Economics professor Greg Mankiw shares some interesting thoughts, citing Paul Krugman, on why Bush’s tax cuts may result in smaller government in the next administration than we would get otherwise. This is likely true, no matter which candidate wins. Krugman, however, calls this a “poison pill,” a way of sabotaging a takeover or transfer of [...]

Thankfully, the Republican party, for all its failings in the last few years, has still some concept of fundamental principles of economics. The Senate blocked a windfall profits tax on oil companies, a tax much like many of the taxes that prolonged the Great Depression in America long past its end elsewhere. Thank goodness for [...]

Obama and others have, of course, been saying to any who will listen that a McCain presidency would be the equivalent of a Bush third term. I dispute that on the merits; neither man is perfect, but there are very big differences in their political views and attitudes. A more amusing rebuttal came to light, [...]

There has been a huge amount of blogging on Burkean conservatism, especially as it relates to John McCain, over the last couple of weeks. I have relatively little to add to the mix, except to say that it’s important to distinguish between Burkean conservatism and other forms of politics called conservative. Burkeans favor change, but [...]

I am, I admit, a paleocapitalist and (mostly a) paleoconservative. That said, I do not think oil company executives - or any other corporate executives - should have to defend their company’s profits, unless illegally gained. For that reason, this meddling strikes me as ridiculous. Lest we forget, oil is among the most volatile and [...]

See Arthur C. Brooks on Charitable Giving & Barack Obama on National Review Online (yes, my title pun was intended).

Power Line has a good post on a new Gallup poll. The upshot of it is that huge numbers of Democrats say they will defect and vote for Senator McCain if the Democratic nominee is not their pick between Senators Obama and Clinton. Of Clinton supporters, 28% say they would sooner vote for McCain than [...]

I’ve been rather silent on here in the last couple weeks - finals and Spring Break will do that. Throw in an early birthday present (a Wii!), and posting has been a low priority.
Anyway, the New York Times has an interesting post on McCain and Obama on subprime bailouts
Hat tip Greg Mankiw.

I had a short series of recent conversations on the nature of conservatism. The upshot of the conversations was this: conservatives don’t really have very many tools at their disposal, while a liberal political theory has at its disposal all the means of the state. This follows from the fact that liberal politics - at [...]

This is the second comment in as many days I’ve seen on this point. John McCain was born abroad, on a United States military base in the Panama Canal Zone. Does that make him ineligible under the United States Constitution, Article I, section 1, clause 5 (the “Natural Born Citizen Clause”)? The clause states that:
No [...]