Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson Elon Musk noted on X that giving more money to homelessness charities in California did not seem to reduce the number of homeless people. In response, Konstantin Kisin reminded him about the Cobra Effect and was surprised to discover how many people hadn’t heard of it. The Cobra Effect is based on a story which may or may not have taken place during British colonial rule in India. According to the story, the British wanted to reduce the…

Kerby Anderson The U.S. dollar has lost half of its purchasing power in just the last 30 years. Put another way, that means that one dollar today can only buy 50 cents worth of goods and services compared to the 1990s. In less than a single generation, the dollars in your wallet or purse can only buy half as much. Once you understand that depressing statistic, you can also begin to see why the wealth gap in this country is…

Kerby Anderson Last week, six states voted on pot initiatives, and more are certain to come in the next election. In previous commentaries, I have noted that the push for legalization of marijuana has come at a time when we know more about the dangers of cannabis than we knew a few decades ago. In a recent Breakpoint commentary, John Stonestreet concludes that “The Pot Experiment Has Been a Disaster.” It has been a disaster, for many reasons. The first…

Kerby Anderson While most Americans were focused on the election, the BRICS nations had a conference in Russia that we should not ignore. In case you are wondering, BRICS is an acronym for some of the world’s leading emerging market economies. BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. At the conference, there were 9 members and 13 new “partner nations” who were accepted. That means that the GDP of the BRICS nations is now greater than the…

Penna Dexter Election day was almost upon us — the editorial endorsing Kamala Harris had already been written — when William Lewis, CEO and Publisher of The Washington Post announced the paper would not be endorsing a presidential candidate, ending a 50-year tradition of doing so. Immediately after the announcement, The Post began bleeding subscribers — 250,000 of them within four days. Several staff members resigned in protest. Longtime opinion writer Ruth Marcus titled her column, “The Post, the wrong…

Kerby Anderson The crisis of men and boys is well known and well documented. My radio interviews with Dr. Warren Farrell about his book, The Boy Crisis is but one example. Jordan Peterson has been speaking and writing about his concerns for many years. The latest warning comes from a David Brooks op-ed in the New York Times and the publication of a new book by Richard Reeves, Of Boys and Men. For example, boys are struggling in the classroom….

Kerby Anderson Twenty years ago, I did an interview with Bernard Goldberg on his book, Bias. I bring it up because his analysis has stood the test of time. At the time, he was the first media insider to reveal what many of us suspected about the background and attitudes of the people who determine what you read, see, and hear in the media. There were other studies (like the Lichter-Rothman studies) that also provided insight. But Bernard Goldberg’s book…

Kerby Anderson Many colleges and universities have speech codes and other policies that narrow the realms of permissible speech. And what started on campus has made its way to the broader society. This was a topic on my radio program when one day I was interviewing the president of a Christian college and the next day I was interviewing Nadine Strossen (former president of the ACLU). Both were against the suppression of speech even though they come from different political…

Kerby Anderson Today is Election Day, and two important questions might or might not be resolved tonight. The first question is: Who will win the election? Given our experience four years ago, the answer might not be obvious. The second question is: How peaceful will be our transition of power? Again, our experience four years ago is reason to be concerned about that. In 1960, there were questions about whether John F. Kennedy won the presidency fairly. Rumors quickly spread…

Kerby Anderson Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment practices have been in the news for some time. But there is growing evidence that the popularity of ESG mandates is fading. Alison Schrager writes that “The ESG Bubble is Bursting.” Sure, individuals would like to invest in corporations that reflect their values, but she says, “what counts as virtuous is rarely cut and dried.” Vivek Ramaswamy warns “How Woke Capital Politicizes Your Retirement.” He explains that politics have quickly come to…

Penna Dexter A false abortion narrative lives in our presidential politics. The narrative is that state restrictions on abortion passed since the Dobbs decision in 2022 are placing women in serious danger. Supposedly hospitals, fearing they’ll run afoul of state law, are refusing to treat women for miscarriages or abortion complications. Abortion advocates, including our vice president, blame the Supreme Court for the death of Amber Thurman, age 28, following a medication abortion. She was 9 weeks pregnant with twins….