Articles by: Nancy Spannaus
By Nancy Spannaus Sept. 11, 2018—On Sept. 11, 1789 President George Washington nominated Alexander Hamilton for the position of Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate confirmed his nomination the very same day. Washington’s decision, and his continued support of Hamilton until the Secretary resigned in 1795, was one of the […]
The following is an op-ed which I am submitting to USA Today, but would be usefully submitted to other newspapers as well, in light of the raging debate over President Trump’s tariff policy. By Nancy Spannaus Aug. 20, 2018—In an op-ed in USA Today published Aug. 17, Jeff Ferry, research […]
August 17, 2018—Once again, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a report which should shake Americans to the core. On Aug. 15 the CDC issued a preliminary estimate that 72,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2017, a figure which represents a 7 to 10% increase over 2016. […]
Aug. 7, 2018—The Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board, now under mandate to come up with a plan to deal with highway congestion on Interstate 81 through the Shenandoah Valley, plans to consider an innovative rail solution to the problem. That is the report from David Foster, chairman of the non-profit lobby […]
Aug. 6, 2018—Six years after Hurricane Sandy, the Army Corps of Engineers has begun to present options for protecting the New York-New Jersey harbor area from future devastating storms. At stake is the fate of 16 million people living in the area; three airports; five major rail networks; the largest […]
Historians on Hamilton, How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America’s Past Renee C. Romano and Claire Bond Potter, editors Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 2018, 399 pp. By Nancy Spannaus Aug. 2, 2018—While I did not have very high hopes for this book of essays critiquing the Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical […]
By Nancy Spannaus July 30, 2018—In dealing with the issue of tariffs which the Trump Administration has put on the front burner, I have consistently argued that an American System approach to reviving American manufacturing demands a comprehensive policy of which tariffs may only be a small part. Specifically, the […]
July 24, 2018—It’s rare for any major U.S. publication to tell the truth about economic policy these days, but on July 22, the Huffington Post published an article that did just that. Author Zach Carter draws on a number of crucial examples, from the British Empire to the Clinton Administration, […]
By Nancy Spannaus July 20, 2018—Forty-nine years ago today, the United States took a “giant leap for mankind” when its astronauts successfully landed on the Moon’s surface. They not only walked on that heavenly body, but within days returned safely to Earth once again. It took an enormous nationwide effort […]
Nov. 15, 2018–The slide show delivered by macro-economist Alphecca Muttardy on Nov. 13 in Washington,D.C. is now available here as a PDF. Although many of the slides are self-explanatory, you may find it useful to review them alongside our news report, which is available here. As the weekly disruptions of […]
By Nancy Spannaus Nov. 14, 2018—A group of approximately 25 citizen-leaders gathered in a Washington, D.C. library last night to discuss how to address the question of the nation’s collapsing infrastructure. The lively, almost-unstoppable discussion centered around a slide show presentation on a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) proposal, given by […]
“Promote … institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge”
By Nancy Spannaus Sept. 19, 2018—The quotation that forms the headline of this post comes from George Washington’s letter to “the people of the United States,” subsequently known as his Farewell Address.[1] That letter was published in the American Daily Advertizer (a Philadelphia newspaper) on September 19, 1796 as an […]