Joseph Coletti

In his influential book, Coming Apart, Charles Murray made a compelling case for the cultural differences between affluent (white) Americans and working class (white) Americans. Among the differences were marriage and divorce rates. Wealthier whites marry and divorce at the same rates as in the past. Poorer whites marry…

Despite dire predictions of steep drops in charitable giving because of federal tax reform, the left-of-center Inside Philanthropy found giving flat or higher in an informal survey of United Ways and other nonprofits. Fewer people may take a tax deduction for their contributions to churches and charitable causes, but…

North Carolina’s Department of Revenue (NCDOR) recently claimed the ability to force out-of-state companies to collect sales taxes and set its own rules on how to do that based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (Wayfair) this past June. Now NCDOR is…

Families have found nontraditional ways to meet a basic need with less regulation and lower costs. The headline warns “experts are concerned,” but the families are generally happy with their experience. This time, experts are not wringing their hands about “unaccountable” charter schools,  but about health care sharing ministries. The…

Carlo Lancellotti has done the English-speaking world a great service in translating and commenting on the work of Italian philosopher Augusto Del Noce. Consider “Augusto Del Noce on the ‘New Totalitarianism'” from the summer 2017 issue of Communio, which elucidates Del Noce’s views on ‘scientism’ and transcendence. In…

Durham’s transit agency, GoDurham, is cutting routes and changing others as management tries to reduce a budget shortfall over the next five years. Plans for a  $2.47 billion light rail system to connect Durham and Chapel Hill continue to advance. How does that happen? The city started bus routes…

We’ve been generally supportive of the General Assembly’s approach to budgeting, even as we’ve cautioned against overspending and continued to seek reforms in the process. Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene highlight North Carolina in their summary of a useful report from the left-of-center Center for Budget and Policy Priorities on…

Governing magazine’s Liz Farmer finds economists are increasingly worried about the possibility of a recession. She writes that S&P sees slower growth as a more likely scenario than outright contraction, but budget timelines are not as simple. Agencies have already begun planning their budgets through June 2021—the governor will…