As Americans prepare to celebrate the 249th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we should also toast the 250th anniversary of a savvy political two-step that paved the way to formally breaking with Britain the following year.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah or King of Iran) was forced into exile in January 1979 by nationwide citizen protests, worker strikes, failed autocratic rule and fading health. He appointed a new government under Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar.

[This article was originally published in Housing Finance International.]

After more than fifty years of US government-sponsored housing finance, Why has home ownership not increased and why are houses unaffordable?

Last week, New York City Democratic voters chose a leftist extremist who has outlined policies that, if carried out, would bring severe damage to the city. Indeed, that the voters would choose Zohran Mamdani to be the city’s next mayor demonstrates that New York’s state of delusion is not limited to its politicians. Delusional officials are placed in office by delusional voters and delusion has reigned in the Big Apple for more than 50 years.

For more than 80 years—since the days of the New Deal—the US federal government has embarked on a wide variety of policies that were ostensibly intended to increase the homeownership rate. The underlying idea—a rather dubious one, at that—has always been that homeownership is a proxy for economic prosperity.