Despair in Disaster

Why is there looting and raping in New Orleans? What does it say about the people there? What nobody wants to talk about is the psychology of helplessness. We all know that a large number of the victims in New Orleans are poor, black, and in many cases dependent on...

Keep the Death Tax Dead

In Washington, nothing’s certain except death, taxes and special-interest lobbying groups. So it makes sense that the death tax has its own lobbyists.That’s right. “Americans for a Fair Estate Tax” knows a Senate vote is coming soon, and...

JobBay

As much of Europe struggles with double-digit unemployment this year, the United States has been creating an average of 200,000 new jobs a month. One of our great advantages is the relative ease with which Americans can start new businesses. Physical disability, the...

Our Gift to Iran

The most important effect of America’s attack on Iraq has been the removal of Iran’s strongest regional opponent, and an increase in the regional power of Iran. As I wrote in Capitalism Magazine in June of 2004: “[President Bush] threw down a secular...

Rebuilding New Orleans — and America

The physical devastation caused by hurricane Katrina has painfully revealed the moral devastation of our times that has led to mass looting in New Orleans, assaults on people in shelters, the raping of girls, and shots being fired at helicopters that are trying to...

How to Avoid Investing in Crooked Businesses

Reading Kurt Eichenwald’s fascinating book on Enron Corp., “A Conspiracy of Fools,” is enough to make an investor throw up his hands (or his lunch), sell all his stocks and buy a bundle of nice short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. Eichenwald shows, in...

Having Your Oil and Eating It’s Source Too

It’s easy to proclaim that the U.S. uses too much oil; that the U.S. is evil because it fights “wars for oil” in the Middle East. It’s still easier to shout that there’s NO way in hell our government should permit drilling for oil in...