Think Tank West

The government has taken the sensible step of creating a website to disseminate information on the Swine Flu.  There’s even a “Swine Flu & You” section. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Vice President Biden. On the Today Show, Biden lauded the government’s focus on identified vectors and not on a wholesale closing of the border [...]

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With a vote expected today on the so-called Credit Card Holders’ Bill of Rights, the U.S. House is poised to follow up on President Obama’s finger-wagging rhetoric about fees and other perceived sins of the credit industry. But Congress should keep in mind that credit cards have been a significant source of consumer liquidity during this [...]

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Yesterday, I had an op-ed go up on Townhall.com summarizing what I think of President Obama’s first 100 days when it comes to education. Long story short: Lots of nice-sounding rhetoric, but the opposite of real reform. Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan — who has embodied the administration’s all-talk, awful-action approach to education — did me a real [...]

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A small group of Chrysler debt holders rejected the Obama administration’s restructuring plan last night, leaving Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the most salient option for the company. The Obama administration accused the investors who walked away of “failure to act…in the national interest.” But it’s not difficult to understand why these secured creditors rejected the [...]

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There were many compelling speakers in South Carolina last week making the case for school choice. This man, Colonel Nathaniel Green, was one of the best. In about two 1/2 minutes, he explains better than I ever could why a top-down system doesn’t work for many children. I liked it so much, I’ve also transcribed [...]

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Unlike with wiretaps, law enforcement agents are not required by federal statutes to obtain search warrants before employing pen registers or trap and trace devices. These devices record non-content information regarding telephone calls and Internet communications. (Of course, “non-content information” has quite a bit of content – who is talking to whom, how often, and [...]

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Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center (and formerly with Cato) narrates a new video warning that it would be a mistake to turn America into a European-style welfare state, which is the fate of her native country. The video is a joint production of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Reason TV. Enjoy.

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Yesterday the House and Senate passed a bloated $3.5 trillion budget blueprint for fiscal year 2010.  According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), “What is important to us as a nation is reflected in this budget. It’s a very happy day for our country.” Included in the blueprint is language that calls for an equal [...]

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Congress and the Obama administration issued a death sentence for the District’s Opportunity Scholarship Program. That means more than 1,700 students could be forced out of good schools into the dangerous, failing, and expensive DC public school system. Everyone who cares about these children and school choice should head to Freedom Plaza this coming Wednesday, [...]

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Many people would agree that modern-day Somalia represents a Hobbesian state of nature. But could anarchy strengthen Somalia’s private sector? This article is certainly very old, but I came across it yesterday and thought the argument would be of interest to political theorists and classical liberals: …local businesspeople find it easier to do business in [...]

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