Subscribe to be notified of new posts and articles
-
Tax cut absolutists strike at nation’s lifeblood
A throwaway comment in the July 25 broadcast of NPR’s “On Point” stopped me in my tracks. (If you don’t listen to Tom Ashbrook motoring incisively at speed through incredibly sticky issues, you’re missing some of the best public-affairs programming on air.) In a program on the debt debate, Daniel Mitchell, ostensibly an expert on tax policy at the Read more
-
Two Unmentionable Words
I was in Salt Lake City some time ago and was advised sotto voce that it would be unwise to voice a certain term. In Kansas it’s just not done either, a local explained. Bruce Katz, who heads the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute no less, suggested less offensive words. These unutterable words? Climate change. Read more
-
Stop the Debt Limit Madness
I would not usually comment on the alleged deficit debate — built around a ginned-up debt-limit-raising “crisis.” But it has move to a new level of fantastical unreality as it allegedly reach its endgame. The conservative radicals in Congress want tax breaks off the table even though many are really juicy targets. Democrats have succumbed Read more
-
Book, The Agile City, arrives in May!
I did not expect my book to be so grimly well-timed. The nuclear tragedy in Japan may do permanent damage to nuclear as a “clean” energy source for the future. Spiking oil prices are making at least a few of us think about how we can use less energy. The Agile City makes a case for conservation—through Read more
-
Why Ban the Beltways
Houston’s third outer beltway would bisect the precious Katy Prairie, but at least it’s advocates are honest about its purpose according to this Streetsblog post: to aid development not mobility. There’s plenty of unmet transportation demand around Houston but it is outer-outer suburban developers who get state road dollars to pave access to their doors — Read more
James S. Russell 