What America’s Jacobins Would like to Do
The picture above epitomizes what the American Left would like to do to American society. Their antipathy to President Trump and the Republicans was generated by their overweening desire to … Read More
Tag: dirigisme
Failures in Progressive Thinking
I was reading an essay in Foreign Affairs magazine recently entitled The Broken Bargain. It was about the multifarious populist and nationalist revolts among Western electorates over the last few … Read More
Western Dirigiste Elites: The Creators of Western Political and Economic Dysfunction
A growing divide has been building for at least a decade between Western dirigiste elites and the peoples they purport to rule. This breach has become large enough to inspire … Read More
Ideological Labels: Nationalism, Conservatism, Liberalism, Progressivism, Neoliberalism
I have just read a thought-provoking article on The American Interest website entitled National Conservatism: A Guide for the Perplexed. The post, written by Aaron Sibarium, notes how political and ideological … Read More
The Rahn Curve: What Makes Economies Grow?
Recently, I read an article by Richard W. Rahn about public hoaxes. Although he wrote mostly about the Trump Russian collusion delusion, the most important part of his essay was … Read More
Balance of Social Justice with Human Freedom in the Social Contract
What should the social contract between the rulers and the ruled be? Responses to this single question are the sources of our growing political conflict. As the image above suggests, … Read More
Income Distribution and Economic Freedom
The vicious ideological warfare between the Left and the Right is caused by one salient question: Just how useful is government in solving social and economic problems? A subsidiary issue … Read More
Confirmation Bias: Who Is Most Guilty?
Using a compass and a map to find one’s desired direction. Wikimedia Commons / Audrius Meskauskas Echo chambers for different ideological orientations abound throughout the modern world. One can see them … Read More
Is Trump Killing the Liberal World Order?
A NATO naval fleet including warships from five nations. In four descending columns, from left to right: ITS Maestrale (F 570), De Grasse (D 612); USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74), … Read More
Western Elites Still Stunned By Populist Revolts
Faces of American Populism: On the Left, Bernie Sanders Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore On the Right, Donald Trump Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore Western elites … Read More
How Neoliberals Should Respond To Progressives
A 1795 view of political debates that could pass for today! Wikimedia Commons / Issac Cruikshank (1756-1811) This essay is a cri de coeur from yours truly about what I see … Read More
The Rot Goes Deep in the Democratic Party
Democratic Party workers watching the presidential election returns in shock on the night of November 8, 2016. Photo Credit: AP / Matt Rourke One might expect such a lurid title … Read More
How Can So Many See Such Different Realities?
Everyone holds different pieces of the puzzle! © CanStock Photo I am endlessly fascinated by how we all ostensibly live in the same universe, yet we all see such different … Read More
The French Elite Is Snubbed
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, winners of the April 23, 2017 first round of the French presidential election, will face off in the second round on May 7, 2017. … Read More
Does the Populist Revolt of the West Against Its Elites Continue?
The major French presidential candidates for 2017. From Left to Right: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Communist (Wikimedia Commons / MathieuMD), Emmanuel Macron, Center-Left En Marche! movement (Wikimedia Commons / Ecole polytechnique Université Paris), François … Read More
More Historical Lessons From Europe
GDP per capita in Europe in 2014. According to the World Bank, the U.S. GDP per capita in the same year was $54,540. Wikimedia Commons In this post, I will continue my … Read More
Obama’s Seizure of Legislative Power
President Obama negotiating with congressional leaders in November 2012 during the fiscal cliff debate Wikimedia Commons / Voice of America This is a story about how the Democratic Party became … Read More
Can Americans See Only the Yin and Not the Yang?
The Yin and Yang of our ideological realities (c) Can Stock Photo / arkela Light and Dark. Good and Evil. What you are For and What you are Against. Yang and … Read More
Dirigisme No Longer Works. What Replaces It?
Line of shoppers in front of a Polish shop in the 1980s. A common sight in Warsaw pact countries ruled by communism. Wikimedia Commons Actually, dirigisme as a way of … Read More
Get Ready For the Real Revolution!
President-Elect Donald Trump conversing with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, November 10, 2016 Wikimedia Commons / Pete Souza The shell-shocked mass media and progressive pundits still are having … Read More
Obama Has Not Produced An Economic Recovery
Plot of annual Real U.S. GDP per capita growth in percent averaged over ten year periods The Gallup Organization Despite all the parroting by much of the media, Obama has … Read More
European Dirigisme Continues to Unravel
Italy’s Beppe Grillo, head of the Italian Five-Star Movement in 2012 Wikimedia Commons / Niccolò Caranti Last Sunday’s Italian constitutional referendum marks yet another step in the slow unraveling of … Read More
Delusions of Progressives and Other Dirigistes
“For now we see through a glass darkly . . .”, Holy Bible, King James Version, 1 Corinthians 13:12 Flickr.com / David Singleton As history has shown us over and … Read More
Turning of the Tide of Dirigisme?
Karl Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883): Is his time finally finished? Wikimedia Commons / John Jabez Edwin Mayall The administration of President Barack Obama may have marked the high-water mark … Read More