James Glassman

To hear John Kerry tell it, America is mired today in the worst economy since the Great Depression. How dumb does he think voters are? We just set a record for yearly production: a GDP of nearly $12 trillion, or $120,000 per family. As for what really counts, personal...

Democrats and their allies in the media have been giddy the latest jobs report. The New York Times said it showed that July "was a sputtering, tepid month" -- a boon to Democrats. John Kerry said Friday's report showed that instead of "turning the corner," as...

Although investing is a subtle and complicated endeavor, everyone can benefit from a simple set of rules and principles. One of my favorite portfolio managers, Thomas K. Brown, chief executive of Second Curve Capital, a New York hedge fund that specializes in...

Returning from my latest trip to Asia, I'm both exhilarated and perplexed. Exhilarated because Asia is booming, and it's a joy to see. Thailand, my main stop this time, is growing at 7 percent a year -- twice as fast as the United States and about four times as fast...

"Is the New York Times A Liberal Newspaper?" asked a headline on the last Sunday in July. The first sentence had the answer: "Of course it is." If that sounds like a dog-bites-man story, then consider the kicker: The article appeared in The New York Times itself. Its...

At a symposium at my college reunion last week, my classmates -- refugees from the '60s, still lefties after all these years -- were complaining that America wasn't enough like Europe. You know, compassionate and unstressed, with free health care, two-month vacations,...

"I happen to love Cleveland," says Elliott Schlang as we sip our drinks in the dark and stylish bar of the Jefferson Hotel, which, to my parochial Northeast Corridor mind, is about as far from Cleveland as you can get. I happen to love Elliott Schlang, and the fact...

Investors punished mutual funds in the 2003 late-trading and market-timing scandals the old-fashioned way -- by withdrawing their money and going somewhere else. For instance, shareholders last year pulled $29 billion out of the funds of Putnam Investment Management,...

BRUSSELS - "If Mr. Glassman hates Europe so much," said the head of the Belgian farmers' union, "then why doesn't he leave?" Touchy! Actually, I love Europe - the vistas, the culture, the food, the history, even the people. At a conference here last week, I was merely...

It's been a miserable month in Iraq, but a wonderful month for the American economy. "The April employment report confirms unambiguously that the labor market is back," said Economy.com, the respected website, on Thursday. Some 288,000 net new jobs were created, and,...

Five or six years ago, a friend I have known since high school -- let's call him R. -- rhapsodized about a money manager who lived in, of all places, Santa Fe, N.M. "Find Garrett Thornburg," said R. "This guy has the best financial mind in America, and who knows about...

When Philip A. Fisher died last month at the age of 96, it suddenly struck me that being a wise and patient stock market guru may be the best route to a long life. "His career spanned 74 years," wrote his son, Kenneth Fisher, in a column in Forbes. "He did early...

After a year in which every stock market in the world has risen handsomely, real estate has gone through the roof, and bonds and commodities have soared as well, the witty and bearish Jim Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, has titled his spring...

"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 to retire SOME...

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 through...

While Washington was preoccupied with the melodrama of Richard Clarke, I was moved by a more obscure event in Houston that could have greater significance. Earlier this month, a 38-year-old Korean immigrant named Jamie Olis, with a wife and a six-month-old daughter,...

One of my heroes is the late Julian Simon, the University of Maryland economist who challenged the conventional wisdom that the world was getting overpopulated and would soon run out of food and other critical resources. The best evidence of increasing demand and...

Earlier this month marked an anniversary most investors would rather forget. On March 10, 2000, the Nasdaq composite index hit a high of 5049. The high for the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500-stock index came two weeks later at 1527. Despite strong rallies last year,...

Sen. John Kerry is fond of calling CEOs who employ foreigners "Benedict Arnolds," after the despicable Revolutionary War turncoat. But look at H.J. Heinz & Co., the family business of Kerry and his wife Teresa. Of the 79 factories that the food-processor owns, 57 (a...