California Ruled with Great Jobs and Boom Times. What Happened?
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s constant reminders that California’s economy ”leads the nation” as well as being a model for social justice are delusional. To be sure, California has a huge GDP, paced largely by...
View ArticleChristianity Around the World; Gift Card Industry and More
This week, the new Syrian authorities declared Christmas a public holiday. This brought some reassurance to local communities that worried about the new regime and Sunni majority’s treatment of...
View ArticleThe Democrats Need to Get Over Their Delusions
Since the election conservatives have assumed that the results represent a “mandate” for their political agenda, as well as a confirmation of their version of national identity. Yet in reality, the...
View ArticleWhy Can't America Build Better Cities?
Today’s piece will be a little nerdy, perhaps a little lecture-y. You’ve been forewarned.I often think about why American cities seem almost incapable of capitalizing on their assets, of routinely and...
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United States Moves to the South
For years, the US South has done very well in net domestic migration (moving into the region from another region of the United States. Since the 2020 census, only the South region gained net domestic...
View ArticleWhy Both Sides Are Right in the H-1B Visas Row
The current clashes over high-skilled immigration between Donald Trump’s right-wing base and his ‘first buddy’, Elon Musk, reveal a fundamental divide within the US president’s odd coalition. On one...
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Osage Tribe Wins Again: Federal Judge Orders “Ejectment” Of 84 Wind Turbines...
Somewhere, Chief James Bigheart must be doing a victory dance.On Wednesday, the Osage Nation prevailed again in federal court in Tulsa, winning a decisive ruling in the longest-running legal battle...
View ArticleThe Battle of the Oligarchs
Money and power have rarely been strangers; often nations are made to shudder when the ruling elites battle each other. Britain’s late empire was divided between liberal manufacturers and aristocratic...
View ArticleTaxes and Government Spending Are Crowding Out Growth in Europe
A long-term trend which is continuing, is that the US is running ahead of Europe in terms of prosperity. In 2024, the US economy grew by 2.8 percent, according to the World Economic Outlook, compared...
View ArticleWhy Europe and America Need Each Other
European elites are greeting the incoming Trump administration with something less than enthusiasm. The UK has sent an ambassador to Washington with a well-expressed disdain for the returning US...
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Eastern Europe's Thriving Talent Market
Modern economies are increasingly driven by talent supply, and talent is often associated with the level of formal education degrees. Yet, across the Atlantic there are large differences in the...
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Modal Reliability in the US Work Access (Journey to Work)
Data in the 2022 National Household Travel Survey (NTHS) provides insight into the daily frequency of daily commuting by the mode characterized as “usual” in survey (See: Summary of Travel Trends: 2022...
View ArticleLA's Dreams Went Up in Flames
The fire still engulfing large swaths of Los Angeles has done more than destroy homes, businesses, and livelihoods. It has scorched the whole dream of Los Angeles, part of a downward spiral unfolding...
View ArticleBass Faces Fire—Both Literal and Political—Amid LA’s Worst Disaster
When I was studying for my Project Management Professional certification several years ago, part of the content included disaster planning. I reviewed a case study of a project manager who planned a...
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A Quarter Century of Net Domestic Migration
Between 2000 and 2024, there has been substantial movement between the states — net domestic migration. The source of the data is the Census Bureau population estimates program, which is generally...
View ArticleLA Fires are the Horrifying Consequence of Democratic Misrule
Los Angeles authorities’ poor preparation for and lamentable response to the wildfires now devastating the city capture a broader problem – namely, the failure of governance across America’s...
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Here's the Real Hockey Stick
In 2005, Scientific American published an article saying that the hockey stick graph published a few years earlier by Michael Mann, an academic who now works at the University of Pennsylvania, had...
View ArticleThe Great Dumbing Down of American Education
America’s universities may be a disgrace, but the deeper problems with our education system lie with grades K-12. Higher education still ranks as a U.S. strength that other countries might admire—but...
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New Report: Bad Climate for Housing
From the start, California’s “landmark” climate law recognized that because global warming is a planetary wide phenomena , the state could only have “far-reaching” effects by “encouraging other states,...
View ArticleEven Hollywood is Turning on LA Mayor Karen Bass
After her election as mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, Karen Bass was a heroine of California’s Left. A former backer of Fidel Castro, she decisively defeated billionaire businessman Rick Caruso, who...
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