Dealing with Investing Panic-mongers

“I am in a PANIC over this article, telling people to get out of stocks,” said an impassioned e-mail I received last week from a nice, intelligent professional woman who is a friend of a friend. “Is he right???? I am 52 years old, and I really hope...

Wasting Billions on the Green Agenda

After the usual media orgy of articles and opinions about “Earth Day”, it’s a good idea to ask how much environmentalism actually costs us. I will keep this to a question of dollars, but the real cost has been in millions of lives around a world...

Watchout for Hillary “Health” Care

A huge headline on the front of a recent issue of the New York Times Magazine said more than they intended: “Now Are We Ready to Talk About Health Care?” Inside was an article with the same title by Hillary Clinton. The casual arrogance of that question is...

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

The mutual fund is the most successful investment vehicle the world has ever seen. But it has its drawbacks. Mutual funds are not sold on an open market like individual shares of stock, but by fund companies themselves — either directly to shareholders or...

Conservation or Confiscation?

In April, the New Jersey Builders Association finally managed to muster an attack on legislation whose purpose it is said is to “conserve” a wide swath of northern New Jersey called the Highlands. In Congress, there’s also a Highlands Conservation...

Big Times, Small Men

Q: I agree with you that President Bush is a conservative who embodies yesterday’s liberals, as exemplified by his massive domestic spending, expansion of Medicare, campaign finance reform, etc. But don’t you think this is just his political opportunism at...

Bush’s Religiosity Wounds the War Effort

The religious foundations of the new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq threaten to undercut the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. Being a champion of religion, however, Bush sanctions these developments that aid and abet America’s would-be...