Fix the Subways in Hours?
Donald Trump famously said he could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, yet the war is still raging more than two months after he took office. In the same way, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy...
View ArticleCalifornia's Population Bump Won't Make Up for Its Long-term Slide
When the U.S. Census Bureau recently revealed a small increase in California’s population, it came as a welcome sign to some that the state was growing again. The data even showed a slightly reduced...
View ArticleCoal Coal Baby
Net zero and decarbonization pledges are a dime a dozen.Earlier this month, the Australian government released an update to its “Net Zero in Government Operations Annual Progress Report.” The 65-page...
View ArticleClimate Change Is Driving California’s Golden Road to Decline: Part 1
This is the first of two essays on issues facing California.“From the Beginning, California promised much. While yet barely a name on the map, it entered American awareness as a symbol of renewal. It...
View ArticleWays Out of California's Forest of Problems: Part 2
The second of two reported essays on the issues facing California. Read the first installment here.California’s wide range of problems – including declining schools, widening inequality, rising housing...
View ArticleGovernor Targets More Apartment Construction, So of Course Fewer Are Built
On her first day in office, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed an executive order calling for the construction of 36,000 new homes per year. She was especially hoping for lots of new apartments because,...
View ArticleIf Carney Brings Canada Closer to Europe, Financial Ruin Would Follow
U.S. President Donald Trump’s mindless, and frankly pointless, comments about Canada becoming the 51st state have stirred up latent Canadian patriotism. But it also may result in Canada, which is...
View ArticleForever 20
If you let the popularity of an idea – no matter how silly - dictate your stance, then you are not a very good elected official.If you completely ignore and shoo-away and disparage overwhelming public...
View ArticleAre the Democrats Drifting Further Left?
The Democrats are at a historic ebb and now is a good time to examine what the party believes in, who its main protagonists are and what their agenda is. Amid the fraught divisions in the party,...
View ArticleBig Business At The (Inflation Reduction Act) Trough
The late economist Milton Friedman famously declared that “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”Friedman’s line comes to mind because a lobbying frenzy is underway in Washington,...
View ArticleTrump is Right to Take On the Free Trade Fundamentalists
It’s easy to dismiss Donald Trump’s haphazard tariff barrage as silly and self-defeating, especially after so many days of global market turmoil. But critics among liberal Democrats and Republican free...
View ArticleFrance and America's Cold War
French president Emmanuel Macron had an unusually good relationship with US president Donald Trump during the latter’s first term.There are numerous photos of them smiling and laughing together as the...
View Article‘American Oasis’ Review: The Lure of the Desert
Hating the Southwest, particularly its burgeoning cities such as Phoenix, is de rigueur in American media. Jon Stewart has called Arizona “the meth lab of democracy.” Hunter S. Thompson described hell...
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The Profoundly Misunderstood Housing Affordability Crisis
Over the last half-century, more restrictive urban planning policies have been associated with undermined housing affordability for the middle class. Given the primacy of housing costs in household...
View ArticleCan Democrats Exploit Trump's Tariff Chaos?
As with many political movements, MAGA represents a fragile coalition of groups that often have little in common — and, at the extremes, may even detest one another.This tension has been brought into...
View ArticleTrain in Vain
Ten thousand years from now, future archaeologists will be allowed back into the wasteland that was once known as California.They will find many wonderous things but what they come across in Central...
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The "Great Bones" of Rust Belt Cities
I went to St. Louis over the weekend, and I was reminded how much I love the way St. Louis neighborhoods look. The city has wonderful vernacular architecture that leads to beautiful neighborhoods at a...
View Article5 Reasons Why I'm Cancelling My Subscription to The New York Times
We have lived in Austin for 40 years. And for nearly all of that time, Lorin and I have subscribed to the New York Times. For decades, we took the paper version. When that got too pricey, we switched...
View ArticleSlightly Higher Speed Rail
New York University’s Marron Institute just released a report saying that Amtrak and commuter-rail lines could improve their service by making what the institute believes are low-cost changes to their...
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After Pope Francis, The Vatican Must Embrace Energy Humanism
Pope Francis was a historic figure. He was the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere. He was the first pope to take the name Francis, a nod to St. Francis of...
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