Early Birds Get Returns

To invest is to defer. When you buy a company’s stock or a government agency’s bonds, you decide not to consume your cash today but to entrust it to an institution that, you hope, will produce rewards for you in the future. History shows that, if you make...

Random Thoughts for July 2003

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Have you ever heard a single hard fact to back up all the sweeping claims for the benefits of “diversity”? Some people were upset, not by Dusty Baker’s off-hand remark that races differ in their responses to hot...

President Bush’s Secret Service Buffoons

Shame on the Secret Service. This week, it investigated renowned editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez like he was some left-wing homeless crackpot who had sent President Bush an anthrax-laced death threat — all because Ramirez drew a provocative cartoon that was...

Measuring Wealth

Recently, I discussed new IRS data showing that the share of total income going to the richest 400 individuals has increased. However, income is an imprecise measure of well-being. That is better measured by wealth. A new study by the Federal Reserve sheds important...

Global Anti-Tobacco Treaty

When I served in the Army, the sergeant would say, “Smoke’m if you have’m.” Most of us would, too. I am still a cigar smoker. The question is—how long before some storm trooper busts in the front door to tell me I can’t smoke any...

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