Taylor Swift, Junk Fees, and the 'Happy Meal Fallacy'

WHEN AMERICA’S LARGEST ticket retailer announced plans to adjust its pricing structure, President Joe Biden was quick to claim credit

Subsidies Won't Stop Stagnation

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN is making a “big bet on place-based industrial policy,” writes Brookings Institution senior fellow Mark Muro

Civics in Public Schools Won't Fix American Democracy

ON THE CAMPAIGN trail in May, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy provocatively proposed raising the voting age to 25 for Americans who have not had any kind of civic experience, such as serving in the military or working as a first responder

America's Immigrant Brain Drain

THE UNITED STATES boasts more international students, immigrant inventors, and foreign-born Nobel laureates than any other country

Montreal: It's All French to Me

THE MONTREAL BIODÔME’S scarlet macaw named Bouton “will be deported to the Toronto Zoo next Friday after she only spoke English during a government inspection,” The Beaverton reported in July 2013

Ben Smith's One Neat Trick for Going Viral

The Semafor editor and former BuzzFeed News editor in chief on the online media explosion of the 2000s

Be Like Pixar, Not NASA

Artificial intelligence poses the most risk when it is embedded in a centralized, tightly coupled organization. But it can facilitate decentralization too

Adam Smith Wasn't a Progressive

Stop quoting him out of context on taxation, education, and monopoly.

An Interview With Adam Smith No, not that Adam Smith.

On the occasion of his 300th birthday, Adam Smith—the Scottish Enlightenment luminary and so-called father of capitalism— was not available for comment, despite attempts to contact him via Ouija board and seance.

Don't Tread on Pride Flags

What do Gadsden flags and Pride flags have in common?

SMALL-TOWN LIFE IS THE ANTI-TWITTER

WHEN I MOVED from New York City to rural northern Arizona, I faced two obstacles: my vocabulary and my manners. Spicy language and brusqueness were normal in the East Village, where I was unlikely to see many faces again. But they were impediments in a sparsely settled place where you run into the same people day after day. Life in a relatively rural area encourages nicer manners, so I learned to rein myself in

FOSTER-PARENT RED TAPE HURTS FAMILIES AND TAXPAYERS

RULES FOR BECOMING a foster parent are meant to keep kids safe. But many of these rules make it needlessly difficult to find appropriate homes for children whose biological parents are unable to care for them

THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR GAS STOVE

IN MAY, THE Democrat-controlled New York State Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul inked a $229 billion state budget agreement that included a ban on residential gas stoves. By 2029, only electric ranges will be allowed in new residences

COVID'S MISSING STUDENTS

DURING THE FIRST few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a staggering number of students went “missing.” Kindergarten enrollment rates dropped, and students already enrolled in classes failed to log in for online learning

THE TOWN WITHOUT ZONING

CAN CAROLINE, NEW YORK, RESIST THE IMPOSITION OF ITS FIRST-EVER ZONING CODE?

THE DEA AT 50

FOR FIVE DECADES, DRUGS HAVE BEEN WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS

Liberalism Isn't Rule by Elites

BUT PATRICK DENEEN’S “COMMON-GOOD CONSERVATISM” ALMOST CERTAINLY WOULD BE

WHEN TRADE WAR THREATENS REAL WAR

BIDEN IS BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN ECONOMIC POLICY AND MILITARY ACTION

Inside an Abusive Anti-Porn Camp for Teens

WHY ARE WE SENDING KIDS INTO THE WILDERNESS TO STOP THEM FROM LOOKING AT PORNOGRAPHY?

GET YOUR POLITICS OUT OF MY PICKLEBALL

FAULT LINES EMERGE AS GOVERNMENT GETS INVOLVED IN AMERICA’S WEIRDEST, FASTEST-GROWING SPORT

'Excited Delirium' is No Excuse for Police Abuse

A small change in wording by medical examiners could have a big impact on how deaths in police custody are reported. In March, the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) said “excited delirium” should not be cited as a cause of death.

TikTok Goes From Silly to Serious

“Most sectors of the economy are a conspiracy between the big incumbents and their punitive regulators,” venture capitalist and software engineer Marc Andreessen tells Reason this month (page 48). Asked to identify pockets of relative freedom and competition, he offers what he calls “the cynical answer”: There’s still innovation “in the spaces that don’t matter. Anybody can bring a new toy to market. Anybody can open a restaurant.”

A Successful Challenge to a Ban on 'aiding and Abetting' Abortion

When the city of Lebanon banned abortion in 2021, it initially seemed like a pointless stunt.

IS ENCOURAGING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PROTECTED BY THE CONSTITUTION?

FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS encouraging or inducing unlawful immigration for private financial gain. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case, United States v. Hansen, that asks whether that law unconstitutionally abridges freedom of speech.

DON'T 'PAUSE' A.I. RESEARCH

HUMAN BEINGS ARE terrible at foresight— especially apocalyptic foresight. The track record of previous doomsayers is worth recalling as we contemplate warnings from critics of artificial intelligence (A.I.) research.

POPPY SEEDS TRIGGER CHILD NEGLECT INVESTIGATIONS

BEFORE KATE L. gave birth to a baby girl last September, a nurse at New Jersey’s Hackensack University Medical Center collected a urine sample from the soon-to-be mother.

TRUMP'S NEW YORK INDICTMENT IS JUST THE BEGINNING

WHEN FORMER PRESIDENT Donald Trump arrived at a Manhattan courthouse on April 4, crowds of people and rows of TV cameras were there to witness an unprecedented moment: the first-ever arraignment of a former U.S. president. How quickly can something this important be relegated to the footnotes of American presidential history? We may be about to find out.

BOMBING MEXICAN CARTELS WON'T STOP FENTANYL

AMERICANS CONTINUE TO overdose on illicit fentanyl despite increased seizures of the drug coming north from Mexico.

THE GREAT EGG SHOCK

AS INFLATION RAISED prices on all manner of goods throughout 2022, eggs earned special attention. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average price of a dozen eggs in urban areas rose from $1.92 in January 2022 to $4.82 in January 2023.

THE NEW RIGHT ISN'T SO NEW

IN THE CLOSING weeks of 1969, a debate broke out in the pages of National Review about how American conservatives should respond to the threat posed by the New Left—the expanded universe of socialists, civil rights activists, anti-war protesters, feminists, environmentalists, and other lefty radicals then making political waves. Fifteen months earlier, police and demonstrators had met in a bloody clash outside the Democratic National Convention.