Since the time of Sir Robert Peel (Prime Minister 1834-35, 1841-46) the British Conservative party has been notorious for its inability to conserve anything worthwhile, let alone to restore anything that its opponents had dismantled. For a few years in the 1980s, it appeared that Margaret Thatcher, while imperfect on several issues, had reversed this tendency, and was making Britain a country in which a free market conservative might reasonably want to live. Alas, her ouster in 1990 led to a rapid reversal of many of her policies, and the recent Conservative governments since 2010 have followed the traditions of the Quisling 1945-75 period rather than those of Thatcher herself. Continue reading →

The Federal Trade Commission under its fearless leftist chair Lina Khan is proposing to ban non-compete agreements, which prevent employees from working for a competitor for an often lengthy period after their departure and are applied to some 30 million U.S. employees. The usual Chamber of Commerce types and “conservative” journalists have squawked, arguing that Ms. Khan is a hardline Marxist (possibly true) and that she is eating away the very foundations of free market capitalism. Well, I have news for them: partly because of the Fed’s “funny money” policies over the last decade, the U.S. economy is now thoroughly corporatist, not capitalist, and moves like this proposal that free workers from wage serfdom are highly beneficial. Continue reading →

The reputations of past Presidents are continually being re-evaluated. Woodrow Wilson, a demi-god at the time of the 1944 film “Wilson,” has now been sharply downgraded by both left (for his racism) and right (for his rigid Progressivism and his share in the disastrous Versailles Treaty). Conversely, Harry Truman and Calvin Coolidge have been rehabilitated by history. Another such rehabilitation is being attempted on Dwight Eisenhower, not highly regarded at the time of his departure; I will argue that the rehabilitators are wrong, and that for several reasons he was a thoroughly unsatisfactory President. Continue reading →

The admirable Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R.-Ga.), my favorite Congressperson, this week called for a “national divorce” by which “blue states” and “red states” would separate, thereby allowing the “red states” to form a smaller union of the like-minded: Christian, capitalist and economically vibrant. It’s a lovely idea, but the new Red America, increasingly wealthy yet ideologically alone in the world, would be immediately subject to attack, possibly by direct military action, certainly by massive subversion. Freedom cannot now be established in a universally hostile world; it requires a new home of its own, attainable only through space exploration. Continue reading →

President Joe Biden, in his State of the Union address last week, scored a moral victory over the Republicans by accusing them of wanting to cut the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs, thereby forcing them to deny any such intention. However, the actuarial reality is clear: Medicare will become insolvent around 2027 and Social Security around 2035. New funding will have to be found; I have one suggestion: to abolish the tax deductions and exemptions enjoyed by charities. Continue reading →

The Davos leaders last week bemoaned increasing protectionism, attacking opponents of globalization as economic illiterates. Yet there seems no reason a priori why trade should be less subject to tax than any other human activity, and with today’s gigantic governments the need for revenue is very real. Free trade benefits some countries much more than others; today, even without extravagant cheating, it is an unnecessary handout to China’s thoroughly unpleasant regime. A balanced polity, global as well as national, is at least somewhat protectionist. Continue reading →