The case of Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted in the 2020 murders of two men amid chaos on the streets of Kenosha, WI, is ominous for the peaceful resolution of political disagreements. The sense of menace arises less from the utterly misguided 17-year-old shooter, or his complete escape from justice, than from the celebration by Republicans and “conservatives” of Rittenhouse and even of the killings he perpetrated. This telling incident heightens the feeling of apprehension provoked by […]

Economists tell us that the current high rate of inflation is not forever. And it’s not all bad, certainly not for workers whose rising wages play a part in the climbing prices. How seriously Americans are taking it may be reflected in this Wall Street Journal headline: “Retail Sales Rose by 1.7% in October Despite High Inflation.” Anyhow, the media angst over jumps in the broad consumer price index often overlooks the big price differences […]

It is my first time traveling since the pandemic – my first plane ride, my first trip in from the airport, my first hotel stay. It feels like a big deal. I – who flew across the country every week for years – am scared. Of what, I don’t know. There is a lesson here, and this is it: The world has changed. But what has changed even more is me. I am not the […]

Political freeloaders. They are to the left of us. They are to the right. These are politicians who grandstand, who vote against their constituents’ interests, knowing that their tougher colleagues will do the hard work. Start with the right. Start with Marsha Blackburn, the U.S. senator from Tennessee. She idiotically called the infrastructure bill “the gateway to socialism” and, of course, voted against it. The measure passed with the support of 19 other Republican senators, […]

No serious economist believed that former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law would pay for itself. On the contrary, that buffet of tax cuts will explode deficits by almost $2 trillion over 11 years, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Though the benefits went overwhelmingly to the highest-income Americans, red-state Republicans cleverly added an item that purported to raise some taxes on rich people. But not so much their rich people. It primarily targets those in […]