Think Tank West

Daniel Henninger shares the good news in the Wall Street Journal today: The war on terror is over! Unfortunately, he appears to bemoan that development. The excesses of the “war on terror” will—regrettably, to him—be reined in by lawyers. His basic thesis is, very roughly: Lawyers interfere with good things. Lawyers are going to interfere [...]

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If you think you’re going to keep your health insurance plan under the bill currently in Congress, think again. Why France is bouncing back from the recession more quickly than the United States. Why it’s high time to abolish the Department of Homeland Security. How air drone strikes are undermining U.S. relations with Pakistan. Podcast: [...]

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Some well-known bloggers are being terrible bullies, beating up on private schools. Felix Salmon kicks things off by hoping the government tightens the definition of a “charitable” organization and begins taxing private schools who don’t “do a bit more to earn it.” Matt Yglesias agrees that private schools are mooching deadbeats and ups the ante, [...]

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A story in USA Today is a perfect illustration of the liberalizing power of tax competition. In an effort to attract more jobs and investment, states are competing with each – even taking the aggressive step of advertising in high-tax states. This does not guarantee that states will always use the best approach since states [...]

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While the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency constantly raids factories and workplaces looking for peaceful and hard-working undocumented immigrants to kick out of the country, the same federal government agency brings to the U.S. dangerous Mexican drug traffickers who—while continuing their criminal activities in Mexico and the U.S.—also serve as informants to the federal authorities [...]

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Just when you were thinking it was safe to go back into the mortgage market, today’s Wall Street Journal  is highlighting the next source of mortgage fraud, the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) reserve mortgage program.  In a typical reverse mortgage, the bank sends the borrower a monthly check (or a lump sum payment at the [...]

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In goading victim states to overreact, one of the things terrorists seek is confirmation of their ideological narrative. The story Islamist terrorists tell themselves and others is that the United States is a wicked power, an occupier, a Crusader, and an exploiter of Muslims. Terrorists are energized, and they have an easier time with recruiting [...]

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A Bloomberg story on one cause of the ongoing British economic disaster under Prime Minister Gordon Brown: Andrew Wesbecher moved to London from New York in 2006 to sell software to banks and hedge funds. This month he joined the exodus of American expatriates fleeing high taxes and the city’s shrinking financial industry . . [...]

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Time for another “THE SCHOOLS HAVE NO MONEY!” report from the WaPo: The largest-ever infusion of federal cash is flowing into public school classrooms this year in the form of new programs and thousands of restored jobs. The stimulus package — $100 billion over two years — comes with similarly sized expectations. . . Even [...]

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Recently Anheuser-Busch  hit upon the marketing idea of selling Bud Light beer in cans decorated with the college-team colors.  As the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) doesn’t have much else to do - its not like there’s been say fraud going on in the mortgage market – it quickly turned its attention to the issue, expressing “grave concern” [...]

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