"As A.J.P. Taylor once archly observed, leaders in the 19th century “fought ‘necessary’ wars and killed thousands; the idealists of the 20th century fought ‘just’ wars and killed millions.” Stephen M. Walt (professor of international relations at Harvard University) argues at Foreign Policy that a one-size-fits-all world system is bound to fail. Walt cites three objections to the "hyperglobalization" currently favored by global elitists: States that interfere in foreign countries rarely understand what they are doing, and even well-intentioned efforts often fail due to ignorance,...
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Keith Preston on: American Secession The Looming Threat Of National Breakup
From Keith Preston at Attack The System: A review of F.H Buckley's book American Secession (available on Amazon) Americans have never been more divided, and we’re ripe for a breakup. The bitter partisan animosities, the legislative gridlock, the growing acceptance of violence in the name of political virtue—it all invites us to think that we’d be happier were we two different countries. In all the ways that matter, save for the naked force of law, we are already two nations. There’s another reason why secession beckons, says F.H. Buckley: we’re too big. In population and area, the United...
What Paul Krugman Gets Wrong About The $600 Unemployment Bonus
The federal government’s program of supplemental unemployment benefits of up to $600 per week, as provided for in the CARES Act, is set to expire at the end of July. Whether or not to extend this program is setting up to become a contentious political battle mere months before this fall’s national election. But what of the economic debate? Keynesians like Paul Krugman who support the extension of the benefits focus on getting money in the hands of people most likely to spend it—boosting ‘aggregate demand.’ On Twitter, Krugman insisted the economic shutdown was “annoying but sustainable,”...
Tulane University Accused Of Anti-Male, Title IX Violation
A complaint filed on April 17 with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) could echo through college corridors across America. Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE)—a “national policy movement for fairness, due process and the presumption of innocence”—accuses Tulane University of sexual discrimination against male students. A review of 300 large colleges conducted by SAVE’s Title IX Equity Project found many institutions to be vulnerable to similar complaints. The issue is federal funding. Tulane is a private university, but it accepts tax money for student...
New York Tax Revenue Plummeted 68% In April
From Bloomberg This is just April and just in New York. This will happen all over the country. My guess is that these lockdowns will end when state and local governments have to start letting people go and renegotiating pension contracts. "The Empire State collected $3.7 billion, or $7.9 billion less than the previous April. Personal income-tax revenue fell more than $7 billion from last April, a drop that was primarily due to the delayed tax filing deadline. “New York is facing economic devastation not seen since the Great Depression,” New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a news...
Jobless claims soar again in early April as coronavirus layoffs swell to nearly 17 million
From Marketwatch The coronavirus has turned life upside down in the blink of an eye. Just a month ago, new claims were in the low 200,000s and sat near a half-century low. Already, the ranks of the unemployed appear to have exceeded the prior record of 15.3 million during the 2007-2009 Great Recession. What’s more, the number of Americans collecting benefits has quickly topped the prior all-time high of 6.6 million. Some 7.5 million people were receiving benefits at the end of March, according to delayed government data on continuing claims. They are reported with a one-week lag. The big...
The Fed’s Massive Injection of ‘Liquidity’ Also Benefits Uncle Sam
There’s a lot to be said regarding the Fed’s surprise announcements—including its Sunday surprise of $700 billion in renewed QE and the complete elimination of all reserve requirements for banks—but here let me just focus on one element: the tendency for Fed officials and all the pundits to treat injections of “liquidity” as if they don’t count as much when distorting the economy. I’ve seen some analysts literally call the Fed’s repo operations “free” as opposed to fiscal policy, which they agree actually costs something. These distinctions are phony. The Fed’s $1.5 trillion was a...
My Path to Patient in a Direct Primary Care (DPC) Practice
I recently wrote about my new Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis, the quest for affordable meds and supplies, and the subsequent financial savings found through transparent pricing outside of my insurance plan. I summarized that health care “coverage” is very expensive, whereas medical services may be found much more affordably. My next step was to establish an ongoing primary care physician relationship. I contacted one of the large medical groups that my insurance plan covers and found that before meeting with the internal medicine physician, I would be required to have two visits with a...
Should Racists Get Health Care?
Political correctness recently took a dangerous turn in the United Kingdom when the North Bristol National Health Service Trust announced that hospital patients who use offensive, racist, or sexist language will cease receiving medical care as soon as it is safe to end their treatment. The condition that treatment will not be withdrawn until doing so is safe seems to imply that no one will actually suffer from this policy. However, health-care providers have great discretion to determine when it is “safe” to withhold treatment. So, patients could be left with chronic pain or be denied...
6 Things We Learned from Prohibition
Just over 100 years ago (October 28, 1919), the National Prohibition Act became law. Better known as the Volstead Act, it outlawed the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Prohibition failed to end alcohol consumption and was repealed on December 5, 1933. In a book on prohibitions, John Meadowcroft of King’s College in London offers several “generic lessons and implications.” The United States’ experience with Prohibition illustrates them all. 1. Interest Groups Are Crucial to Prohibition There was no great clamor for Prohibition. Instead, it...
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