America’s Biggest Crook: Her Politicians

The Enron case made headlines because fraud and deception of such magnitude is fairly unusual in the corporate world. Washington fraud and deception of a much greater magnitude doesn’t make the headlines because fraud and deception in government is standard...

Fidel’s Fig Leaf for A “Useful Idiot”

Fidel Castro loathes anyone who champions freedom and democracy, but for Vladimiro Roca, who was freed this week after nearly five years in prison, he harbors a particular hatred. Roca is a scion of Cuba’s communist elite. His father was Blas Roca, a founding...

The New High Plateau: The Valuation Conundrum

The best reasons for the current era of high equity valuations aren’t very good. Just a few weeks before the great stock market crash of 1929, America’s first celebrity economist, Irving Fisher, made one of history’s worst market calls when he said,...

Gore’s Grossing

When former Vice President Al Gore takes pen to paper – or computer to email – he seemingly can’t avoid engaging in hyperbole. Thus, it is no surprise the man who wrote that we live in “a dysfunctional civilization” in Earth in the...

“Reporting” on Taxes

The Associated Press ran a rare article explaining exactly who pays the federal income taxes. They state that the top 5 percent of income earners pay more than 55 percent of the total federal income taxes. (To be eligible for the top 5 percent, one must have an annual...