The Economics of Caring vs. Uncaring

George Orwell admonished, “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.” That’s what I want to do — talk about the obvious, starting with the question: What human motivation leads to the most wonderful things...

Thinking About Gas Prices

Amid all the hysteria among politicians and in the media over rising gasoline prices, and all the outraged indignation about oil company profits and their executives’ high pay and lavish perks, has anybody bothered to even estimate how much effect any of this...

Tabloid TV “Justice”

Whether Zacarias Moussaoui received the death penalty or life imprisonment was never a big issue for me. What was appalling, however, was the way the penalty phase of his trial was conducted. First, there was the parade of witnesses, including former New York Mayor...

The So-Called Right to Silence Others

It seems a Roman Catholic cardinal is a little envious that Islam gets to squelch those who offend its tenets. In the latest Vatican broadside against “The Da Vinci Code,” a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal...

Disappearing Manufacturing Jobs

According to some pundits and political hustlers, free trade has led to a loss of “good manufacturing jobs.” Let’s look at it, but before doing so, let’s first see whether we should work ourselves into a tizzy over other job losses. In 1900, 41...