Economics & Empire

Supply Chain Silver Linings: What Sam Walton, Ronald Reagan, and the...

With the supply chain tangled, we have what may be a brief moment to consider its flaws without being blinded by the glare of its surface efficiencies.

The Tyranny of Big Tech Demonstrates the Tyranny of Faulty Ideas...

Hawley’s book goes some way towards providing a framework for using the threat of a legislative boot to stomp Big Tech back down to size. Whether the Right will listen is another thing altogether.

Flatten the Curve and Respect the Experts

The issue is not the the health care experts versus the ordinary American who doesn’t like the way this shutdown is going. It is actually a question of expertise worthy of the power invested in state and federal officials to change life as we know it.

Call Me Lucifer

Alexa is no doubt low-hanging fruit for the readers of Front Porch Republic. It is a place-contaminating, unlimited tyrant. If you've purchased one, watch out. When the lights start pulsing and your smart speaker starts shrieking, it will be too late. The peloton of drone-wraiths will be only seconds away.

The Consumer: Time to Wake the Sleeping Giant

In my first essay here at Front Porch Republic, I wrote about the idea that creation-friendly agriculture is not about going back to old...

The Price of Place: Oeconomia over Chrematistike

The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.--Edmund Burke, Reflections...

Building Folklore Wealth

Our lives depend upon the restoration of intergenerational stability within our local communities as a norm that is loved and nurtured. Moreover, our recent obsession with measures such as GDP not only undermines our own wellbeing but threatens our relationship with our entire cosmos.

Urban Questions (and Responses) for Krugman

Over a month ago, Paul Krugman used his space at The New York Times to ask "what, in the modern economy, are small cities...

As North Korea Goes Nuclear Far East Ambassadors Must Speak Up

I lived much of my adult life under Terry Branstad’s multiple tenures as governor of Iowa, and I think he did a “pretty fair...

Mr. Sillypants Goes to Washington

In a folder of papers at my desk there are reminders of things to do sometime, although they aren’t urgent. Waiting to be filed...