Donald Trump won the American presidency with a dark diagnosis of the country’s problems. In his inaugural address, Trump contrasted the “just and reasonable demands of a righteous public” — great schools, safe neighbourhoods and good jobs — with a bleak reality: “Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered […]
Last September, the New York Times published an opinion piece unlike any it had run before. Its anonymous author delivered a bombshell: “Many of the senior officials in [Trump’s] own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them.” Fourteen […]
Insofar as age has been an issue in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the focus has been the advancing years of two of the frontrunners. Seventy-six-year-old Joe Biden’s circuitous soliloquies and memory lapses leave many wondering if he is fit to be a candidate, let alone the President. Similar questions are asked about […]
Each of the three leading candidates in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination entered last night’s televised debate — the fourth such event — facing a big, unanswered question. Their answers were a reminder that they are still a long way from the finish line. It was the first debate since the announcement […]
On a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump pressured his counterpart to investigate Democratic Presidential frontrunner Joe Biden and his son Hunter, threatening to withhold aid until he did so. That, at least, is the charge. Unlike the disorientating web of Russia accusations that failed to deliver a blow, it can […]
There has been no shortage of serious-sounding warnings about the profound threats to capitalism in recent years. I would know. I’ve written some myself — including for this website. You don’t have to look far to find cause for alarm. In the UK, the opposition party is run by a far-left cabal whose stated goal […]
Were you to ask its critics to identify a document that encapsulated everything that contemporary capitalism gets wrong, Milton Friedman’s 1970 New York Times Magazine article “The Social Responsibility Of Business Is To Increase Its Profits” would be a popular answer. In this landmark explanation of his shareholder theory, Friedman argued that as employees of […]
For all the undeniable disadvantages of Donald Trump’s unhealthy obsession with trade deficits, a possible silver lining has always been that it could move Democrats in a pro-trade direction. A costly trade war with no end in sight might at least force the left, and Americans more generally, to dust off their economics textbooks, turn […]
There is very little that America’s two major parties can agree on these days. But one area where there is at least a degree of common ground is on the idea that, one way or another, Big Tech must be brought to heel. That rare bipartisanship was on show on Tuesday, when Republican and Democrat […]
https://media.acast.com/capx/stevenpinkersinconvenienttruths/media.mp3 A few years ago, the left-wing academic and activist David Graeber appealed to his Twitter followers for help. “Does anyone know any handy rebuttals to the neoliberal/conservative numbers on social progress over the last 30 years,” he asked. “again & again i see these guys trundling out #s that absolute poverty, illiteracy, child malnutrition, […]
It is just over two years since I joined CapX, and 18 months since I took over as Editor. It has been a turbulent and, in many ways, disheartening time in British politics. Brexit has gone from an opportunity for national renewal to a political and constitutional crisis in which the country has been bogged […]
This Tuesday, the Centre for Policy Studies, CapX’s parent organisation, hosted its annual Margaret Thatcher Conference at the Guildhall in London. This year’s theme was Britain and America, and the day was jam-packed with of insightful speeches and thought-provoking panel discussions. One of the highlights was a conversation between Evening Standard Editor and former Chancellor […]
Theresa May has always made a point of her dedication to public service. In a House of Commons packed with preening egos and noisy attention-seekers, her preference was to simply dig in, Boycott-style and ‘get on with the job’. As is now clear, that was not necessarily the style of leadership Britain needed at such […]
So far, the Conservative leadership contest has been remarkably light on Brexit. Yes, it is certainly a huge part of the conversation, but it hasn’t been the all-consuming issue, as many predicted. That will almost certainly change. By the time Conservative MPs whittle the remaining candidates down to the final two – one of which […]
Outlining her ‘plan for economic patriotism’ this week, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren promised to ‘finally put American workers and middle-class prosperity ahead of multinational profits and Wall Street bonuses’. She may present her ideas in wonkier terms, but the difference between the Democratic Presidential contender’s mercantilist slogans and Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ rhetoric on trade […]
Is Rory Stewart 2019’s answer to Nick Clegg? Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson thinks so. Like Nick Clegg, she said of the unlikely star of the early phases of the Tory leadership contest, he is ‘changing political communication’. But, she added, ‘like Nick, I fear the electorate will appreciate him yet vote for someone else.’ […]
It’s time to turn on the taps. That is the conclusion of Neil O’Brien, one of the Conservative Party’s more thoughtful MPs. In a new report for the think tank Onward, Mr O’Brien – who served as an economic advisor to George Osborne and Theresa May – proposes slackening the fiscal rules to deliver the […]
This summer, the Conservatives will make history. Assuming the embryonic Tory leadership contest goes the distance, it will be the first time a party membership has had the privilege of picking the country’s Prime Minister. The historic contest will end with a new leader in a historically difficult position: a country in the midst of […]
She tried. She failed. Those two conclusions about the outgoing Prime Minister are beyond doubt. The more contentious question is why Theresa May fell short. Was it because of the impossibility of Brexit? Or her handling of the biggest issue of her premiership? For some, the answer to that question will come from the actions […]
My guest for the first in a new run of Free Exchange episodes is the New York Times columnist and bestselling author David Brooks. His previous books include The Road to Character, The Social Animal and Bobos in Paradise. Most recently, he is the author of The Second Mountain. In his latest work, he deals […]
