[Editor’s note: A version of this article was first published by the Christian Science Monitor.]

It is hard to overstate what is at stake in the dramatic showdown between Wisconsin’s teachers and their Republican governor and legislature. The political and economic course of our country hinges on how the issue of public-sector unions is resolved, in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

For the sake of our country’s political and economic future, Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican colleagues need to prevail in the current contest with the Wisconsin teachers’ union and their allies. Read More»

Brace yourself. This isn’t going to be pleasant. If you’re in a bad mood or get easily upset, you may wish to pass on reading this article.

The country is in even worse shape economically than we thought. We awoke on Feb. 14 to find that this year’s federal budget deficit is going to be larger than previously projected — a record $1.65 trillion.

Recently, the official accumulated debt of the federal government passed the $14 trillion threshold. Read More»

Dec. 15 is Bill of Rights Day. This year is the 219th anniversary of the adoption of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution—the Bill of Rights.

Few Americans notice Bill of Rights Day. That isn’t surprising, since we have done such a poor job of upholding and abiding by its provisions. (From my perspective, only the Third Amendment is completely intact, while the Seventh, Ninth, and 10th have been most completely ignored. Check them out for yourself.) Read More»

[Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in American Thinker.]

To Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, deflation is regarded as Public Enemy Number One.

In the words of New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, the “real [economic] threat is deflation.” Krugman advocates additional and even more aggressive government deficit spending. Read More»

We Americans tend to look forward to the various holidays on the calendar. Sometimes we pause to ponder the meaning of these commemorative days; often we do not. Perhaps in your own experience you can recall a Thanksgiving, an Easter, or an Independence Day when something happened that brought home to you the true meaning of the holiday. So it was with me on Nov. 11, 1987. That is when Veterans Day became special to me. Read More»

The sovereign debt crisis — centered on Greece for the moment, but bound to spread to other heavily indebted national governments — has taken an ominous turn.

The European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, and the International Monetary Fund unveiled a trillion-dollar bailout package for the bankrupt Greek government. The intent was to defend the euro, which has been depreciating rapidly vis-a-vis the dollar.

Indeed, the bailout worked—for all of a few hours. Then the market dismissed it as ineffectual and the euro resumed its downtrend. Read More»

The intertwined worlds of government and finance are swirling with drama not seen since the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The epicenter of the current crisis is Greece.

The Aegean nation’s sovereign debt has been downgraded to “junk” status while talk of outright default by the Greek government has arisen. The very survival of the euro — the 11-year-old currency used by Greeks and over 300 million other Europeans — has been brought into question. Read More»

Recently, progressives have made noise about introducing a value-added tax (VAT) in the United States. The VAT is an indirect tax — that is, Americans wouldn’t pay the tax directly to government, but would pay it to businesses as part of the retail price of things we buy, and businesses would then remit the tax to Uncle Sam. Read More»

The truly revolutionary American idea of government as the servant of the people may be fading away. Many of today’s so-called “civil servants” are a protected, privileged class. While Middle America struggles through a difficult recession, a lot of government employees have lived on the gravy train.

Here are some facts to buttress that assertion: Read More»