Rising Taxes, Declining Jobs

Less Economic Freedom = Fewer Jobs for Americans, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 31, 2010. "What does America’s declining economic freedom mean for you? It means that America will create fewer jobs. And that means that Americans will be poorer, as well as less free."

Siemens (Sort of) Disengages from Iran

Annals of Disengagement, Contentions, January 29, 2010. "On Tuesday, Siemens, the German conglomerate, announced in its annual shareholders meeting that it has reduced its commercial ties with Iran. The next day, a company spokesman made that statement a bit more explicit: the company, he said, has 'decided not to conclude new contracts with commercial partners in Iran.'"

State of the Union Lacks Substance on Foreign Policy

The President Looks Inward, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 28, 2010. "In publicizing the President’s State of the Union address, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett announced that one of the achievements of which the administration was most proud in its first year in office was its action to repair “badly frayed global alliances” and “to restore America’s leadership in the world.” That leadership was not much in evidence in the President’s speech, which is only fitting, because it has been lacking in reality as well."

Example #6: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is a Bad Idea

The Media Spins More Nonsense About the Arms Trade Treaty, Contentions, January 28, 2010. "UPI is running a story that sums up a lot of bad reporting about a favorite liberal cause: the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty. The piece – headlined “Arms Trade Plagued By Corruption” – is halfway between reporting and editorializing. It’s occasioned by the arrest in Las Vegas, after a two-and-a-half-year undercover Department of Justice sting operation, of 22 Americans, Britons, Israelis, and others at an arms expo. They are charged with trying to bribe an individual they thought was an African defense minister to obtain a $15 million contract. Bribing foreign officials is a violation of the 1977 U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."

American Leadership on Economic Goes AWOL

U.S. Can't Lead on Economic Freedom When It's Retreating, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 28, 2010. "The news is out: the U.S. is falling behind on economic freedom. In the 2010 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom, the United States, for the first time, dropped out of the ranks of the free, and into those of the ‘mostly free,’ ranking eighth in the world and behind Canada in North America."

The Index of Economic Freedom on Britain

The Mostly Free Anglo-American Alliance, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 26, 2010. "The 2010 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom poses a frightening paradox. Around the world, the economically freest countries are, by and large, those with a British legacy. Indeed, the top five – Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland – were either founded or influenced by the British. Of the top ten states, only Denmark, Switzerland, and Chile were not, at one point, governed from London. The lesson should be clear: economic freedom, born of the thought of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, spread round the world with the English-speaking people, to the immense benefit of both their children and those who learned from them. And yet the two most important English-speaking countries today are sliding backwards."

Under Obama, Worse Relations with Democracies

Obama Fails to Value America's Real Friends, Yorkshire Post, January 16, 2010. "At the end of his first year in office, President Obama has an amazing achievement to his credit. Under his leadership, America's relations have worsened with all the friendly democracies around the world. His vaunted popularity has proved to be no substitute for appreciating the value of America's allies."

Cameron's Launch Speech on National Security

The Conservative Party and British National Security, Contentions, January 16, 2010. "In a major speech on Friday at Chatham House, David Cameron set out how the Conservative party would approach the issue of national security should it win the forthcoming general election. His theme was the value of connection — both domestically, with an emphasis on what Britain has to gain from better joined-up government, and abroad, emphasizing Britain’s need to see conflicts as a whole, and to respond to threats before they become crises."

Foreign Policy After The First Year

One Year Later: America Retreats From Global Leadership Under Obama, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 16, 2010. "The world needs American leadership. In the interwar years, we saw that the enemies of freedom advance when the great liberal and democratic powers of the day failed to lead. We saw it again in the dark years of the Cold War under President Carter. The alternative to an America willing and able to lead is not a paradise of peace through engagement. It is a world where the undemocratic, the unsatisfied, and the illiberal powers of the world advance at the expense of American ideals, American interests, and America’s allies."

Where's The Money Going in Defense?

Something Fishy in the Ministry of Defense, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 8, 2010. "American commentators, like Michael Barone, are starting to focus on the fact that, while the recession has hurt the private sector, it’s helping the public one. A Rasmussen poll found that 46 percent of government employees say the economy is getting better while just 31 percent say it’s getting worse. In the private sector, those proportions are reversed. While the private sector economy has lost millions of jobs, the public sector one has been stable. But anything the U.S. can do, Britain, in this context, can do worse."

The Next Excuse for Cuts

The Next Defense Crunch in Britain, Contentions, January 8, 2010. "Contracting out in defense is an important public and political issue in both the United States and Britain. When based on the proper principles, contracting out allows the government to draw on private-sector skills and resources to deliver services more efficiently. But in Britain, Labour’s sketchy accounting methods for the cost of these contracts has created another snare for Britain’s defenses. These contracts, of course, commit the government to future costs. But because Labour has played accounting games that put these contracts on the department books but not the national ones, Britain’s total future obligations will be larger than those shown on the country’s overall accounts."

American Manners, English Gloom

On A Letter from London, Contentions, January 7, 2010. "Geoff Dyer’s column “My American Friends” in the New York Times is hitting my mailbox from every direction at once. If you’ve not read it, you should: it’s fun. It’s got, of course, a few swipes at George W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair, but it’s really a love letter from Britain to the United States. Dyer points out that many of the British clichés voiced about America reflect either ignorance or a barely-disguised, liberal-elite desire to bring the U.S. down a peg or two because, as too many Britons are grumpy and desperate to feel superior about something, Americans must be made out to be inferior."

Gordon Brown Tells A Porkie

The Economy Drive, Contentions, January 7, 2010. "The parlous state of Britain’s economy and budget and the necessity of cuts in government spending should be common knowledge. The British public certainly grasps the situation. One manifestation is the data by the polling firm Ipsos-MORI. In its latest monthly “Issues Index,” which invites interviewees to name as many issues of concern as they care to, “Economy/Economic Situation” stands at 49%."

The Good Principle Behind The TSA's List

An Opportunity for Leadership, Heritage Foundation Foundry, January 6, 2010. "The TSA’s announcement that citizens of fourteen countries – Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – will be subject to intensified airport screenings before being allowed to fly to the United States, and that flights originating in or passing through one of these nations will also face extra scrutiny, is both a problem and an opportunity."