Progressives are frustrated by North Carolina’s just-enacted state budget, hostile to recent deregulatory initiatives and tax cuts, and outraged at recent welfare reforms and school-choice …
Many of today’s debates about our society, public policy and politics are being driven by one factor: income inequality. Income inequality is the term recognizing the differences in incomes …
It’s not surprising that a lot of North Carolinians have responded to the state legislature’s recent and ultra-belated passage of a state budget bill with some sense of relief. As with the …
"I am calling on average Americans everywhere to peacefully exercise your First Amendment rights en masse every day until this administration is removed and our democratic republic is restored," U.S. …
We’ve played the music, shot the fireworks, and recited the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence. But our commemoration of America’s semiquincentennial has only just begun. There …
This Fountain of Liberty that I write of has been filled with the fluid of freedom many, many times only to be depleted again and again. This fluid is the blood of our nation that has been called …
What exactly are Americans celebrating this Fourth of July? Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all people possess inalienable rights, we now live …
Nothing says “Happy Fourth of July” like spending Independence Day week debating a voter suppression bill. It’s a bold choice to celebrate America’s birthday by advancing legislation that …
Between ruinous wars abroad (e.g. the war on Iran) and at home (e.g. the wars on immigrants and drugs), rising inflation, election-rigging attempts from both sides of the major party "aisle," an …
Patients across the country are feeling the strain of rising healthcare costs. One of the biggest reasons? The same medical service can carry vastly different price tags depending on where it is …
Next month will mark the 40th anniversary of my debut as a columnist for North Carolina newspapers. Over the decades, I’ve gotten quite a few things wrong. I’ve misdiagnosed policy problems, …
As a professional economist, I look at volumes of data to understand what is happening in the economy. But if I could only look at one piece of this information, I would focus on the job market, for …
Plans to cut various taxes seem to enjoy high levels of public support around the country right now. Florida's voters will have an opportunity in November to cut residential property taxes; …
As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, here is a question worth pondering: was the event it sought to explain and justify, the American War of …
The American taxpayer has become the cleanup crew for the American Police State. We pay for the constitutional violations. We pay for the wars. We pay for the lawsuits, …
There’s an old, humorous and semi-serious piece of strategy advice often dispensed to new lawyers which holds, “When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. When the law is on your side, …
U.S. President Donald Trump loves being "first." Whenever something newsworthy happens, big or small, in fact or in fantasy, he reliably touts it as being unprecedented in American, possibly even …
It has long been a dodge to respond to chronic fiscal gaps with a promise to tackle “waste, fraud, and abuse.” A recent example came from the Artful Dodger himself, Donald Trump, who said on …
We now officially have a new chair of the Federal Reserve (the Fed), Kevin Warsh. Mr. Warsh was appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate. He will serve a four-year term as the …
America has become an occupied nation. Not by one invading army, but by many occupying powers: the police state, the surveillance state, the war state, the corporate state, the foreign influence …