I love markets. Just think of all the things they make possible. Whenever there’s a way for people to trade with each other, they always find ways to make money and reduce risk. So whenever market principles get applied in new ways, the world becomes a better...
POLITICS
Governed By Rules, Not Men
Having been deserted by her husband, my mother worked. That meant that my one-year-younger sister and I often lunched by ourselves during our pre-teen years. Being bigger and stronger than my sister, quite often there wouldn’t be a fair division of the food,...
The Brotherhood of Man
Those of us who believe in the brotherhood of man have to be able to accept the negative, as well as the positive, aspects of that belief. For example, a stupid and counterproductive idea that catches the fancy of one part of the human race in one part of the world in...
Weapons of Political Destruction
The issue of “weapons of mass destruction” is being played for all it is worth as a weapon of political destruction. In fact, it is being played for more than it is worth. The ultimate question is whether we should or should not have gone to war with the...
The Fallacy of Insider Trading
With Martha Stewart going on trial this week, it’s a perfect time to take a look at insider trading. From what I can tell, Ms. Stewart is being railroaded. And whatever the merits (or lack thereof) of the case against her, investors shouldn’t be especially...
Jumping Hurdles for Petty Bureaucrats
It is a sad but understandable fact that there are many places where the poor cannot afford to buy a house. California has the distinction of having many places where the affluent cannot afford to buy or build a house — and it is not necessarily a slam dunk for...
The Terror of “Animal Rights”
The “animal rights” movement is celebrating its latest victory: an earlier, more painful death for future victims of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease. Thanks to intimidation by animal rights terrorists, Cambridge...
Criminalization Doesn’t Curb Drug Use
The great journalist H.L. Mencken was a fierce critic of alcohol prohibition. He wrote in 1925: “Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the...
Repealing Tax Cuts Equals a Tax Increase
Every profession has its unofficial list-of-things-you-don’t-say, and politics is no exception. A leading entry: Never call for a tax hike. At least, not by name. Instead, do what the Democratic presidential candidates do: Cloak your hike in the reassuring...
Housing Hurdles: The Solution?
Once, after giving a talk, I was confronted by a lady in the audience who asked what some people regard as the ultimate question: “What is YOUR solution?” “There are no solutions,” I said. “There are only trade-offs.” “The...
On Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Did the American President Lie?
Can one make the case that President George W. Bush “lied” or “misled” or intentionally “mischaracterized” the intelligence on Iraq and WMD in order to lead us to war? Sure, if one possesses a visceral anti-Bush mindset coupled with...
Limit Lobbying By Cutting Government
In their view, the traditional Washington career path — a stint in government followed by a lucrative job lobbying former colleagues — is inherently corrupt. Both candidates propose restrictions, including limits on the ability of former government...
Housing Hurdles in California
A new study shows that you need an income of about $104,000 to buy an average home on the San Francisco peninsula with a 20 percent down payment. Since the average price of a home in this area is more than half a million dollars, the 20 percent down payment itself...
The Anti-Free Trader’s True Enemy
There’s the “Free Trade but Fair Trade” crowd, and the “Level Playing Field” crowd, and the “America First” crowd, all calling for tariffs and other international trade restrictions. Their supposed adversary is corporate...
What Makes the Super Bowl “Super”
Hours before the Green Bay Packers defeated the New England Patriots 35-21 in Super Bowl XXXI on January 26, 1997, I overheard a supermarket cashier greet a coworker with a salutation I’d not heard before: “Happy Super Bowl Sunday.” That incident had...
Exploiters vs Victims in the Grocery Strike
The California grocery strike has entered its fourth month–and there is no end in sight. Workers are still picketing stores, the shelves are under-stocked, and profits are dwindling. Talks between the grocery chains and the United Food and Commercial...
Senator John Edward’s “Special Interests”
This election year we are sure to hear a lot about “special interests.” Candidates of both major parties, as well as candidates of third or fourth parties, are sure to denounce special interests both hotly and repeatedly. The secret of these verbal...
T.S. Ashton on The Industrial Revolution
Despite more than a hundred years of condemnations and the harshest ridicule men like Friedrich Engels could hurl at the time period known in Great Britain as the Industrial Revolution (1760-1830) Dr. T.S. Ashton took up the task of restoring, or at least attempting...
Judeo-Christian Philosophy and the Founding of America
A curious notion is mushrooming lately on programs such as “The O’Reilly Factor” and other current events shows. Certain commentators claim that the United States of America owes its existence to what is termed “Judeo-Christian”...
History Refutes Rubinomics
Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary, is back — and he’s everywhere. He’s written a book. He’s delivered a paper before the prestigious American Economic Association. He’s giving loads of TV interviews. Among Democratic...
The Government’s Accounting Shell Game
Americans shell out more than $2 trillion each year to keep our federal government running. The least we should expect in return is honesty. Alas, Washington officials aren’t telling the truth about how much they’ve spent, are currently spending or plan to...
Expensing Options Revisited
Paul Atkins this month became the first SEC commissioner to criticize openly a proposal to require companies to treat employee stock options as current expenses. Atkins began by questioning whether the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which has aggressively...
Phony Democratic Debates
The so-called “debates” among the Democratic candidates in the primaries are not really debates — and that is a real shame. In a real debate, opponents could question each other’s statements — and there have been a lot of questionable...
When Did The Howard Dean Meltdown Really Begin?
Supporters of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, aka “Deanie-boppers,” accuse the media of piling on by repeatedly playing his now infamous Iowa caucus “concession speech,” punctuated by his banshee-like “Yeeeaaaaaarggh!”...
Sweatshop Expoitation
Here’s a question. Suppose you see people lining up for hours, and people willing to pay a month’s salary in bribes, in order to get a $2 a day factory job. What might you conclude? Would you guess there are higher-paying jobs around, but the people are...
Third World Sweatshops: Multinational Opportunity vs. Nihilistic Indignation
Those who vent their moral indignation over low pay for Third World workers employed by multinational companies ignore the plain fact that these workers’ employers are usually supplying them with better opportunities than they had before, while those who are...
Third World Sweatshops: Why Cambodian Workers Bribe for ‘Sweatshop’ Jobs
“Low-Wage Costa Ricans Make Baseballs for Millionaires.” That was the headline on one of those New York Times “news” stories that continued its recent tradition of disguised editorials. The headline said it all but the story ran on and on...
Paying Homage to the Architects of the American Welfare State
Would-be defenders of individual rights and liberty, the fundamental ideas of the founding fathers who created the United States of America, have recently decided to pay homage to the Presidents who created the modern American welfare state. I refer of course to...
Great Investing Secrets Revealed
Successful investing all about having the right information. That must be why I frequently get emails from readers asking me what sources of investment information I like best, or where on the Web to locate this or that specific piece of data. So today’s column...
Rewarding the MVPs of the Business World
As millions of Americans watch the New England Patriots take on the Carolina Panthers, every minute of the game will be scrutinized, from all angles and with action replays. But, amid the cheers of victory and cries of disappointment, you won’t hear a whisper of...
Spaced Out: George W. Bush’s Mission to Mars
I say the best tribute to the heroes of space exploration, both living and dead, would be bring to wilds of space the same level of freedom that once made it possible for men to settle the wilds of the American continent.
Stretching the Poor
What do you do when you don’t have as much of something as you need? One of the things you can do is stretch it out to make it last as long as it can. That is what the political left is doing with the poor. A lot of noise is made about how we are “running...
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