The Independent Republics of Big Tech Are the Biggest Threat to Democracy

big-tech-threat-to-democracy.png

The Department of Homeland Security revealed last week that it was creating a Disinformation Governance Board to distribute "best practices" for countering disinformation.  read more »

The "Myth" of Russian Gas

pipeline-route-europe-russia.jpg

Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine may be paid for with its oil and gas sales to Europe, but this gift is one that may stop giving. Russia’s oil resources are increasingly located in the hardest to reach areas  read more »

Subjects:

Revisiting Mitch Daniels' "Truce" on Social Issues

George_Floyd_protests_downtown_Indianapolis_2020-05-29.jpg

There’s a myth in Indianapolis Republican circles that goes something like this: back in the good old days, the Indiana GOP was made up of high minded, moderate statesmen from metro Indianapolis like Richard Lugar and Bill Hudnut.  read more »

Why We Want Our Own Home

real-estate-open-house-home-property.jpg

The nation is witnessing a surge in interest and demand for individual homes around the country. Home inventory is now quite low and even with higher interest rates looming, demand remains high and bidding wars are still common.  read more »

Do We Need a Capitalist Civil War?

pay-workplace-satisfaction.jpg

We Americans like to think of ourselves as a thoroughly modern people — living proof of what, with enough toil and grit, the rest of the free world can one day hope to be. And yet for all our progressivism and idealism, America’s political culture finds itself unable to escape the past. We may be living in a 21st century democracy, but that “democracy” increasingly resembles something that could have been plucked out of feudal Europe or, perhaps more accurately, feudal Japan.  read more »

Subjects:

Paying the Poorly Educated

metzgar-educationandjobs.png

Joe Biden was right to propose free Pre-K education for 3- and 4-year-olds and free community college in his initial legislative package, rather than pushing for free public university education and the cancellation of college debt.  read more »

America is Quietly Reinventing Itself

austin-downtown.jpg

The future shape of post-Covid America is beginning to emerge. As demographic trends and surveys indicate, the pandemic has helped accelerate large, epochal changes in the nation’s geography.  read more »

Americans Prefer Single-Family Neighborhoods

Portland_TOD.jpg

Many surveys have found that the vast majority of Americans, including Millennials, prefer or aspire to live in single-family homes. But surveys rarely ask whether they prefer that single-family home to be in a low-density neighborhood or if they would mind living next to a bunch of apartment buildings.  read more »

When "Restoring the Rust Belt" Becomes "Restoring the Urban Middle Class"

downtown-milwaukee.jpg

Here’s a followup to the post from earlier this week about my experience at a “Restoring the Urban Middle Class” conference in Houston a couple weeks ago.  read more »

Musk May Be One of Us, Setting Coastals Atwitter

elon-musk-buys-twitter.jpg

A few years ago, who’d have thunk it? But Elon Musk has earned his spurs as a resident of Flyover Country. Now he seems to be more like one of us than one of them.  read more »

Subjects: