http://thinktankwest.com ...The best ideas from the institutes Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:15:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By David RittgersAs I previously noted, one of the areas where enforcement of the right to keep and bear arms will impact states and localities is in the carrying of handguns, either open or concealed. Until then, handgun carry proponents will be forced to comply with state laws that mandate ... http://thinktankwest.com/american-foreign-policy/open-carry-victory By Chris Moody Busy with an ambitious domestic agenda, the Obama administration has put trade issues on the back burner. Let’s hope it stays that way. A little lesson on how government works. (As opposed to how it’s supposed to work.) There has been talk that House Democrats are planning to “deem” the ... http://thinktankwest.com/american-foreign-policy/wednesday-links-23 By Michael F. CannonDavid Goldhill has done it again. You may recall his article, “How American Health Care Killed My Father,” from the September 2009 issue of The Atlantic. Now, at HuffingtonPost, he comments on the health care legislation that may soon face a final vote (of some sort) in the House: [C]ontinuing ... http://thinktankwest.com/american-foreign-policy/david-goldhill-%e2%80%9ca-democrat%e2%80%99s-case-for-%e2%80%98no%e2%80%99%e2%80%9d By Mark A. CalabriaMoody’s has announced that it will change its methods for rating debt issued by state and local governments.  Politicians have argued that its current ratings ignore the historically low default rate of municipal bonds, resulting in higher interest rates being paid on muni debt, or so argue ... http://thinktankwest.com/american-foreign-policy/moody%e2%80%99s-caves-in-to-political-pressure-on-municipal-bonds By Andrew J. CoulsonMatt Ladner of the Goldwater Institute takes a good long look at national education standards on the Jay Greene blog. What, he asks, can we learn from the 1990s welfare policy debate and its outcomes? http://thinktankwest.com/american-foreign-policy/will-more-centralization-improve-education-standards By Daniel J. MitchellThe Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that the so-called stimulus generated jobs and growth. I addressed some of the profound shortcomings in CBO’s Keynesian model in a previous post, pointing out that the model is structured to produce certain results regardless of what happens in the real ... http://thinktankwest.com/american-foreign-policy/a-confession-from-the-cbo-director