Political Thought
This unsigned editorial in the Providence Journal makes a reasonable case: Much of the debate about unemployment assiduously avoids the basic causes of long-term joblessness and falling wages. One is globalization. Large U.S. companies, aided by modern telecommunications and fast transportation, find it increasingly easy to move jobs abroad, where the wages tend to be…
How about a frightening assessment of our relationship with China: Why would China so brazenly challenge the world’s economic powers like this? Because the country’s leaders know what our leaders are only beginning to understand — that China would probably win a global trade war. It’s certainly worth reading Eric Weiner’s entire essay for the…
An op-ed in the New York Post, by Sen. James Inhofe (R, OK) points to a couple of topics worth discussion: One insidious force keeping unemployment high is regulatory uncertainty: Companies that could hire (or re-hire), don’t — because they’re worried about what new restrictions will be coming down from Washington. Congress bears much of…
On Saturday, Tiverton Citizens for Change hosted a fundraiser for local candidates, featuring speeches from several. Nancy Driggs, Republican for RI House District 70 (Portsmouth, Tiverton), gave us something a bit more comprehensive than a review of local issues. Here is what she said. My name is Nancy Driggs, and I am the non-incumbent candidate…
Yesterday’s RISC-Y Business NewsLetter contained a Woonsocket Call article (not available on line) describing the onerous cuts to the school budget identified by the school committee. Mayor Leo T. Fontaine has sued the school department on a bid to balance its budget and on Monday school officials may meet his challenge with a stunning round…
Elsewhere in the world, conditions akin to slavery: Forced labour and human rights abuses involving African crews have been uncovered on trawlers fishing illegally for the European market by investigators for an environmental campaign group. The Environmental Justice Foundation found conditions on board including incarceration, violence, withholding of pay, confiscation of documents, confinement on board…
On last night’s Matt Allen Show, Matt and I pondered why there seems to be little excitement around Rhode Island’s gubernatorial race. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
Timothy Sandefur’s edifying review of the shift in legal thought on the Supreme Court during the era of President Franklin Roosevelt’s progressive revolution points, among other things, to the way in which political groupings do not draw straight lines across history, such that a conservative or progressive today would have agreed with their supposed forerunners:…
In a review of Kenneth Minogue’s The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life (subscription probably required), Diana Schaub touches on a topic that is subtle, but central to current political disputes. “Freedom is mentally and morally demanding; bondage is easy (painful and miserable, but easy),” she writes. Therefore, we are beginning to see…
News comes this morning that the inclusion of a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” has sunk a defense policy bill in the U.S. Senate: Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked an effort by Democrats and the White House to lift the ban on gays from serving openly in the military, voting unanimously against advancing a…