January 2009

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Editor's Notes

• Obama's Numbers

  Matt Welch

  The president-elect has promised to make his math add up. Therein lies a glimmer of possibility.

Contributors

• Contributors

Letters

• Letters to the Editor

Citings

• Chicago Rules

  Radley Balko

  It's good to be the alderman

• Digital Spelunking

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Data mining failure

• Baloney Ballistics

  Brian Doherty

  Gun databases fail

• Soap Scum

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Banning driveway car washes

• One Fish, Ten Fish

  Jacob Sullum

  Fishery privatization

• Kentucky Reign

  David Weigel

  State-owned gambling domains

• Friendly Invasion

  Ronald Bailey

  End species discrimination!

• Death to Mickey

  Jacob Sullum

  Rated F for fatwa

• Blind Rage

  Mike Riggs

  Angry Korean masseuses

• Halo Health

  Ronald Bailey

  Fit, happy gamers

• Sarbanes-Oxley Revisited

  Brian Doherty

• Death by SWAT

  Radley Balko

  Collateral raid damage

Soundbites

• Economics Actually

  Michael C. Moynihan

Years Ago

• 25 years ago in reason

  Sex, Social Security, Julian Simon

Brickbats

• Brickbats

  Charles Oliver

Quotes

• Quotes

Lists

• Anti-Government Superheroes

  Chester Brown

Columns

• Obama's Job Fetish

  Jacob Sullum

  Why the government shouldn't view "creating jobs" as an end in itself

• Beat the New Boss

  David Weigel

  D.C. libertarians plot their Obama administration strategies.

• Bush's Regulatory Kiss-Off

  Veronique de Rugy

  Obama's assertions to the contrary, the 43rd president was the biggest regulator since Nixon.

• Thank You, Your Honor, May I Have Another?

  Greg Beato

  The stubbornly seductive perils of justice porn

• The End Is Near

  Tim Cavanaugh

  Why does the land of plenty love dystopias?

Features

• Better Than a Bailout

  Philippe Lacoude & Veronique de Rugy

  Four steps policy makers could take to help financial markets

• Houses of Pain

  Tim Cavanaugh

  When did declining home prices become politically intolerable?

• Lessons From the Great Inflation

  Robert J. Samuelson

  Paul Volcker and Ronald Reagan's forgotten miracle created a quarter century of prosperity--and a dangerous bubble of complacency.

• The Fed's Binge

  Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

  How the Federal Reserve engineered the most dramatic peacetime experiment in monetary and fiscal stimulus in U.S. history without anyone noticing

• Is Deregulation to Blame?

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  The new Washington consensus says "yes." The facts on the ground say something different.

• Anatomy of a Breakdown

  Michael Flynn

  Concerted government policy helped trigger the financial meltdown—and will almost certainly extend it.

Interviews

• The Real Community Organizer

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Craig Newmark on Craigslist, libertarianism, online democracy, and nerd values

Culture & Reviews

• Slipped a Mickey

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  One man's light pollution is another man's historic landmark.

• Pixar's Stories

  Brian Doherty

  An animation company's inspirational rise from Nowheresville to infinity, and beyond

Book Reviews

• The God That Flails

  Michael C. Moynihan

  Bernard-Henri Lévy takes on the rudderless European left.

• The Trouble With Thomas Jefferson

  Damon W. Root

  The eloquent Founder's original sin

Artifacts

• Artifact: Transparency in Action

  Radley Balko

  Secrets of the bailout