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Nov 21, 2025
I’ve seen Barry Diller four times in public. First at a restaurant in Sag Harbor, two more times at Manhattan restaurant Michael’s, and last at Stanford’s Hoover...
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Oct 16, 2025
It’s not infrequently said that Adam Smith “invented” capitalism with his publication The Wealth of Nations, but the more realistic truth (one stressed by...
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Sep 16, 2025
Americans consumed just as much Arab oil during the 1973 OPEC “embargo” as they did before it. By some accounts, they consumed more.
Which is a reminder that if...
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Aug 28, 2025
The Calendar section in the Los Angeles Times used to be thick Monday through Saturday, and then near book-length on Sundays. So many ads promoting released and...
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Aug 21, 2025
Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane long advised staffers to read the New York Times, including me. Many would give him quizzical looks owing to the newspaper’s left lean,...
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Aug 13, 2025
I was living at 537 W. Deming in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago in the summer of 1995. The address and city rate mention because that summer Chicago suffered one of those brutal...
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Jul 29, 2025
I’ve never been a fan of Paris. To read about Paris is to read about its beauty, charm and sophistication, but when I first visited in 1998, it struck me as rundown, dirty, and...
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Jun 30, 2025
"You know, people think that because I'm Mike Nichols, I don't need praise. I need a lot. Nobody gets that." The previous quote comes from Mark Harris’s excellent 2020...
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Jun 13, 2025
Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane has always been of the view that “democracy” must be extraordinarily limited. It should be a device for removing highly objectionable...
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Jun 6, 2025
The rain was heavy for parts of last weekend in the Washington, D.C. area. Seeing it coming down in sheets, it got me thinking about how people used to live. How awful it must have...
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May 30, 2025
The world becomes more amazing by the day. The surest evidence of the previous assertion is that wealth inequality continues to soar.
Yes, you read that right. Inequality is a...
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May 23, 2025
In Men at Work, George Will observed that “The history of baseball is littered with stories of failures by players who thought that their natural physical endowments would...
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May 16, 2025
“We wouldn’t be where we are without Mike.” The Mike referenced was the one and only Michael Milken, but what was said about Milken could have realistically been...
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May 8, 2025
“You better let me take this. They’d never believe it coming from you.” That’s legendary New York Times editor R.W. Apple at the end of a particularly...
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Apr 23, 2025
“I have such easy access to my fans and customers.” Those are the words of Kylie Jenner, from a 2018 Forbes profile. Jenner was on the path to billionaire...
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Apr 14, 2025
It’s easy to forget that a little over five years ago U.S. schools were closed, public events were canceled, dining inside restaurants was illegal, the operation of all manner...
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Mar 21, 2025
Recently a prominent member of the libertarian community died. Notable about the individual’s death is what he left behind.
Though he earned good money over the decades, the...
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Feb 28, 2025
It always interested Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane that while left-handed writers represent roughly 11 percent of the population, something like 40 percent of Cato’s staff...
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Feb 26, 2025
“I keep a button on my desk that says ‘Life?’ Of course I have a life. It’s a life filled with books.” Those are the words of Michael Dirda, Pulitzer...
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Feb 21, 2025
Laments about the state of education are arguably as old as education is, or close to it. And they’ve always been a waste of time.
That’s because knowledge isn’t...
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Jan 27, 2025
In his 2023 book The Art Thief, author Michael Finkel crucially observed (my book review here) that “art is the result of facing almost no survival pressure of...
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Jan 20, 2025
I was first introduced to David Lodge’s endlessly great novels when a college girlfriend gave me her copy of Nice Work. The book was assigned to her in a senior-year...
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Jan 15, 2025
They’re libertarians and they don’t know it. That’s long been the view of Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane. It’s what he expressed decades ago to recently...
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Jan 3, 2025
If you ever want to learn economics, just purchase books about entertainment and sports. It’s that simple. Considering antitrust alone, the whole profession could be put out of...
Nov 21, 2025I’ve seen Barry Diller four times in public. First at a restaurant in Sag Harbor, two more times at Manhattan restaurant Michael’s, and last at Stanford’s Hoover...
Oct 16, 2025It’s not infrequently said that Adam Smith “invented” capitalism with his publication The Wealth of Nations, but the more realistic truth (one stressed by...
Sep 16, 2025Americans consumed just as much Arab oil during the 1973 OPEC “embargo” as they did before it. By some accounts, they consumed more. Which is a reminder that if...
Aug 28, 2025The Calendar section in the Los Angeles Times used to be thick Monday through Saturday, and then near book-length on Sundays. So many ads promoting released and...
Aug 21, 2025Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane long advised staffers to read the New York Times, including me. Many would give him quizzical looks owing to the newspaper’s left lean,...
Aug 13, 2025I was living at 537 W. Deming in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago in the summer of 1995. The address and city rate mention because that summer Chicago suffered one of those brutal...
Jun 30, 2025"You know, people think that because I'm Mike Nichols, I don't need praise. I need a lot. Nobody gets that." The previous quote comes from Mark Harris’s excellent 2020...
Jun 6, 2025The rain was heavy for parts of last weekend in the Washington, D.C. area. Seeing it coming down in sheets, it got me thinking about how people used to live. How awful it must have...
May 23, 2025In Men at Work, George Will observed that “The history of baseball is littered with stories of failures by players who thought that their natural physical endowments would...
May 16, 2025“We wouldn’t be where we are without Mike.” The Mike referenced was the one and only Michael Milken, but what was said about Milken could have realistically been...
May 8, 2025“You better let me take this. They’d never believe it coming from you.” That’s legendary New York Times editor R.W. Apple at the end of a particularly...
Apr 14, 2025It’s easy to forget that a little over five years ago U.S. schools were closed, public events were canceled, dining inside restaurants was illegal, the operation of all manner...
Mar 21, 2025Recently a prominent member of the libertarian community died. Notable about the individual’s death is what he left behind. Though he earned good money over the decades, the...
Feb 28, 2025It always interested Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane that while left-handed writers represent roughly 11 percent of the population, something like 40 percent of Cato’s staff...
Feb 21, 2025Laments about the state of education are arguably as old as education is, or close to it. And they’ve always been a waste of time. That’s because knowledge isn’t...
Jan 27, 2025In his 2023 book The Art Thief, author Michael Finkel crucially observed (my book review here) that “art is the result of facing almost no survival pressure of...
Jan 3, 2025If you ever want to learn economics, just purchase books about entertainment and sports. It’s that simple. Considering antitrust alone, the whole profession could be put out of...