The Brexit Prize and the IEA

And the Prize for Britain’s Exit to the EU Goes To . . ., Heritage Foundation Foundry, April 11, 2014. "The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London awarded its prestigious “Brexit Prize,” a 100,000 euro award for the best plan for a British exit from the European Union (EU), earlier this week. The winner, Iain Mansfield, is the director of trade and investment at the British embassy in the Philippines. Thankfully, there are evidently still a few civil servants who have not succumbed to the British establishment’s decades-long bias in favor of the EU."

The Separation of Powers Works

The Real Insanity Inside the Beltway, Newsday October 11, 2013. "The American government was not created to do lots of things, except for in a few areas such like as the national defense. It was intended to be a limited government. It certainly wasn’t created to run a national health care system, especially one of unprecedented cost and complexity."

The New Nixon

"Nixon and Obama . . . Two Presidents, Two Eras and the American Path They Share," Yorkshire Post (UK), not available online, January 9, 2013. "With the exception of George Washington’s on February 22 – now shamefully amalgamated into Presidents Day – Americans have never paid much attention to presidential birthdays. So Richard Milhous Nixon’s one hundredth anniversary on January 9 will occasion no parades. But Nixon is relevant nonetheless. President Obama’s admirers like to compare him to Franklin Roosevelt, to John F. Kennedy, or – most commonly – to Abraham Lincoln, an allusion that Obama echoed by opening his campaign in 2007 in Springfield, Illinois. The comparison to Kennedy – an iconic figure with an exaggerated reputation – is not bad. It’s certainly better than Newsweek Editor Evan Thomas’s celebrated 2009 declaration that Obama is “sort of God.” But best of all is the comparison to Nixon, America’s disgraced president."

Rapid Debate Responses

LIVE BLOG: Biden, Ryan Square Off in Vice Presidential Debate, Heritage Foundation Foundry, October 11, 2012. Instant reaction on various subjects, including Afghanistan, Libya, Iran, and the economy, raised in the debate.

A Case for Public, Not Private, Austerity

As Spain and Greece Burn, Estonia Offers a Lesson, with Ryan Bourne, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 28, 2012. "Usefully, the Eurozone crisis has provided a natural experiment in how to deal with a severe downturn. The results of that experiment have not favored the unsophisticated Keynesian view that more borrowing is the answer. The highly indebted Southern European states decided to run big fiscal deficits in the aftermath of the crisis, and now face suffocating debt burdens and still-uncompetitive labour markets. On the other side of the spectrum, the Baltic nations (especially Estonia and Latvia) cut government spending and liberalized their economies. While the short term effects were painful, these two countries grew by 8.3 percent and 5.5 percent last year—remarkable when you consider that Greece, Spain, and Italy are in recession."

No Responsibility Here!

Out of Touch and Out of Favor . . . U.S. Voters Turn Their Backs on Obama’s World in Washington, Yorkshire Post, June 8, 2012. "Washington inherently likes nothing better than spending other people’s money. That’s why it’s so regularly out of touch. The President has spent four years cheerleading big government. He’s not the only one suffering from that, but whether he likes it or not, he personifies Washington. And in November, Washington’s irresponsibility could end up being a very big story indeed."

Too Much Is Never Enough, Apparently

A Bottom Up Look at the Top Down, Centre for Policy Studies, May 30, 2012. "If you believe that it is not possible to demonstrate that any particular level of taxation, welfare spending, or redistributive policies are economically counter-productive, and if you are in principle in favor of these things, then when do you say “enough,” and why do you decide to say it? A reliable way to get liberals excited is to say that they’re socialists. Fine, they’re not. But if Britain – where the government currently spends 50 percent of the nation’s GDP – is not verifiably well past the point of diminishing returns on state spending, where does that point lie? Is it 60 percent? 70 percent? 99 percent? If neither evidence nor principle tells you when to stop – and to go into reverse – then what does? At what point does the distinction between a really big government and socialism become irrelevant?

Deficit Hawks and Deficit Chickens

Obama Plays the Card of Financial Responsibility, Yorkshire Post, December 2, 2011. "Playing the responsible spender card is shrewd from another point of view. Americans naturally look on Congress with a degree of disdain, while according the President the respect that goes with his office. Right now, the American people have no particular affection for Obama, but their opinion of Congress could hardly be worse. By positioning himself as the adult in the room, Obama plays to the American tendency to view Congress as a collection of squabbling children."

Restraint and Containment

The Other Thing Containment Requires, Contentions, February 16, 2011. "Excessive taxation and borrowing hands over an ever-increasing portion of our economy to government control. This is incompatible with the strategy that won the Cold War, and completely incompatible with any future U.S. use of that strategy. We are not just borrowing the next generation into oblivion, as Pete points out. Our lack of restraint is reducing our ability to play future foreign-policy problems long: playing it long only makes sense if you’re gaining in relative economic strength."

Four Ways to Think About the Tea Party

Tea and Sympathy for America's Disillusioned Voters, Yorkshire Post, November 4, 2010. "The White House's conspiracy-mongering is not surprising, but it is depressing. This country is too big, too diverse, to be deeply swayed by a conspiracy, on the right or the left. President Obama did not win in 2008 because of a left-wing conspiracy: he won because he ran a good campaign, because John McCain ran a mediocre one, and because people were tired of George W. Bush. Rather than indulge in the sickness of inventing conspiracies, it is more helpful to seek to understand why the Tea Party sprang to prominence."

An American View of Britain's Spending Cuts

"From America, the Cuts Do Not Look Too Drastic," Yorkshire Post, October 29, 2010. Not available on the Yorkshire Post site due to technical issues. "In short, every Labour government since 1945 has run afoul of the skepticism of the markets. But yet, according to the left, there is never a good time to spend less. When the economy is up, it’s time to spread the wealth by spending more on the social services. When the economy is down, cutting spending will drive the nation into a depression and inflict untold horrors upon the poor. If that’s true, then the poor really must have been suffering under Labour, because Osborne’s plan is to reduce spending to the level it was at in 2007. In anything other than the shortest of terms, that will not be enough. Like the U.S., Britain has an aging population, and its entitlement programs are massively indebted. Saving billions of pounds now will not pay for trillions of pounds worth of benefits in the coming decades."

UK Cuts, Should Have Cut More

The U.K. Budget Cuts: Lessons for the United States, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #3043, with Nile Gardiner and J.D. Foster, October 26, 2010. "The British cuts will be closely watched by policymakers in the United States, who are keen to address the bloated budget deficit on this side of the Atlantic. And with good reason: Public spending in the U.S. has ballooned in recent years, and America is heading for a rude awakening of Greek-style proportions unless it reverses course—and rapidly. But for several reasons, the U.K. cuts cannot simply be used as a blanket role model for the U.S. to follow."

Osborne Needs to Focus on Growth, Not Just Cuts

A Lesson and a Warning from Britain, Foxnews.com, October 20, 2010. "Today, George Osborne, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer – the man responsible for Britain’s budget –announced the results of a high-profile spending review. He promised cuts, and he delivered. The question is whether the cuts will be deep enough, and Osborne’s other policies wise enough, to restore Britain to financial stability."

George Washington, First Principles, and Foreign Policy

Yes, the Founding Fathers Have Foreign Policy First Principles, Heritage Foundation Foundry, August 26, 2010. "James Downie, standing in for Jonathan Chait at The New Republic, believes that The Heritage Foundation’s view of the relationship between first principles and foreign policy is wrong, and contrary to George Washington’s vision. Inevitably, he seeks to prove his point by quoting Washington’s Farewell Address. His case would be even less persuasive if he’d read a little more, or a little more thoroughly."

The Rule of the People and Foreign Policy

First Princples and Foreign Policy, Heritage Foundation Foundry, Augsut 24, 2010. "One common way of thinking about foreign policy is that it exists in its own world, separate from domestic policy or the first principles on which a nation is founded. According to this view , the job of the foreign policy expert is to deal dispassionately with the world as it is, making no distinction between democracies and dictatorships, and shaping policy solely by cold-hearted consideration of the national interest. The Heritage Foundation has never accepted this way of thinking."

When Cameron Came to DC

PM Shines But Should Have Spoken Out On Fiscal Divide, Yorkshire Post, July 22, 2010. "AT least David Cameron's visit wasn't a fiasco. When Gordon Brown came to Washington last year, it was all too obvious that the US administration in general, and Barack Obama in particular, regarded him as a negligible figure."

Osborne's Doing Better Than Obama

Osborne Has A Long Way To Go, But At Least He’s Started, Yorkshire Post, June 30, 2010. "According to the Left, there is never a good day to cut government spending. When the economy and tax revenues are growing, the Left wants to spend more because it can. When the economy is stagnant and tax revenues are shrinking, the Left argues it has no choice but to spend more, in order to cushion the blow. The result is that progressive governments transfer money from savers to spenders, from the productive economy to the unproductive state, and from the unborn to the living. For progressive governments, the economy is a goose that will keep on laying golden eggs, no matter what they do to it."

If At First You Don't Succeed . . . .

The Most Active Recovery Act Season Yet!, Heritage Foundation Foundry, June 18, 2010. "As Mike Allen of Politico reports, Vice President Joe Biden has kicked off what the Obama Administration calls its “Recovery Summer.” According to senior adviser David Axelrod, “This summer will be the most active Recovery Act season yet.” It sounds like Axelrod has never heard the popular saying about what to do when you’re in a hole: stop digging."

Labour's Biggest Failure and Cameron's Challenge

Why Cameron Needs That Something Special to Get Britain Back On Its Feet, Yorkshire Post, June 1, 2010. "David Cameron has a big job ahead of him. This week, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development said it again: with the exception of Ireland, the outlook for Britain's public finances is the worst in the industrialised world."

Britain's Skint. Are We Next?

"I’m Afraid to Tell You There’s No Money Left," Heritage Foundation Foundry, May 19, 2010. "When Britain’s new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, walked into his office last week, he found a letter from his predecessor, Liam Byrne. Laws assumed it contained useful advice. But when he opened the envelope, he found that the letter – which he characterized as “honest but slightly less helpful” than he had expected – had only a single line . . ."