The Good Life

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “I ran out of money in my final semester of graduate school. My first teaching job awaited me in the fall semester, but I had no income for the three summer months before then. “So I gave up my apartment and moved into a shared house with

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Some parts of the world really are environmental Hells. They are dirty and depleted, making them unhealthy and economically unsustainable. We can argue about the severity of various places’ problems, but I want to focus on another aspect of the debate: determining accurately the causes of the degradation so we can

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Many smart people — including Thomas Friedman in The New York Times, Naser Khader in Newsweek, John Lloyd in The Jerusalem Post, Ayann Hirsi Ali in The Wall Street Journal — are hoping that the Reformation will come to Islam. Some are calling for an Islamic Martin Luther. “Sorry, but no. Islam needs reforming but definitely not a Reformation. “The history matters here, so consider

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Bad things happen in free markets. Some people lie, cut corners, commit fraud, and write bad checks. Others renege on contracts, offer or accept bribes, give kickbacks, embezzle, and more. “Often this translates into an argument for government regulation. Free markets maximize liberty, the argument runs, so they

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “In our era of Keynesian economics on steroids, we should ask: How close is current Keynesian practice to original Keynesian theory? “John Maynard Keynes‘s main claim to fame is his advocacy of deficit spending as a tool of economic recovery. In a depressed economy, the argument runs, the government

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Strange times for free speech. “A century ago, Germany was the authoritarian nation. Kaiser Wilhelm was presiding over its efforts in World War I, and young Adolf Hitler was working toward his opportunity in World War II. At the same time, Britain and America were havens of

The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “German authorities will allow the republication of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, after decades of censorship. “Decent people can argue that the book is too dangerous to be published. But the fact is that Mein Kampf is too dangerous not to be published. “The great fear is that Hitler’s ideas are not dead and that his