A vast majority of Americans who read any economists at all read exactly one economist, and the vast majority of Americans who read exactly one economist read Paul Krugman in the New York Times. One can see the danger of a large swath of the American populace’s relying on the views of a single thinker for their understanding of such a broad and complex field of inquiry. Especially since, for a thinker to have such a broad cultural presence, he must be middlebrow, or present himself as such, and he must be easily digestible. In the field of canonical Western …
Waiting for Übermensch
American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas, by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen (Chicago, 464 pp., $30)
In This Issue
Articles
A Tax Floor, with No Ceiling
It’s one of the great mysteries of Barack Obama’s presidency: Why did he stiff-arm the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson commission — the bipartisan debt-reduction panel that the president himself created ...
Two Decades Too Late
For months, former senator Rick Santorum has been talking about working-class woes and promoting a working-class-friendly economic agenda, and in late January President Obama’s State of the Union speech placed ...
Strategy and Principle
The success of Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy was predicated on three qualities: He tried hard to be morally consistent; he had an innate sense of strategy; and he was a ...
The Peril of Paul
It has become a routine occurrence in the 2012 Republican presidential debates for the contenders to say that “anyone on this stage would be better than Barack Obama.” But is ...
Ad Astra per Lunam
Newt Gingrich blundered recently by promising to build a base on the moon. Adding improbability to implausibility, he vowed that this would happen by the end of his second term. ...
Features
The Truth about Fracking
In the middle-of-frackin’-nowhere Pennsylvania, Boy Genius is showing off his giant robot: It’s about 150 feet tall, God and the almighty engineers alone know how many hundreds of tons of ...
Getting to Know Susana
Santa Fe, N.M. — In her spacious office on the top floor of the “Roundhouse,” as the state capitol is called, Governor Susana Martinez greets a group of schoolchildren. Excitedly, ...
Money Bawl
When the Federal Reserve decided to loosen monetary policy in September 2007, not many people criticized it. The vote was unanimous. Few congressmen said anything about the move. Three years ...
Obama in the Bunker
Speaking to business leaders in the White House in mid-January, President Obama delivered his remarks in a fatigued monotone. He claimed to be “incredibly optimistic about our prospects.” But he ...
Books, Arts & Manners
Disaster in the Making
When General William Westmoreland died in July 2005, I wrote on National Review Online that he had been “an honorable man and a noble soldier,” but unfortunately “not a great ...
A Vanished Continent
In the volatile Germany of the 1920s, Joseph Roth was a successful writer of journalism and fiction. “I paint the portrait of the age,” he told his editor at the ...
Waiting for Übermensch
A vast majority of Americans who read any economists at all read exactly one economist, and the vast majority of Americans who read exactly one economist read Paul Krugman in ...
The Joys of Action
My favorite moment in Contraband, a palate-cleansing little thriller that’s perfect for moviegoers sated by December’s buffet of prestige movies, comes just after Mark Wahlberg’s New Orleans super-smuggler, Chris Farraday, ...
The Origin
Washington Crossing the Delaware, the city’s most popular painting, belongs to its largest museum. But for a while, in the last century, we didn’t quite know what to do with ...
Sections
Letters
The Shame of FDR
While the basic argument of Daniel Foster’s “For Shame” (January 23) — that the stigma associated with receiving public assistance has eroded, to our detriment — is ...
The Week
‐ We have to admit that President Obama’s line about not being consumed by personal ambition was pretty good. He should save it for volume three of his memoirs.
‐ To ...
Welcome New Residents!
Callista and I are thrilled to have you join us on the Toffler V Experimental Moon Base Unit! Please take a moment to settle into your Pod, and when you ...
To Newtly Go
Count me with Newt if the issue’s the moon. We should have had a base up there by 2001, just like the one in the movie. Of course, if we ...
Poetry
‘HORSEMAN, PASS BY’
Over time, the bravado fades; the long quiet of death helps
a silence, encouraged,
to take on a weight
its first appearance failed to suggest;
but not as an albatross,
or death prefigured,
or ...
The Catholic State
So the Health Commissar, Kathleen Sebelius, has decided that, under Obamacare, religious institutions, like any other employer, will be required to offer their workers free contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients. Well, ...
Recommended
Biden Signs Executive Order Allowing the U.S. to Fund Global Abortions
The policy was first instated by President Reagan to ensure that taxpayers would not be required to indirectly fund abortions in other countries.
Democrats Are Laying a Trap with Trump’s Impeachment Trial
Beware: Those arguing the Dems are making a miscalculation have got it all wrong.
Exclusive: 48 Senators Promise to Oppose Any Bill that Funds Abortion
Pro-life lawmakers pledge to resist spending bills that don’t include the Hyde amendment.
Cruz: Actually, It Is Constitutional to Impeach and Convict a Former President
Never mind how he voted.
What Happened to Officer Sicknick?
Democratic impeachment managers have a duty to explain how Officer Sicknick died.
The Icons of the Left Collapse
In the last 24 hours, three icons fell from their high pedestals and landed with a hard ‘thud.’
The Latest
Biden Orders Review of Supply Chain for Semiconductor Chips, Critical Resources
Biden's order will initiate a 100-day review of supply chains for pharmaceuticals, semiconductor chips, minerals and rare earths, and high-capacity batteries.
Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report Proves It’s an Abortion Group
Though the organization claims otherwise, it is the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Limbaugh and His Detractors
His posthumous critics exhibit all the flaws that he avoided.
Sasse Hits Becerra over 'Complete Nonsense Answer' on Nuns Suit
Earlier in the hearing on Wednesday, Becerra claimed that he "never sued any nuns" during his tenure as attorney general.
Becerra Commits to Collecting Health Data by Race: 'It's Time'
Becerra faces extensive opposition from Republicans over his pro-abortion record.
Becerra Fails to Name Single Abortion Restriction He'd Support
President Biden's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services did not identify any restrictions during a Senate confirmation hearing.