U.S. Takes Risky Approach to Iran and the Middle East

As President Obama prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington next week, the United States and its allies are crafting an approach toward the Middle East that carries high risk to Western interests and leaves Israel increasingly alone in an ever-more turbulent region. The Obama Administration plans to travel the well-worn path …

Media Under Assault, Freedom Suffers

“Were it left to me to decide whether to have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to Edward Carrington in 1787, “I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Fortunately, neither Jefferson nor his successors have been forced to decide between these core features of liberal society. …

The Cost of Capitalism: We’re Having a Minsky Moment

Do you wonder what caused the deep global economic downturn, how the nation‟s best economic minds did not see it coming and why the government‟s response has been somewhat incoherent? The answer: We‟re having a “Minsky moment,” says Robert J. Barbera, author of The Cost of Capitalism, who believes the teachings of the late economist …

UN’s Durban II a Disgrace, But Also a Welcome Wake-Up Call

A United Nations conference this week in Geneva, ostensibly designed to address racism and other forms of intolerance, provides a welcome wake-up call for those who believe that all global disputes are rooted in mere misunderstanding. The reality is much different, as the results of U.S. diplomatic efforts of recent weeks have made clear. President …

Obama Puts Global Engagement to the Test

President Obama is about to test an important proposition – that the United States can more effectively improve even the worst global institutions by participating in them than by shunning them. In this case, the institution is the United Nations Human Rights Council, for which the Obama Administration has applied for U.S. membership, reversing a …

The Problem With Budget Deficits

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s recent demand that Washington guarantee the safety of China’s investments in U.S. Treasury securities highlights just one problem that huge federal budget deficits present for the United States. China is now America’s largest creditor, holding about $1 trillion in securities – having lent us much of the necessary funding that …