A sitting U.S. president called it the “eighth wonder of the world.” It was a massive factory, to be sited in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, that would make high-end LCD panels. The price tag would come to about $10 billion; local taxpayers would kick in about $4 billion in subsidies over a decade. In return, Wisconsinites […]
When 17 million Americans tuned in to watch the first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC), they were greeted by the newly famous faces of Mark and Patricia McCloskey. A few months prior, the McCloskeys had been obscure Missouri lawyers. Then footage of the married couple brandishing firearms at Black Lives Matter demonstrators […]
It’s Sunshine Week—the week when reporters complain more than usual about government stonewalling and the government brags that it doesn’t stonewall quite as often as it used to. Sunshine Week intentionally coincides with the birthday of President James Madison, who wrote in 1822, “A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, […]
Welcome to our regime of political capitalism, where merit matters but political connections matter even more. In an unalloyed capitalist system, money flows to those who offer goods and services of value to consumers. In a political capitalism system, money flows to special interest groups with friends in high places. In his 2018 book Political […]
Oregon has one of the country’s most centralized systems of land use planning, and some of the tightest local regulations on homebuilding. State lawmakers are now proposing to use the former to overcome the latter. Working its way through the state Legislature with bipartisan support this year is H.B. 2001. It would require cities and […]
“I don’t know that there’s any law that can stop that evil that we saw,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R–Ohio) on NBC’s Meet the Press, shortly after video was released of five Memphis police officers brutally beating Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop. Jordan took a lot of abuse for his remark, […]
Few things are bipartisan these days. If there’s a consensus on any issue, it usually comes with a general proclivity toward moral panic—which is to say the consensus has more to do with politics than policy. For a recent example, we can look to an announcement made by President Joe Biden on Twitter yesterday about […]
With much fanfare, the Biden administration announced this week the availability of the first subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing facilities funded by the $52 billion bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. Yet, many of the people who support the law’s goals of subsidizing semiconductor production were surprisingly glum as they pointed to all the processes, mandates, […]
The General Assembly of Virginia this month approved a proposal to recognize out-of-state occupational licenses and work experience as per se qualifications for in-state credentials. To qualify, the applicant must have held her out-of-state license for at least three years and reside in good standing with that state’s board. Individuals seeking a Virginia license for […]
A federal effort to throw about $40 billion in taxpayer cash at semiconductor manufacturers is now going to double as a backdoor effort at expanding federal subsidies for child care. According to The New York Times, the Commerce Department is set to unveil new rules on Tuesday that will effectively force recipients of the new […]