Infrastructure Investment Firms Raise $140 billion Over Five Years
Infrastructure Investor has tallied the capital raised by the world's top investment firms and calculates they raised more the $140 billion over the last five years for their infrastructure funds. The...
View ArticleRecession Drives Up Housing Affordability
One of the unintended (if not unexpected) outcomes of the housing bust and economic recession has been a dramatic rise in housing affordability according to the National Association of Home...
View ArticleGreen Homes Versus the Appraisers
Nation's Building News, the on-line publicatin of the National Associatino of Home Builders, has an interesting, if confused, article on Green Homes. On the one hand, builders of Green Homes say their...
View ArticleThe Big Ten and Midwestern Identity
In the Midwest, we don't have damp, blustery fall days: We have Big Ten weather. We don't have mammoth land-grant universities: We have Big Ten schools. You may insult our climate, our politicians, or...
View ArticleOpen Primary Would Close Doors to Voter Choice and Participation
"The most natural privilege of man, next to the right of acting for himself, is that of combining his exertions with those of his fellow-creatures, and of acting in common with them. The right of...
View ArticleInstant-Runoff Voting Would Be Better Alternative to Open Primary for...
To hear proponents of Proposition 14, you would think that implementing an open primary in California would provide greater choice to voters, fix the state’s budget mess, and bring peace and harmony to...
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States Plunder 911 Funding
State governments are getting bolder about diverting funds intended to maintain and modernize 911 emergency calling systems for other uses.As states face greater budget gaps spurred by reckless...
View ArticleCalifornia Open Primary Measure Would Reduce Voter Choice, Violate Freedom of...
One of the measures on California's primary ballot tomorrow, Proposition 14, would impose an "open primary," or "top-two" primary, system under which voters would select from all qualified candidates...
View ArticleInstant-Runoff Voting Would Be a Better Alternative Than Open Primary in...
In an earlier post, I discussed California's Proposition 14 open primary measure on the ballot tomorrow and the negative effects it would have on voter choice, voter participation, and the freedom of...
View ArticleThe â??Costsâ?? of Free Speech
Last year the Obama administration updated Washington’s official position on what forms of expression are legal. “Whether a given category of speech enjoys First Amendment protection,” Solicitor...
View ArticleThe Talking Cure for the Tragedy of the Commons
In his famous 1968 article in the journal Science, Garrett Hardin illustrated his notion of the “tragedy of the commons” by suggesting, “Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each...
View ArticleBad News From Survey of Economic Literacy
My friend Dan Klein did an interesting analysis of how different ideological groups do on a series of simple economic questions. He wrote up the results for the WSJ and it is interesting stuff.Who is...
View ArticleConservatives v. Libertarians
It’s hard to imagine a greater victory for the conservative legal movement than the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which overturned D.C.’s ban on handguns. Not only...
View ArticleThe Cost of Slow Travel
Steven Polzin, director of the urban transportation research center at the University of South Florida, has spurred an interesting debate on Planetizen.com with his recent column noting that slow...
View ArticleSummers Talks California Public Pension Reform on John and Ken Show
I recently got to talk with John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of "The John and Ken Show" on KFI AM 640 (Los Angeles), the most listened to local radio talk show in the nation, about my new California public...
View ArticleLicense to Kill
Nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks, we still have not settled the question of how to deal with terrorism suspects. Should they be in military or civilian custody? Should they receive...
View ArticleWhy the Helen Thomas Case Makes Me Nervous
A few months ago, a picture appeared in The Denver Post. On a local college campus—an alleged stronghold of free inquiry and debate—a leftist student, protesting some perceived injustice, was holding a...
View ArticleMedia Matters (To Itself)
When award-winning 89-year-old Hearst columnist Helen Thomas, who occupied the front-row center seat in the White House press room since sometime during the Stone Age, declared last week that Jews...
View ArticleThe Economic Argument to Resume Gulf Drilling
Every day, more and more oil is leaking from the Gulf seabed into the ocean. It is astounding on many levels that BP has taken this long to get the situation under control. And even now, control is a...
View ArticleReport Released on International Experience with Road Pricing Schemes
Transportation Research Board and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a report entitled: International Scan: Reducing Congestion & Funding Transportation Using Road Pricing. The...
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