Suzie Bohlson sits in a sun-drenched California plaza, a pale, slight 53-year-old with a Ph.D. in biology from Notre Dame. Fifteen years ago, she converted to Catholicism, a surprising choice, perhaps, for a young woman from Los Angeles raised in a family of materialist scientists.  read more »

Statistics Canada, Canada’s government statistical agency, has announced that the nation’s Total Fertility Rate dropped to 1.26 in 2023.  read more »

In the wake of last year’s 7 October pogrom, and amid rapidly rising anti-Semitism, most Jews are even more convinced of the importance of the Jewish State and the need for greater solidarity.  read more »

In Europe there is a strong general trend in which high-tax nations stagnate economically, while economic growth is shifting towards member states with lower taxation levels, talent supply and business friendly regulations.  read more »

I’ve written a lot about how growing up in Detroit was instrumental in my desire to improve and revitalize cities. Watching a city being hollowed out and disgraced in the ‘70s and ‘80s can have that impact.  read more »

For the last century, no state more epitomized the ideals of upward mobility and technological and cultural innovation than California.  read more »

You won’t read much about this in major media outlets, but nearly every week, local communities across the US are rejecting or restricting solar and wind projects.  read more »

Sometimes you try to put a positive gloss on a situation, but the underlying concerns that cause the need for such spin come back to bite you.  read more »

It appears to be a rule of modern politics that politicians must pander to voters. The latest example of this  read more »

Just a quick note on an encouraging article by James Rodriguez of Business Insider. Rodriguez reports a significant reduction in house prices in Austin, Texas, due to building a large number of single-family homes and apartments. I was unable to discern whether the article dealt with the Austin market (the metropolitan area) or the city (which is a housing submarket). Nor could I tell if his insightful comparison to San Francisco was the housing market (metro) or the city submarket.  read more »