Advice to parents: Explore non-college options

Looking ahead at the next bubble to burst: higher education. Costs keep going up at traditional four-year colleges, in part because professors do not make teaching their prime activity. 

While students write poorly, professors prattle instead of teach. Meanwhile, parents pay tuition because it's socially the thing to do—and they've also bought the talk that college graduates earn much more than non-graduates. That's true, but an education economic expert estimates that two-thirds of superior earning comes from the intelligence and character of the earner rather than the degree itself. 


by Marvin Olasky

Romney's authenticity problem

The most persuasive case for Romney has always been that if he's the nominee, the election will be a referendum on Obama. But that calculation always assumed that rank-and-file Republicans will vote for their nominee in huge numbers no matter what. That may well still be the case, but it feels less guaranteed every day.

by Jonah Goldberg 

Will college bubble burst from public subsidies?

We are still suffering from the bursting of the housing bubble created by low interest rates, lowered mortgage standards, and subsidies to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those policies encouraged the granting of mortgages to people who should never have gotten them — and when they defaulted, the whole financial sector nearly collapsed.

Now some people see signs that another bubble is bursting. They call it the higher-education bubble.

by Michael Barone

The horserace for July 21, 2011

For all intents and purposes, from here on out, we have to presume Rick Perry is a candidate for the Presidency of the United States until he declares otherwise. I think it is safe to conclude he's in.

As Perry rises, Pawlenty falls as does Bachmann. Cain implodes. Romney stagnates. And then there's the funny tale of Jon Huntsman. It kind of makes me chuckle. There's a lot to get into this week in the horserace for the White House.

by Erick Erickson

Benedict XVI and the future of the West

Since October 16, 1978, the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican has been given an authoritative interpretation by two popes who, as young men, had both been influential participants at Vatican II. And with that authoritative interpretation, which synthesises the achievements of Catholic intellectual life since the Leonine revival of the late 19th century, a decisive moment has been reached in the history of the Catholic Church: the catechetical-devotional Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation is giving way to what may be called Evangelical Catholicism.

by George Weigel

Can Greeks become Germans?

Natural resources create corruption, as groups compete for who controls the tap. That is exactly what happened in Greece when it got access to huge Euro-loans and subsidies. The natural entrepreneurship of Greeks was channeled in the wrong direction — in a competition for government funds and contracts. 

by Tom Friedman

Ten ways progressive policies harm society's moral character

While liberals are certain about the moral superiority of liberal policies, the truth is that those policies actually diminish a society's moral character. Many individual liberals are fine people, but the policies they advocate tend to make a people worse.

by Dennis Prager