Commentary/Opinion
Worth Celebrating: NC’s Drug Overdose Deaths Have Plummeted
By David Larson Carolina Journal In 2019, 22.4 out of every 100,000 North Carolinians died of a drug overdose. That was 2,352 deaths total, about double what the number had…
Letter To The Editor: A So-Called Lesson We Don’t Need
When I was still teaching high school English, we read The Kite Runner. Toward the end of the book, there was a public execution in a soccer stadium, carried out…
Housing Abundance Requires Long View
RALEIGH — After years of inadequate housing supply, have homebuilders and apartment developers worked their way into a housing glut? That’s the impression some North Carolinians may have gotten by…
Founders Were Far From Unanimous
By John Hood RALEIGH — For as long as human beings have lived in settled communities subject to political (rather than familial) authority, there have been political factions — as…
Pay For Performance, Not For Politics
By John Hood RALEIGH — The North Carolina General Assembly approved substantial pay increases for public schoolteachers earlier this year. If a bipartisan commission has its way, teacher compensation will…
You Decide: Why Is The Bond Market So Important?
By Mike Walden Three decades ago, James Carville, the political analyst and adviser to President Bill Clinton, made a memorable statement. Paraphrasing, Carville said that if he were to come…
Washington Can’t Ease Our Traffic Jams
By John Hood RALEIGH — The federal government projects trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. Perhaps that’s the problem: Washington’s fiscal irresponsibility has become so reckless, its…
Healthcare Reform Is Not Optional
By John Hood RALEIGH — The top priority among voters this year is affordability. Various polls in North Carolina and other states ask the question in various ways — sometimes…
Social Security Matters: Mom Worries Daughter Making Bad Social Security Decision
By Russell Gloor AMAC Foundation Dear Rusty: My question is not for me, but for my daughter who 62 years is old. She does not want to take her Social…
Why Carolinians Liked Strong Legislatures
By John Hood RALEIGH — How should North Carolina be governed? The same question can be asked about any other state in America, or any other country in the world.…
Leaders Should Police Their Own Parties
By John Hood RALEIGH — Although I know full well that bad news draws more eyeballs than good news, I feel compelled to observe that something rather shocking — and…
You Decide: Why Did The Fed Raise Its Interest Rate?
By Mike Walden Among the powers of the Federal Reserve (the Fed) is the ability to impact interest rates. The Fed doesn’t directly control all interest rates in the economy,…
