Poverty and Politics
According to a story in the Associated Press, “the ranks of America’s poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century.” The story goes on to say that poverty, which is closely tied...
View ArticleWhy Is North Korea So Poor?
The answer should be stunningly obvious, but don’t tell Reuters. In the course of an article about the divergent fates that await victorious North Korean athletes and those who have failed, comes this:...
View ArticleThe President, His Budget, and the Poor
There is much one could say about President Obama’s Rose Garden statement on Wednesday announcing his FY 2014 budget. On the plus side, the president endorsed a “chained CPI”–a measure of inflation...
View ArticlePaul Ryan’s Quiet Anti-Poverty Quest
What should be the goal of conservative anti-poverty programs? The obvious answer is: help those in poverty find their way to some measure of economic security. That, at least, is what the subjects of...
View ArticleConservatives and Poverty
In a recent Mars Hill Audio Journal discussion, Ken Myers interviewed the church historian Peter Brown on the early church’s approach to wealth and poverty. (Brown is also author of the masterful 1967...
View ArticlePoverty, Social Mobility, and the Party of Lincoln
Yesterday Senator Marco Rubio delivered a major speech on poverty and social mobility. It’s impressive for several reasons. While not ignoring the issue of income inequality, he made what I think is...
View ArticleCBO: Minimum Wage Snake Oil
Which of the following two factors would have the greatest impact on the economy: Raising the wages of less than a million Americans from slightly below the poverty line to slightly above it or putting...
View ArticleInequality’s Inconvenient Truths
Pop quiz: which Tea Party fiscal conservative said the following: “If you want to live in a more equal community, it might mean living in a more moribund economy.” Since this is obviously a trick...
View ArticleThe Liberal Slandering of Paul Ryan
If you want to know how fearful the left is of Paul Ryan, consider the efforts they make to slander him. In the past, they’ve portrayed him as someone eager to (literally) throw grandma over a cliff....
View Article“Something That Was Not Imaginable 40 years Ago Has Happened”
Ron Haskins, co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, has written a sobering and important essay for National Affairs on marriage, parenthood, and public policy....
View ArticleThomas Piketty and the Financial Times
The French economist Thomas Piketty has made quite a splash with his new book Capital in the 21st Century, which is now No. 5 on Amazon’s bestseller list. That’s an amazing achievement for a book that...
View ArticleSeeking the Welfare of the City
Representative Paul Ryan yesterday released a 73-page plan aimed at reforming anti-poverty programs and increasing social mobility. The deficit-neutral plan would consolidate nearly a dozen federal...
View ArticleHas Romney Really Thought This Out Yet?
Days after telling supporters that he is considering another run for the presidency, Mitt Romney appears to be moving quickly to prepare his campaign and to give it a clear rationale. Given that only a...
View ArticleThere Is No Such Thing as a Secular Politics
You can learn a lot by running for vice president. Especially if you weren’t a vanquished opponent who tried to win the nomination but simply plucked from Congress and thrust into the national...
View ArticleObama’s Policies, Not Fox, Hurt the Poor
Yesterday, during a conversation about poverty at the Catholic-Evangelical Summit at Georgetown University, President Obama employed his favorite rhetorical device — a straw man opponent for his...
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