Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 304 pages, $30 At the turn of the 20th century, labor leader Samuel Gompers had many specific demands, including job security and an eight-hour day. But his list of “what labor wants” added up to a single overarching—and open-ended—desire. “We want more,” Gompers […]
It’s not that typical that an acronym for an arcane regulation would be a household word, but in California the term CEQA—pronounced see-kwa—is as well-known as terms such as OMG and LOL. Signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970, the voluminous statute provides a laundry list of terms and conditions on developers of every manner […]
Government makes most things worse. President Lyndon B. Johnson launched a war on poverty; President Richard Nixon a war on drugs. Both had good intentions, but their “wars” do more harm than good. I believed the war on poverty would lift people out of poverty. At the time I was a naive Princeton student who […]
Today’s guest is John Arnold—the former Enron wunderkind and billionaire philanthropist (and Reason Foundation supporter) who’s determined to hack America’s most expensive and least accountable public sector systems in areas such as criminal justice, education, and pensions. (Fun fact: He was once called “the most hated man in pensionland” by Governing magazine due to his reform […]
President Donald Trump pledged to remove “barriers to American leadership in artificial intelligence” in a January executive order by reversing the Biden administration’s precautionary approach to AI. Despite this order, the Trump administration is repeating its predecessor’s mistakes by allowing export controls issued by former President Joe Biden to take effect. Administered by the Commerce […]
“We will save our beef,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared when he signed the nation’s first ban on cultivated meat last May, portraying the law as part of his administration’s “focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers.” Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson concurred that the governor was “standing up for Florida’s farmers […]
The European Commission has fined Apple and Meta 500 million euros ($568 million) and 200 million euros ($227 million), respectively, for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA). On top of forcing the tech giants to pay steep fines, the commission’s proposed remedies would undermine the firms’ business models and their ability to serve consumers. The […]
After heated debates on the topic for almost a year, Boston’s city council recently passed an ordinance addressing what it deems “dangerous conditions” caused by scooters and e-bikes operated by food delivery drivers. Instead of holding those responsible for the unsafe street conditions—the drivers themselves—the council instead decided to target delivery platforms. In June 2024, […]
The “abundance” discourse, sparked by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book of the same name, has directed a lot of attention to liberal America’s failure to build. Blue cities and blue states can’t deliver projects on time and on budget, which is dragging down economic growth and sending people fleeing to red states that can. […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)—the federal body that regulates America’s nuclear power plants—has long been criticized for stunting domestic nuclear power production with stringent regulations. Nuclear energy developers and states are pushing back. In December, Utah, Texas, and microreactor company Last Energy sued the NRC, challenging the agency’s regulatory authority. Last week, underground nuclear energy […]