The American health care system had become the perfect poster child for cronyism long before Obamacare went into effect. Insurance companies, health care providers, and the government have become so intertwined, it’s almost impossible to discern where one ends and the other begins.

Racial identity is intertwined with almost every economic and political problem currently under debate, from police violence to immigration controls. In fact, it’s possible that racism and racial conflict are in the public eye now more than at any other time since the Civil Rights Movement.

The Wells Fargo bank account scandal took center stage in the news last week and in all likelihood will continue to make headlines for many weeks to come. What Wells Fargo employees did in opening bank accounts without customers’ authorization was obviously wrong, but in true Washington fashion the scandal is being used to deflect attention away from larger, more enduring, and more important scandals.

Demonizing the financial industry has proven to be a political winner. Exposure of the evil banks was followed by Michael Lewis’s exposé of the markets in Flash Boys.

Henry Hazlitt started to write his only novel, The Great Idea in 1949. It was finally published in 1951, but the British editors were not happy with the title. Among the alternatives Hazlitt submitted, one of them, Time Will Run Back, particularly struck their attention. It was published in England under that title in 1952. Today Time Will Run Back is still in circulation thanks to the efforts of the Mises Institute.

Nowadays, cannabis has been legalized nationwide for recreational use in only one country: Uruguay. Decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana has occurred in various jurisdictions of Europe and several states in the US. Four US states have legalized possession and sale for recreational use.  

It’s long been apparent that the Republican party has no interest in making any significant cuts to government spending. 

In fact, looking at GOP presidents since Nixon, it seems that Republicans like to increase government spending more than Democrats.