Economics

Tel Aviv skyline off the shore of the Mediterranean sea - Panoramic aerial image

Myth and Reality of Israel’s Success

Allysia Finley of the Wall Street Journal does us all a favor in her column, “Our enemies are the CEO’s…Our comrades are in Gaza,” describing the labor Union SEIU units that are seeking to portray Israel’s vital and pathfinding  economy as the product capitalism and colonialism. They get the historical facts wrong, she writes, quoting at length from George Gilder. Read More ›
Scissors cutting a dollar bill in half
Money being cut showing cutbacks or wasteful spending

Federal Budget: No Place for Freelancers

Team GOP's handshake spending plan includes two goals — to cap discretionary spending in fiscal 2024 to at 2022 levels as well as a budget blueprint that balances within 10 years. Read More ›
Poor homeless man or refugee sleeping on the wooden bench on the

Republicans Could Lead on Mental Health Treatment

Tucked away in the gun law President Biden just signed is a provision increasing funding for preventive outpatient treatment for mental illness. This is an important step toward solving America’s mental-health crisis but only part of what’s needed. Read More ›
Piggy bank with graduation hat and jar with money for education on table. Tuition fees concept
Piggy bank with graduation hat and jar with money for education on table. Tuition fees concept

Who Wants Higher Tuition?

President Joe Biden and Democrats want to lower the cost of higher education by increasing Pell Grants and forgiving student debt. Biden wants to forgive $10,000 per student. Progressives want to up the ante to $50,000 per individual. Here's a novel idea: Maybe the better way to cut the cost of college is to cut the cost of college. Read More ›
skid row in los angeles, california

Want to Solve Homelessness? Call a Cop

"We can end homelessness in the State of California," California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Monday. It's a goal Newsom shares with President Joe Biden, despite Democrats' inability to curb homelessness by throwing money at it. Read More ›

George Gilder and the Scientific Foundations of the Gold Standard

Discovery Senior Fellow George Gilder’s recent monograph on gold and the economy, commissioned by the American Principles Project, continues to attract curiosity and praise, especially in light of the debt crises in places like Greece, China—and the USA one day. At Forbes, Ralph Benko praises Gilder’s monograph and traces the gold standard from its inception—crediting both Sir Isaac Newton and Nicolas Copernicus—to modern-day, writing that “Gilder reveals anew the gold standard’s deep scientific foundation.” This week, George Gilder will keynote the Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley, followed by several talks at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, then the Money Show in San Francisco. There will be media following all of them. While at Freedom Fest, Gilder also will be involved Read More ›

Put Your Head Back on Right this July 4

It is easy to get distracted by all the forebodings in the news today, so I want to offer Discovery Institute friends a “read” that will re-inspire you and also assert some of the personality and philosophy that I hope animates this organization and its fellows. It should encourage a different version of Independence Day enthusiasm as it is quintessentially American.

My Uncle Berlin B. Chapman was raised literally a hundred years ago in the hills of West Virginia, put himself through college and Harvard Graduate School (Phd.), and taught history the rest of his life in Oklahoma–producing some of that region’s first histories. He once told me that in his opinion “the greatest commencement address” ever made was “Acres of Diamonds,” by Baptist preacher and Temple University President Russell Conwell. I asked Uncle Berlin for the gist of it–that the opportunities in life are found in one’s own backyard–and was more or less satisfied with that truism. But I finally got around to reading a version of the address itself today because I wanted to recommend it to a young political friend of mine. Read More ›

Time to Sue the Parents?

The Obama Administration is frustrated that the kids getting government financed school lunches are not eating them. Huge piles of uneaten foodstuffs are being thrown out daily. Worse, a Congressional Committee has learned that there is black market among the kids for salt and pepper, since Michelle Obama is trying to keep these dangerous chemicals out of the food our youth consume. The situation has grown so bad that some parents are sending their kids to school with their own lunches. That of course should be prohibited and the contraband seized as evidence by the Justice Department. Other parents–even poor ones!–are taking their kids out of school and feeding them lunch at home. Why, that’s almost un-American. Kids eating lunch Read More ›

Israeli Tech Can Slake World’s Water Thirst

Nursery flowers watered with drip irrigation in Israel

Nursery flowers watered with drip irrigation in Israel

California wastes water and blames the drought for the resulting shortages. Arizona is better off. Israel is the world leader, however, in water-related technology. Most of the Middle East exports terrorists; Israel exports technology to create a more verdant and abundant future.

Here is a series of connected articles that explain Israel’s innovations in drip-irrigation (much discussed also in George Gilder’s The Israel Test), drought resistant crop development, desalinization, squeezing water out of dew and creating winter-fed cisterns like the Nabateans used 2000 years ago in the “rose red” city of Petra. Read More ›