Student-Based Budgeting One Possible Upside to $578 Million Los Angeles High...
As the nation's most expensive public school opens in Los Angeles today at $578 million or more than $140,000 per student there is one ironic silver lining: the six academies at the school are part of...
View ArticleThe Case for Bifurcated Trials
In July, the Texas Forensic Science Commission found that arson investigators used flawed science in the trial of Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham was convicted of setting the 1999 fire that killed...
View ArticleIt's Still the War, Stupid!
It’s not the economy, it’s the war, stupid!I’m talkin’ to you, Democrats in the House and Senate. Scores of you are about to lose your jobs, while the rest forfeit coveted committee chairmanships...
View ArticleTax Hikes on the Rich Will Hurt the Recovery
Supporters of President Obama’s refusal to extend the Bush-era tax policies have cloaked themselves in a mantle of fiscal responsibility, arguing that extending cuts, particularly for high-income...
View ArticleRogue States
At the tail end of December 2009, as negotiations on the final Senate version of the health care overhaul were being completed, David Paterson, the Democratic governor of New York, held a joint press...
View ArticleSpare Parts
The first thing to be said in any consideration of Never Let Me Go—the 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro or the spellbinding new movie that’s been made of it—is this: spoiler alert. Director Mark Romanek’s...
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Wind Turbines Are Beautiful
Judith Gap, Montana—Sleek modern wind turbines are beautiful. Even their low pitched whooshing is soothing. At the first stop on my crosscountry roadtrip to check out a variety of energy production...
View ArticleBasel III and the Obama Tax Hike
Here is something you might not have known: at the end of the year, the tax rate on dividends and capital will go up 25 percent as the current rate set temporarily in 2003 expires. This will decrease...
View ArticleTax Policy Manipulation Won't Fix the Economy
Last week, President Obama rolled out the campaign rhetoric, calling for an end to tax cuts for “the rich” and proposing a range of new tax cuts for those making $250,000 a year and small businesses...
View ArticleTorture Tort Terror
During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama criticized the Bush administration for its excessive secrecy, noting that it had "invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than...
View ArticleThere's No Need to Get Personal
A few years ago, I asked a political operative what he did for a living—as the answer is often less obvious than you imagine."We isolate an issue," he explained. "Then we isolate the enemy and we try...
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Throwing the Bums Out Is Harder Than It Looks
Americans aren’t particularly pleased with what Congress has been up to. A Gallup poll this week found that a majority of voters disapprove of last year’s economic stimulus package, the auto industry...
View ArticleHere Come New Bank Fees
Bank of America is announcing new fees for services in the wake of lost revenues stemming from Dodd-Frank. Congress tried to "help" consumers by restricting banks from charging fees on debit card...
View ArticleFHFA on the Three Problems with an Explicit Federal Mortgage Guarantee Program
Acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Edward J. DeMarco had some interesting things to say today in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and GSEs....
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Minnesota Court to Rule on Public Pension Cuts
One of the biggest issues facing state and local governments is growing unfunded public employee pension and retiree health care liabilities. The total state and local pension deficit has been pegged...
View ArticleThe Tea Party and the Value of Craziness
Here's my first impression of the tea party movement: It's a rabidly right-wing phenomenon with a shaky grasp of history, a strain of intolerance and xenophobia, a paranoia about Barack Obama, and an...
View ArticleWhy the New Basel Banking Rules Won't Save Us
Over in the great business and trade world of Minyanville, I have a new article breaking down the Basel III capital adequacy standards that were released this past weekend. The Basel standards set...
View ArticleClarence Thomas Favorite Anarchist
Lysander Spooner: American Anarchist, by Steve J. Shone, Lexington Books, 138 pages, $55In his concurring opinion in the landmark gun rights case McDonald v. Chicago, Supreme Court Justice Clarence...
View ArticleMoney Is Not What Schools Need
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently claimed: "Districts around the country have literally been cutting for five, six, seven years in a row. And, many of them, you know, are through, you know,...
View ArticleThe Pat Tillman Story
The opening scene of the documentary The Tillman Story shows Pat Tillman taping a promotional video while still a college football player at Arizona State University. After saying his name, Tillman...
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