Among the many distressing aspects of the presidential impeachment now underway is the perception that extorting a foreign leader to investigate the President’s rivals is unsavory but not important enough to merit impeachment. The President’s defenders are pushing this specious line unrelentingly presumably because they think a lot of people will accept it. This totally outrages me, but paradoxically, our era of far less crime—and far less crime committed by public officials—may have led … [Read more...]
It Should Not Be Bad for Cities to be Rich
If you missed it, it’s worth catching up on the brilliant Emily Badger’s Upshot column in the New York Times that appealingly focuses on cities scared of becoming Manhattanized, or San Franciscoed, or Seattleified. These cities create a great deal of wealth and tens of thousands of jobs that pay six figures. But they are all unaffordable, afflicted with homelessness, and strangled by traffic. Wealth needn’t come at so high a price. The cities and their high-paying … [Read more...]
Can Amazon Be . . . Gasp . . . Good for New York?
“Stop Amazon!” is increasingly the mantra of activists in New York, referring to the new $5 billion campus the company is slated to develop in Long Island City, Queens. With righteous rage, city council members at a hearing demanded the company stop cooperating with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on facial-recognition software and end their union-resisting stance. Progressives have made stopping Amazon a cause. They're gentrifiers! (Sorry, that ship has sailed...) They exploit … [Read more...]
Questions for Brett Kavanaugh
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will no doubt be subjected to detailed questioning this week about his substantial record as a jurist. Kavanaugh has been groomed through the equivalent of a far-right judicial finishing school, and has reliably reflected those very conservative views of the law. Indeed, the farthest he seems to have strayed from Washington, D. C. and Bethesda, where he grew up, is Yale where he obtained both his undergraduate and law degree. I think most of us, whatever … [Read more...]
Tax Plan to Cities: Drop Dead
You may have paid little attention to the tax plan rushing headlong through Congress. It has been advertised as a middle-class tax break and an inducement to business to create jobs through a dramatically lowered corporate tax rate. Pay attention, especially if you live in a city or suburb, as most of us do. Media and opponents of the plan have focused on the elimination or possible reduction in the deduction for state and local taxes and a possible $500,000 cap on deduction … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 9
- Next Page »