by Mark Franke “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” These words of George Bernard Shaw, not someone I am in the habit of quoting, certainly fit the travesty that is our national political scene today. Consider the most recent headlines. We have an ex-President on a crusade to punish every Republican officeholder who fails to show proper obeisance to his mania about having his reelection stolen.…

An Army of One PEOPLE WHO WORK IN powerful places —  metropolitan newsrooms, Capitol Hill offices, etc. — will tell you that when three or four letters arrive complimenting a story or complaining about a vote, it is noticed. Most of us aim too high in our civic involvement. We can make a big difference way below what the consultants tell us is critical mass. Eighteen years ago a friend emerged from a coma. He had been there for…

by Leo Morris The Indiana Business Journal has named its “Indiana 250”, a list of “the state’s most influential and impactful business and community leaders.” Alas, I did not make the list, despite having spent a long career penning insightful, eloquent editorials and columns designed to convince people of something or persuade them to do something (little smug grammatical pedantry thrown in for free). How can someone ready to pounce unmercifully on every minor public…

The Christmas Seminar, Dec. 9-10 (attend one or both days) is filling up faster than expected with only 14 seats left for the luncheon. If you have not already done so, click HERE for tickets. Friday — “No Name Tag” (free) convenes in the restaurant/bar area the Friday evening before the luncheon. Unstructured discussion with adjuncts, staff and members. Eric Schansberg will lead us on a thought experiment: “What would grocery stores look like if they were organized as…

WHEN TEDDY ROOSEVELT visited Europe and met Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, he asked what the meaning of monarchy was in the 20th century. “To protect my peoples from their governments,” the Emperor replied. When was the last time you heard a serious promise to protect you from your government? Come to think of it, who can protect you from your government? The late William F. Buckley regularly commended a certain member of Congress, the name of whom has been lost to…

by Mark Franke Most of the public and parochial schools in my area started back up this week. So what, one might ask, until one looks at the calendar and realizes it is the second week of August. What happened to summer vacation? No one of my acquaintance thinks this is a good idea, a handful of totally exasperated parents excluded. It isn’t just we geezers who think summer runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.…

By Jason Arp In the 26th chapter of Ludwig von Mises’s magnum opus, “Human Action,”one finds a discussion of a builder vexed by the absence of prices and therefore unable to objectively determine the optimal mix of methods and materials to construct a house. Mises writes: “The paradox of ‘planning’ is that it cannot plan because of the absence of economic calculation. What is called a planned economy is no economy at all. It is just…

DESPITE WHAT CONSULTANTS SAY, some of us suspect that politics happens all of a sudden — bang, it’s on your doorstep, it was this way right up until it wasn’t. For instance, one day in the early 1960s it was not OK for an able-bodied man to receive welfare. The next day it was OK, changing everything. And it wasn’t that long ago when we were arguing about whether to relax the cadence of our alma mater’s marching band to…

by Leo Morris Can the legislative process still work more or less as intended, with lawmakers balancing competing interests and arriving at a solution that the majority of the population can at least live with if not enthusiastically endorse? Or have we become so divided as a nation that neither side wants to concede anything to the other? We might get a clue to the answer in the next few years as state legislatures grapple…

OUR LEADERSHIP, if that is the right word, has committed tens of millions in cash transfers, tax breaks and bonded loans to making Fort Wayne more attractive to young urban professionals. Yuppies we used to call them. It seems to me we have spent little on anything else these last few decades. We have luxury apartments with indoor parking attached to a sports stadium, a river walk, a splash pad, outdoor theaters, boutique hotels, a state-of-the-art convention center and city…