Checking in with Walter Russell Mead.........

"Too many American debates are between true blues who want to shovel more money into badly designed institutions and grim reds who are more focused on cutting costs than on getting the important jobs done. Both sides need to take their blinkers off and begin thinking creatively about new solutions."  - full essay on higher education reform is here.

"The core problem with Obamacare is that it depends on ripping off the young and healthy to subsidize the old and infirm. On the one hand, we’re glad that young people are able to escape the clutches of this trap, but we can’t help but notice that their escape will bankrupt the system. It’s almost as if the politicians didn’t read the law before they passed it, and had no idea how its various provisions would cause car crashes as they tried to roll it out." - full essay on another crack in Obamacare is here. 

"This story is also further evidence that Malthusianism is nonsense. Human ingenuity keeps finding new methods in agriculture and other fields of endeavor. There are no signs that this process is nearing an end." - full essay on a new farming revolution in India generating world-record yields is here.

"Consumers want and need new houses, cars, computers, tablets, refrigerators, you name it. Business wants to gear up to supply these and other needs. Central banks are printing money. 

"People want to make money. The economy wants to grow. Politicians are making this as hard as possible, but at some point the sheer dynamism of capitalism seems likely to put us on course for another solid expansion." - full essay on booming and busting is here