InsiderOnline - Policy Ideas for Advancing Liberty

Blog Archive 2010

Public schools are keeping the public in the dark about how much money they really spend, says Adam Schaeffer in a new Cato Institute report. Schaeffer examined the budgets for 18 school districts aro More...

Why Unemployment Remains High

“[C]onstant political meddling in labor markets,” says Richard Epstein, “makes it hard for individual firms to figure out the risk of hiring new employees.”: Yet on this issue [New York Times colum More...

Taxpayers Pay for Political Fundraising Venue

The Sewall-Belmont House is a small museum in Washington, D.C., that celebrates the history of women’s struggles for political equality. But for many of the capital’s politicos, the house is primarily More...

Are Anti-terrorist Voices Gaining Influence Among Muslims?

One hopeful sign was the issuance last week of a 600-page fatwa against terrorism by a leading Muslim scholar. The Jerusalem Post described the fatwa as the “most comprehensive theological refutation More...

CBO Sees Debt Reaching an Ominous Threshold

Debt held by the public will reach 90 percent of U.S. gross domestic product by 2020, according to the latest CBO projections. That’s a higher level of debt than projected by the White House when it r More...

They’re Probably Good at Teaching Jargon

Smelling politics in the inclusion of Ohio and New York on the list of finalists for Race to the Top funds, Frederick Hess takes a peak at New York’s application: New York’s 908-page applicati More...

Looking Under the Hood

The arcana of legislative process is usually enough to make our eyes glaze over, but there’s some possible intrigue that’s worth noting regarding plans to use reconciliation for health care. The Wall More...

Worth Checking Out: Learn from the Electoral College, Welcome the Macdonald-Laurier Institute

• There’s an effort underway to undermine the Electoral College through an interstate compact in which participating states agree to appoint Electors based on the national popular vote. The project, i More...

The Insider Magazine

Change
We Can't
Believe...

Policy Studies

They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools

Source: Cato Institute

Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent. To document the More...

When Paternalism Meets Bogus Economics

Source: Institute of Economic Affairs

In the thirtieth IEA Current Controversies Paper, Kristian Niemietz critiques 21 Hours, a report from the New Economics Foundation (NEF). The report proposes a gradual reduction of the standard working week to 21 hours within about a decade, to achieve three g More...

Federal Money Should Empower Parents, Not Failing Public Schools

Source: Pacific Research Institute

Last week, in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama laid out plans for improving America’s dropout rate. Some of the ideas are worthy of praise, but a pattern is becoming increasingly predictable. The president promised federal money in exc More...

State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers: How Much Do We Really Know?

Source: Pacific Research Institute

From the American founding to the present day, people have worried about the influence of interest groups, or factions, on the country and on its politics. One of the main fears is that small but organized interest groups can secure large benefits through the More...

Congress, Arizona School District Sues Taxpayers To Stop Questions

Source: Goldwater Institute

A handful of taxpayers in a small community north of Wickenburg, Arizona are being targeted by the local school district in a lawsuit that asks a judge to declare they have no right to request public records, sue the district, or complain to outside agencies. More...

Summary Archives

Topics