The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded, and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of “conservatism” and “liberalism” which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men. – AYN RAND
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...
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 America, seeking to boost profits by either...
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 me realize that...
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 Workers' union...
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 fireworks from all...
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...
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" philosophy. Now I will not dispute that...
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 candidates who realize the election...
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 spend....
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...
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 statements made already in this...
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!" Dean's admittedly un-presidential behavior...
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 too lazy to...
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 morally...
"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 anyway, with details and...
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...
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 is...
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...
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.
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 out" of this...
After years of declining budgets, public apathy, and failed missions, NASA has gotten a big boost from the Bush Administration's recent promises of extravagant missions to permanently settle the moon and eventually explore Mars. No one knows what it would cost, but a...
Did Saddam Hussein and his interest in weapons of mass destruction pose a threat to the United States? Just ask the Democrats. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (D), appearing on "Face the Nation" in September 2002, said, "There's no question that Saddam Hussein is...
What needs to be done to improve black education? Whether it's civil rights organizations, politicians or the education establishment, you'll get answers that cover the gamut from more money for teachers and smaller class sizes to school desegregation and racial...
The headline story out of the Iowa caucuses is Senator John Kerry's surprising victory and the collapse of Governor Howard Dean's political bubble. This is all very well for those in the media who treat politics as the personal stories of politicians. But, for those...
I met Wesley Clark, now a presidential candidate, in 1992 when I was an army lieutenant attending the Officer Basic Course. The then-2 star general came to Ft. Knox, KY to address our graduating class. General Clark was charismatic, personable and gave a motivating...
The writer of a letter recently appearing in The Tennessean says the president's religious faith conflicts with his decision to go to war in Iraq. Many of Bush's Christian critics share this opinion. And in one sense they're right. There is indeed a major disparity...
While Republicans popularize Howard Dean's quote that capturing Saddam Hussein "has not made America safer," they should also promote an earlier comment that explicitly revealed his basic politics. But that the Right fails to recognize its significance further exposes...
There has been much uninformed talk of economics lately as the eight Democrats vying for their party's presidential nomination run around Iowa and New Hampshire crying about how jobs aren't been created in the economic recovery and that the recovery in general isn't...
Last week was my 2003 year-in-review column. This time it's about 2004, the year ahead. I do think we'll have another good year. I'll explain why, but I'll also talk about what I see as one significant risk factor. And I'll give you an idea for how to invest in a way...
Last week, there was a very interesting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by two influential neoconservatives: David Frum and Richard Perle. The title was "Beware the Soft-Line Ideologues," and it has a good theme, but it gets completely twisted up by its...
Accusing his cable company of "addicting" him, his wife and his kids to TV, a Wisconsin man threatened to sue Charter Communications. Tim Dumouchel of Fond du Lac said his family's viewing habits -- forced on him by cable TV -- caused his wife to become overweight and...
President Bush, having spent trillions of young people's dollars on the prescription drugs of old people, now wants to throw billions at an expanded space program. Now you won't find a stronger advocate of space travel than myself. Space travel represents human reason...
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