When President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913, he described the resulting institution as the “Supreme Court of Finance.” In the Federal Reserve System, Wilson believed, the United States finally possessed a central institution whose decisions regulated financial matters for the entire country, as did the Supreme Court in the […]
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“Anarchy” and the “Mob” in the Early Republic
On January 7, 2021, the New York Times published the following headlines on the print edition’s front page: “After Pro-Trump Mob Storms Capitol, Congress Confirms Biden’s Win” and “A Mob and the Breach of Democracy: The Violent End of the Trump Era.” In the digital edition, these headlines were supplemented by a video titled “Pro-Trump […]
Examining the Consistency of John Adams’s Political Thinking: What His Early Political Writings Can Tell Us
In her 1805 History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, family friend Mercy Otis Warren harshly criticized John Adams for what she alleged was his apostasy from republicanism, positing that his long residency in Europe had caused him to favor monarchy and aristocracy. In a series of venomous letters written to […]
Madison 2022: “Property” in a Pandemic World
Contemporary law schools rarely teach property in ‘property class.’ Rather, they teach how to balance state interests with private property interests. Reflection on Madison’s essay Property elucidates the problematic shift in American political thought away from an understanding of property as rooted in fundamental rights toward property as rooted in interests. Madison begins his discussion […]
The Dark Side of Political Compromise: Why the Filibuster Needs to Go
Compromise is often seen as a silver bullet for the problems plaguing modern politics. If only our politicians were less confrontational and better at negotiating compromises, we are told, much of the rancor characterizing contemporary political discourse would disappear. For this reason, many observers on both left and right defend the filibuster, a Senate procedure […]
