The French revolutionaries’ instrument for administering the 1793-1794 Reign of Terror was the Committee of Public Safety. Today, China’s totalitarians, displaying either ignorance of this unsavory history, or arrogance in flaunting their emulation of it, call their new instrument for suffocating Hong Kong the Commission for Safeguarding National Security. Yet again, actual tyranny is imposed in the supposed service of ...

After the great recession, the American economy rebounded faster and stronger than the euro zone, raising doubts over the effectiveness of the “European social model.” As Europe emerges from the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in better shape than the US, its combination of welfare states and strong public health systems suddenly seems appealing again. The US is still ...

Although the better-than-expected US employment numbers that came out last week give reason for optimism, it is far too early to declare victory over the threat of further economic damage. Yes, the jobs report and other data released last week illustrated the kind of impressive across-the-board recovery that the economy is capable of. But the durability of this much-needed recovery ...