National Review Online

National Interest Online | Inside Track: Pole Dancing

. . . Next to speak was Flynt Leverett of the New America Foundation, who focused on the economic foundation of the world without the West: developing countries are nationalizing their natural resources and converting them into political leverage, with startling success. Leverett maintained that the dramatic increase in energy prices since 2000 tips the geopolitical scales in the direction of oil-and-gas producing powers. The “strategic consequence” of these developments… more

One sidelight of President George W. Bush's recent trip to Rome for the funeral of the pope was the apparently warm interaction between Presidents Bush and Clinton. In particular, Bush praised Clinton's thinking in the area of Social Security. This praise focused the public eye on an underappreciated fact. President Clinton devoted an enormous amount of effort to the study of Social Security reform. It may well be the case that Social Security reform would have been accomplished if impeachment… more

If somebody owes you $10, the next best thing to having the cash itself is probably having a written IOU. After all, the IOU will make it harder to forget the liability, and also might give you evidence to use in court should the borrower attempt to shortchange you.

The Social Security system is loaded with a confusing mishmash of IOUs, both implicit and explicit. Reforms tend to rearrange the liabilities in this crazy quilt. Do the labels on the IOUs… more

The discussion over how to fix Social Security is filled with words that are getting too much attention. Privatization is one. Focus groups apparently don't like that word, and supporters of private accounts have taken to using the words "personal accounts." Why get so hung up on what you call it? The issue is whether individual ownership of Social Security savings is a good idea or not.

Crisis is another. Crisis is a relative term so there is no right… more

Companies considering new product launches often try out different beta versions of their products on focus groups. The practice is a sound one. No matter how attractive a concept may be, there is no telling whether you have a winner until it takes the form that the customer will see.

With such a process in mind, it is useful to pause for a moment to consider the practical appearance of the product that Social Security reformers are advocating. If optional… more

News of a pregnant woman choosing to live in barracks and continue her military training at VMI is by now barely noteworthy, a "reasonable accommodation" in … more

The Washington Post had a very clever editorial last Friday on abortion -- with the very clever title, "Not aCrushing Burden." The "burden" referred to is… more

The revelation that Jesse Jackson fathered an illegitimate child with a member of his Rainbow Coalition staff reveals him -- yet again -- for the fraud that … more