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In politics, competence doesn’t seem to matter

Politics is the only profession of which I am aware in which competence doesn’t seem to matter. One can fail miserably; one can be corrupt and one can get away with crimes that if committed by someone outside of elective office, arrest, prosecution and a stint in jail would be the result. Yet politicians, Democrats and Republicans, continue to get re-elected. Which brings me to Tuesday’s race for mayor in Los Angeles (and could reporters please stop saying “mayoral” and “gubernatorial? Real people don’t talk that way). The incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, wants another ...

Bureaucrats in the way

Is your business "needed"? Bizarrely, in many states, if you want to start a business, you first must convince bureaucrats that your business is "needed." Four years ago, Louisiana blocked social worker Ursula Newell-Davis from helping kids with special needs. Bureaucrats said she hadn't proved her business was needed. "Why does the state of Louisiana have the right to stop me from doing what I love?" she asks in this update video. Good question. Ursula has a master's degree and a social work license. For two decades, she's helped kids with special needs. One, Kamal, told us ...

Washington blocked Spirit Airlines, now it should learn from it

Spirit Airlines never became a symbol of everything Americans loved about flying. It became a symbol of something more important: choice. At a time when Americans remain sensitive to the cost of travel and policymakers continue debating the future of competition policy, Spirit’s struggles offer an important lesson about the difference between protecting competition and protecting competitors. For years, Spirit represented a simple but powerful idea: travelers should decide what matters to them and pay accordingly. Want the cheapest possible ticket and do not care about checked ...

Is TMI really such a bad thing? Here’s the case for oversharing

Many people know the sting of having said too much, a cringey feeling that bubbles up after sharing the wrong details at the wrong time. Now, imagine drunkenly telling two of your superiors about the time you had a bathroom emergency onstage in front of hundreds of people. Leslie John feared she had killed her career. Instead, it became an asset. "Those two grand poo-bahs, they became my closest mentors," said John, a Harvard business professor and author of "Revealing: The Underrated Power of Oversharing." "And it's not in spite of my having shared my embarrassing story with them, ...

America at 250: Expansion of a new nation started with trip along the Ohio River

Editor’s note: It is impossible to tell the story of the nation without telling the story of the Ohio River Valley. Long before interstate highways and railroads connected the expanding republic, it was the rivers that served as the young nation’s first true highway westward. Through these waters flowed settlers, soldiers, merchants, dreamers and pioneers determined to carve opportunity from the frontier. In many ways, the journey chronicled this week represents the true beginning of America’s westward. What started with a determined group of men leaving Massachusetts in the ...

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