Ukraine is back in the news. The country’s conflict with Russia, which has been ongoing since 2014, is heating up again. There is a real possibility that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will try to grab even more Ukrainian territory in the months to come. The Russians are suffering from an economic downturn caused by Western […]
Since its transition to majority rule in 1994, South Africa has enjoyed many years of almost universal adulation. Having lived in South Africa for a decade, I felt that much of that praise was undeserved. I got my fair share of criticism for pointing out what has eventually become conventional wisdom – South Africa is […]
Two weeks ago, I wrote about growing prosperity on the African continent. I noted that African economies are, by and large, rapidly growing. As such, indicators of human well-being, including infant mortality, life expectancy and nutrition, have been improving. Regrettably, there has been no substantial improvement in the quality of Africa’s institutions. The quality of […]
The shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell, is in trouble again. Back in 2010, the Labour Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington caused a bit of a stir, when he suggested that he would be happy to go back in time to kill Margaret Thatcher – before she had a chance to implement […]
Sub-Saharan Africa consists of 46 countries and covers an area of 9.4 million square miles. One out of seven people on earth live in Africa and the continent’s share of the world’s population is bound to increase, because Africa’s fertility rate remains higher than elsewhere. If current trends continue, there will be more people in […]
Earlier this week, I published, together with two co-authors that included the former deputy minister of finance of Ukraine Oleh Havrylyshyn, a paper on economic reforms in ex-communist countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall. As we explain, the transition from socialism to capitalism divided those who advocated in favor rapid economic reforms from […]
As someone who supported Brexit, it behooves me to use my column this week to address some of the issues that have arisen since the outcome of the referendum on British membership in the European Union was announced on June 24. Below, I will discuss the supposed lack of planning by the supporters of Brexit, […]
The recent killings of 49 innocent club goers in Orlando, Florida, have raised, once again, the issues of tolerance and violence in American society. Yet, even as we mourn the victims of hatred and violence, it is worthwhile to remind ourselves that, historically speaking, Americans live in very safe and tolerant times. Let us start […]
On May 12, 2016, The London Times published an open letter, in which close to 200 economists warned the British public against voting for a withdrawal from the European Union. Unfortunately, economists can be wrong – often about the most consequential of matters. The voters might keep that in mind as they heads to the […]
From humble beginnings, the European Union has become a supra-national entity that at least superficially resembles a federal state, but which lacks sovereign power. It has its own flag, anthem, currency, President (five of them, actually) and a diplomatic service. Today, the EU is trying to grasp new powers, while, paradoxically, it is also facing […]
In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama backed his call for higher taxes on the wealthy with the following piece of reasoning, “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody invested […]
Albert Einstein is supposed to have defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Yet, as the economic implosion of Venezuela reminds us, we seem to be unable to stop repeating the same terrible mistake: trying to make socialism work. To explain our insane fascination with socialism, I […]
Three years ago, a well-known American leftist, David Sirota, wrote the following in a Salon essay titled Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle, Chavez became the bugaboo of American politics because his full-throated advocacy of socialism and redistributionism at once represented a fundamental critique of neoliberal economics, and also delivered some indisputably positive results… When a country […]
As a member of the #NeverTrump team, I have been wondering what it would take for Donald Trump to gain my vote and, much more importantly, unify the fragmented Republican Party around his candidacy in November. (I am afraid you will have to read this article to the end to find out the answers.) The […]
I recently had an opportunity to chair a Cato Institute forum on the future of robotics entitled, “Will a Robot Take Your Job?” Present were Randy Bateman, a long-time investor in robotics, and Adam Keiper, editor of The New Atlantis. The forum yielded important areas of agreement, but also raised serious questions about robots and the […]
Growing up in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, childhood did not lack its share of excitement. Sure, we did not have cartoons, toy guns or dolls, but we did get to march through local forests a few times a year wearing a gas mask and learning how to survive a sneak attack from the evil capitalists […]
The first time I encountered the term “poor whites,” I was taking a history class in a South African high school. The term referred to whites, mostly Afrikaners, who were losing their jobs to black competition at the turn of the 19th century. The whites had a vote. The blacks did not. As a result, […]
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And so it is with some of Donald Trump’s remarks about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly called NATO “obsolete” and noted that the United States “can’t be the policemen to the world” while adding to its $19 trillion debt. Other […]
Under apartheid, a former South African politician once told me, government appointees to the judiciary were often a source of frustration to the National Party ministers. “Six months into their tenure,” he said, “many judges have convinced themselves that they were in their new positions based on merit and started adjudicating against the government.” When […]
Last summer, during a trip to Montana, I met a Cuban exile, who lives and works in the United States. My trip took place a few weeks after U.S. President Barrack Obama announced re-establishment of diplomatic relations the United States and Cuba, as well as his commitment to ending the U.S. trade embargo against the […]
