No amount of narrative-setting can convince American voters that the economy is better or worse than their own experience dictates. That’s what I’ve been telling the Republicans who’ve asked me, earnestly, if the media’s reporting on affordability is responsible for voters’ gloomy assessment of their finances.

That’s not to say that...Read more

That shrill, high-pitched squeal you've been hearing lately? Don't bother trying to adjust your TV or headphones, or calling your doctor for a tinnitis check. It's just America's beleaguered billionaires keening over a proposal in California to impose a one-time wealth tax of up to 5% on fortunes of more than $1 billion.

The billionaires lobby ...Read more

Nicolás Maduro and his wife confronted two overpowering forces last week: the U.S. military and artificial intelligence. The result was worldwide confusion and a reminder that what one sees these days is not necessarily authentic.

U.S. special forces captured and flew Maduro and Cilia Flores to New York to face drug and narcoterrorism-related ...Read more

As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence in 1776, the temptation rises to focus on the year’s military engagement — but its most significant events occurred off the battlefield. Rather than as just one colonial people’s fight for independence from imperial rule, American patriots saw the events of 1776 as a ...Read more

Just how much disruption can America’s economy — and the world’s — endure?

On Monday, Denmark’s prime minister found it necessary to say, “If the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO, and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.”

In...Read more

I first met Joe when he was six years old, having spent his entire life attached by a heavy logging chain to a hollowed-out air conditioning unit in a backyard in Virginia.

His surroundings more closely resembled a mud pit due to his restless circling and the patchwork of holes he had dug trying to fill the long, lonely hours. Whenever I ...Read more

In a surprising victory for gun advocates last week, a federal court struck down California’s longstanding ban on the open carrying of firearms. The decision appears to be a seismic shift for the Golden State, yet the practical effect on gun carrying in cities such as Los Angeles may be far less dramatic. The true danger of the court’s ...Read more

Taxes are a necessary fact of life. Although no one likes paying them, and they divert resources and cause waste, governments need revenue to provide essential (and some not-so-essential) services. And with its large debt, aging population and growing appetite for government benefits, the U.S. will have to increase taxes sooner rather than later...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — We must not rush to judgment. But there is a primal scream stuck in our collective throat. Our heads are spinning as we try to make sense of what happened on a south Minneapolis street Wednesday, Jan. 7, in broad daylight, captured on video for a state and nation to absorb.

Renee Nicole Good, 37, is dead, shot by an Immigration ...Read more

Who knew that by "America First," President Donald Trump meant all of the Americas?

In puzzling over that question at least, I've got company in Marjorie Taylor Greene, the now-former congresswoman from Georgia and onetime Trump devotee who remains stalwart in his America First movement. Greene tweeted on Saturday, just ahead of Trump's ...Read more

Securing the Arctic region against the likes of China and Russia is a vital national security goal — and something NATO nations must prioritize as northern shipping lanes open up due to melting Arctic sea ice. But changes shouldn't come by American force or demand.

President Donald Trump has been talking about annexing Greenland for the past ...Read more

Donald Trump has a bit of Barney Fife in him. Armed with a badge and bullet ― and lots of guns ― he's hell-bent on locking up all the bad guys in town.

The president who promised to always put America First and decried foreign interventions that lead to nation-building is now standing astride the globe with the ambition of bending it to his...Read more

Renee Nicole Good. George Floyd. Different tragedies, but the same grief for a community betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect and serve.

Crowds gathered again in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, marching through the same streets where some of them were protesting five and a half years ago after Floyd’s murder.

The full force ...Read more

By making sweeping changes to the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule, America’s top health leaders are recklessly maximizing the threat from previously common diseases and dismissing our collective role in preventing them.

The new policy, which cuts the number of recommended vaccinations by more than a third, sends a not-so-subtle message ...Read more

Optimism, especially about our ability to solve big problems, is in brutally short supply these days. The gloom might be at its worst in the climate change arena, where the Trump administration is in the midst of an all-out assault on green energy and the world is poised to miss the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 ...Read more

Yes, Mr. President, we know there was massive welfare-related fraud in Minnesota. We’ve written about it more than once and the beleagured governor up there rightly has said he now will not stand for reelection and is struggling to survive his current term, given the billions of dollars that have flowed to all the wrong places. Yes, there’s ...Read more

Federal mandates drove automakers into a financial ditch.

Ford Motor Co. has announced a dramatic shift away from producing electric vehicles. That includes dumping the electric version of its F-150 truck, dubbed the Lightning. The main result of its EV plan was lighting billions of dollars on fire. Ford said it would take a $19.5 billion ...Read more

The auto industry is headed back to where it should have stayed in the quest to put a cleaner fleet on the road: hybrids.

Automakers are rapidly backing away from plans to fully electrify their offerings, due to an easing of fuel economy and emissions mandates by the Trump administration and continued resistance from consumers.

But that doesn�...Read more

President Donald Trump has devoted much energy during his second term to undoing the damage caused by his predecessor’s economic paternalism. His latest success will be a boon to America’s competitiveness and sovereignty.

On Monday, the Treasury Department announced that U.S. multinational corporations will not be subjected to a 15% global ...Read more