"A republic, if you can keep it. Can you, cousins? Can you?" Lord Daniel Hannan asked the 2026 CLC audience.
"The Wealth of Nations" being published the same year as the Declaration of Independence was no coincidence. Both works grew from John Locke and the Enlightenment belief that individuals possess natural rights and liberties.
October is peak tourism time for western NC, where people come from near and far to watch the leaves turn and visit the charming Main Streets. But this year, fall revenue is projected to be a fraction of its usual $2 billion.
The science fiction pioneer H.G. Wells once observed that “human history is, in essence, a history of ideas.” This is a wise observation — and it speaks to the political debates we’ve been having here in North Carolina. Wells himself was an influential purveyor of ideas. Some were praiseworthy, such as his exploration of the...
North Carolina is one of our country’s economic powerhouses. Blessed with a favorable business climate and a creative, hard-working population, our state is home to many thriving companies that export goods and services all over the world. Trade is integral to our economy. Most North Carolinians, like most Americans, generally favor free trade. But a...
There is a puzzling expression regularly being used by members of the Trump administration that, they argue, describes a major goal of their protectionist trade policies: “reciprocal trade.” The expression is troubling because, as an economist, I understand that all trade, by definition, is reciprocal. It is best to think of a trade as simply two parties...
When conservatives advocate smaller government, they do it not because they are “pro-business” but because they are pro-progress.
“If you look at the U.S. current account balance … we are ceding about $450 billion of our wealth to mostly Southeast Asia and a little bit to Mexico,” Kyle Bass, Founder of Hayman Capital Management, told the Fox Business Channel. If you are looking for evidence to support the fact that just because you’re successful...
I have found the recent demonization of Facebook and its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg fascinating and revelatory. We have discovered that during the 2016 presidential campaign the social media giant played unwitting host to hundreds of Russian bots and fake accounts peddling misinformation about the candidates. It has also attracted bad publicity for allowing third parties to...
Typically, “saving American jobs” is the reason given for implementing protectionist trade measures, i.e., tariffs and quotas. The argument goes something like this: Foreign producers of a product are offering American consumers a more attractive price or better-quality product than they can get from American producers of the same product. This can occur for any...
The sober realization is that socialism is still challenging freedom — even with the irrefutable mountain of evidence of its abject failure and toll on humans everywhere it has been tried. Thanks to John Locke, we have a roadmap for freedom and opportunity that any of us can follow. Socialism has crippled nations and impoverished...
