Injustice not Inequality is What Matters for Equity
No easy answers for questions about wealth and poverty. Few rich people want to be poor but many with low-incomes wish they were rich or at least earned more. People wonder about the sources...
Economic Thinking Posts on Debate Topics
From Network Narratives to Russian Nihilism
Life is better for many and worse for some. The stories people read and hear shape how they understand wealth or poverty in their own lives. We compare our life to those around us...
Time for Cameras to Look Back at the 40 Federal Agencies’ Undercover Police and Courts
Expanded use of body cameras can both protect police from false allegations of unnecessary violence and protect citizens from unnecessary police violence. Federal legislation has been proposed to mandate body camera be used by...
Electronic Surveillance: Turn On Cameras When Police Tasers Are Turned On
Taser International says lives are saved when police use Tasers instead of guns. According to Taser’s website, some 133,845 lives have been saved by Tasers so far. As people on the receiving end of...
Electronic Surveillance For Countering Terrorism And Stifling Dissent
It would be handy to burn a bright line between countering foreign espionage and stifling domestic dissent. That line turns out to be difficult to draw and maintain when governments under stress confuse critics...
LearnLiberty.org Electronic Surveillance Videos
For students researching federal electronic surveillance policy, LearnLiberty.org offers a number of online videos. Here is one with Jim Otteson on the Fourth Amendment, Does the NSA Violate Your Constitutional Rights? | Learn Liberty The...
Overseas Interventions As Testing Grounds for Government Intervention at Home
The United States doesn’t run an old-style foreign empire. But the U.S. government operates an”experimental empire” when foreign military operations open the door to testing large-scale “nation-building” projects. Quotes because such projects never actually...
Oil Platforms as “Towers of Life” Enriching the Oceans
What if giant offshore oil platforms created more long-term value as marine habitats than from pumping oil from deep under the sea? Consider the case of oil platforms off the coast of California. A...
U.S. Middle East Policy: At Least Do No Harm
Mistake happen and foreign policy goals sometimes collide. Two U.S. policies currently colliding are support and protection of the Kurds in northern Iraq, and support for a unified Iraq. In his WSJ opinion article...
There Was a Federal Agency That Swallowed a Fly
Federal electronic surveillance of financial transactions are part of a large-scale effort to ensnare drug dealers and terrorists. But lots of everyday people get caught up in IRS and NSA webs as well. Megan...