A new year should remind us of old truths about government
Our ability to self-govern is the enduring question we continually grapple with yet struggle to answer decisively.
In the name of safety and at times part political theater, North Carolinians spent over a year following stringent emergency orders because of the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses shuttered, citizens lost their livelihood, millions eschewed social events or celebrations of any kind. Many young people are still hampered by mask mandates in schools. A silver lining...
In the aftermath of the Great Recession, we learned it was both unfair and dangerous to let bankers take big risks backed by promises of bailouts. That same lesson applies to state and local politicians.
The only thing more worrying than the federal government’s recent announcement that the debt had reached $22 trillion, or 104 percent of GDP, was that it generated such little attention. In the 1980s and 1990s, by contrast, the issue was a central feature of the national conversation. Congressional leaders from both parties crafted a series...
Access to the proceeds of federal borrowing helps make state and local budgets larger than they otherwise would be.