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Japan's Shinzo Abe and Dangerous World War II Revisionism
Tweet Share on Facebook May 14, 2013 CommentWill Japan's economic recovery get tarred by ugly nationalism? Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently conducting a bold and ambitious program of economic reform with inflation targeting, short-term fiscal stimulus and long-term structural reforms. The rest of the world is watching closely to see if Japan's bold but risky strategies are successful.
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Japan's Economic Policy Could Be a Model for the U.S.
Tweet Share on Facebook April 23, 2013 CommentA former member of the European Central Bank's executive board recently gave a grim assessment about the global economy. He declared, "We really don't understand what's happening in advanced economies."
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New Report Gives Skewed Look at State "Freedom"
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2013 CommentHow free really is the land of the free? The libertarian Mercatus Institute took a stab at that question in its recently released report entitled, "Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom." The report finds North Dakota to be the most free state in the Union, while California and New York fall to the bottom of the pack.
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States Already Fighting Rand Paul's Drone Battle
Tweet Share on Facebook March 12, 2013 CommentWhen Rand Paul gave his filibuster last week, he focused on an extremely narrow and hypothetical scenario: Does the U.S. government have the right to use unmanned aerial vehicles (commonly known as drones) to kill its own citizens on U.S. soil?
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Netflix's House of Cards Ups the Ante on Its British Inspiration
Tweet Share on Facebook February 5, 2013 CommentHow do you adapt a story about post-Thatcher Britain to be about modern-day American politics? This was the challenge faced by the new Netflix series House of Cards, adapted from the British miniseries of the same name. The British series is set in the immediate aftermath of the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, and follows the scheming and political intrigue that follows. (The story was first written as a novel in 1989, a year before Thatcher's real-life resignation.)
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Republicans Will Benefit From Real Budget Debate With Democrats
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2013 CommentThere once was a time when Republicans would argue for a grand and sweeping strategy to achieve conservative political and policy goals. The plan was to hunker down, get a clean sweep of both Houses of Congress, elect a Republican President, and have that president sign Republican legislation. As Grover Norquist told the audience at CPAC in February of 2012:
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Why Andrew Sullivan's Dish Succeeds
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2013 CommentOn January 2nd, Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan announced he was making his popular blog, The Dish, entirely independent. Starting in February, the Dish will not be partnered with another publication and will not have any advertising. The site's maintenance, as well as the salaries for Sullivan and his staff, will be sustained entirely by reader donations.
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What the Republican Party Can Learn from Britain's Tories
Tweet Share on Facebook December 18, 2012 CommentThere is a conservative party of an English-speaking nation with a serious image problem. Twenty-eight percent of the public believes this party "doesn't care enough about the very poor or vulnerable". Forty-seven percent believe they are the "party of the rich". Finally, 28 percent don't believe the party cares enough about the country's healthcare system.
