For all the tumult of today, we as a nation are merely dithering around the edges of the most critical question of our times – do we stop or go?  read more »

We are entering a new urban epoch, with the potential to disrupt city life in ways not unlike that created in the shift from an industrial to what Jean Gottman described in 1983 as the “transactional city.”  read more »

The proper size of government permeates public policy discussions about homelessness, poverty, and health care. The left and right debate varying degrees of government involvement, typically failing to act and often deteriorating into a state of policy paralysis.  read more »

It is difficult, given what Silicon Valley has become, to convey exactly what it was like in the 1970s and ‘80s. It was a remarkable center of technology, but also the embodiment of the spirit of capitalism at its very best, as epitomized by garage start-ups like Apple. Greed, of course, is always a human motivation, but the early Valley culture was created by entrepreneurial outsiders who genuinely wanted to make the world better.  read more »

For nearly all the 20th century, California was the national growth leader. In every census from 1930 to 2000, California added more residents than any other state.  read more »

President Biden may have received a rapturous welcome in Ireland, but Democratic strategists in Washington will have taken little notice.  read more »

Deep Throat never said, “follow the money.”

That phrase, which has become one of the most famous axioms in politics and journalism, was featured in the 1976 movie “All the President’s Men,” which starred Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford.  read more »

Throughout history, more powerful nations have preyed on smaller ones, as is now being demonstrated by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Yet for those outside Europe, China’s economic power makes it a far more formidable threat to democracy than neo-tsarist Russia  read more »

For decades, a large majority of black Americans have aligned with the Democratic Party, but the modern-day Democratics Party's leftward shift may cause a reevaluation of that relationship.  read more »

In 2007, I interviewed Vaclav Smil by email. I asked the Canadian polymath and prolific author a simple question: why are so many people so easily duped when it comes to discussions about energy and power?  read more »