Book Review: Barry Diller’s Excellent “Who Knew”
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 Institution. I knew who he was, he…
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Essays
Writing by John Tamny and Parkview contributors, from the latest commentary to the collected archive.
1299 essays · Newest first
Cultural Confidence: The Missing Ingredient of Western Prosperity
What our greatest civilizations shared wasn’t just power or prosperity—it was a fierce belief in themselves, something the modern West is forgetting . Did you hear about the…
There’s No Such Thing As a K-Shaped Economy
The rich prosper only insofar as the poor and middle see their earnings and living standards soar. This is important to remember as economists and pundits waste a lot of time promoting the…
If the U.S. Treasury Employed Fraudulent “MMT,” It Would Have No Debt
Money buys nothing, while products always and everywhere buy products. Which means governments that produce nothing can only spend insofar as they have taxable access to private sector production,…
Fintechs Don’t Require Government Handouts for Data Access
Back when Google first launched its email service, “Gmail” was free for users, and the platform was monetized primarily through ads. However, as the platform grew in its success, so did the amount of…
If I Were CEO of Starbucks, I Would Fire the Strikers
Dear Starbucks Employees, I saw the sign on my neighborhood Starbucks’ front door announcing that you are on strike. The way to get ahead in life is not to sabotage the hand that…
Why Every Fed Official Should Eat At Akron’s Diamond Grille
Diamond Grille doesn’t take credit cards. On the other hand, it does take business cards. Which is why every Federal Reserve official should be required to darken its doors, along with every…
DOT’s Google Gamble Ignores History
The Department of Transportation’s latest move to hand Google a major technology contract — coming on the heels of its “OneGov” initiative — shows Washington still hasn’t learned one of its most…
Sorry, but Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford Didn’t Create Zohran Mamdani
“Colleges are graduating a surfeit of young people who lack hard or even soft skills…They believe their degrees aren’t being adequately rewarded by the free market and blame capitalism.” Those are…
Short of Hoarding, China Can’t Keep ‘Rare Earths’ Out of the U.S.
The U.S. could be 100% bereft of “rare earths” while at war with and embargoed by rare earth rich China, but we’d still have all the rare earths we want stateside, and as though they were all sourced…
If Border Closure Is Such Great Politics, What Happened On 11/4?
Deportations and border closures were political losers for President Trump and the Republicans. That’s because voters vote their pocketbooks. More than a few who read this opinion piece’s opening…
Raising the Social Security Retirement Age Would Be a Big Government Mistake
Social Security was a bad, big-government mistake. As argued in The Deficit Delusion, a much worse, much bigger big-government mistake would be to lower its annual cost by pushing the retirement age…
Never Have Federal Tax Cuts Ever “Starved the Beast”
Why do Silicon Valley startups never rate loans? Because money is ruthless, and there’s not an interest rate high enough to compensate lenders for loans to business concepts that fail quickly over 90…
As Jimmy Carter Rises In Right’s Eye, Remember Why He Lost
A weak dollar wrecked Jimmy Carter’s presidency. This requires mention as the long ago Carter economic plan rises in the estimation of the right. Looking back, they appreciate that Carter didn’t…
The Biggest Education Problem Isn’t Ideology, It’s Lazy Teachers
Imagine doing the same thing the same way repeatedly not just for months or years, but centuries. Such is the way of education, whether public or private. Worse, education’s immutability is prized.…
Steven Miran Is Why We Can’t Trust Economists With the Economy
Don’t trust economists to manage the economy. Read the musings of Fed Governor Steven Miran if you’re skeptical. Except that we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before contemplating Miran and his odd…
Zohran Mamdani Is a Logical Effect of a City That Won’t Stop Booming
Readers would never have heard of Zohran Mamdani if New York weren’t the richest, most capitalistic city on earth. It’s that simple. Where wealth is being created abundantly, there’s also an…
Egregious Errors by Kings FDR and Mom Jeans Gave Us 2025 Shutdown
It is the year 2125. A long time ago, in a far-away land of kings and queens (not all queens in those times were the crown-wearing kind), there was a kingdom ruled by knaves and fools. Its…
Jensen Huang and Donald Trump Are Correct About Chinese Students
Speaking recently at a reception after Nvidia’s Global Technology Conference in Washington, DC, Jensen Huang energetically made a case for economic interconnectedness with China. U.S. universities…
More Tax Revenue Won’t Solve a Problem of Too Much Tax Revenue
Soaring government debt is in the U.S.’s future, and at borrowing costs that will continue to decline. See the excellent Holman Jenkins at the Wall Street Journal if you’re doubtful. Arguably the…
Gold Is a Better Equity Market Tell Than It’s Being Credited For
To buy gold is to withdraw resources from the wealth and information creating private sector. That’s because consumption is in most instances a confirmation of knowns, of the exchange of resource…
The Unsung Compassion of the Smartphone
Since wireless telephony was only in its infancy by the 1980s, and since broad internet usage was realistically decades away, nearly all work took place at a physical location. “Chained to the desk”…
Book Review: Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “1929”
The Merval, Argentina’s benchmark equity index, soared 22 percent the day after the recent vote. Markets had been pricing in big electoral gains for the Peronist parties, only for Javier Milei’s…
The Data Center Proliferation Must Be About Much More Than Data
With Amazon, it was never about the books. No doubt Amazon began as an online bookseller, but what made its stock attractive through years of losses is what books represented. If Amazon could…