POLITICS

The Great Depression remains the central economic event in American history. Even today, politicians invoke its memory. For example, Democrats routinely accuse George W. Bush of having economic policies like those of Herbert Hoover, on whose watch the depression...

Our tax code has many ridiculous features, but the booby prize may belong to a provision that discourages companies from investing profits in America and instead encourages them to keep money overseas. It’s a 35 percent tax penalty imposed on American companies...

James Long jumped out of bed and into his clothes. While rushing from his tiny bedroom plastered with photos of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and King’s Quest, he grabbed a bag of computer disks off his work desk. James was 13, black and a young man in a hurry. He flew...

People think runaway government is the only thing that bothers me, but there’re some minor nuisances that bother me as well. Chief among them are people’s seeming inability to differentiate between the number zero and the letter “o” in...

The prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, informed the world this month, among other things, that “Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.” Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. national security adviser, described...

Adam Smith, author of “The Wealth of Nations” (1776) and popularizer of modern economics said about people in general and businessmen in particular, “By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of society more effectually than when he...

In a recent column, I predicted that President Bush will likely be forced into a budget deal involving higher taxes sometime after next year’s election because of rising interest rates. Some of my friends thought I was endorsing such an action. I was not. But my...

Today’s seniors are at the center of the most profound health care legislation since the Clinton health care plan: expansion of Medicare to grant prescription drug subsidies to people over 65. One might ask why, with the nation at war following the worst attack...

Last week’s column discussed parts of Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom’s new book, “ No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning .” It’s a gap that finds the average black high-school graduate having achieved only what the average white...

Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware. These have always been sensible words when shopping for a car. But these days, sadly, they also apply to charitable giving. Consider the case of William Robertson, who is suing his alma mater, Princeton University, over the...

Q: Dr. Hurd, I am sure you heard about Rush Limbaugh’s addiction and subsequent hospitalization for prescription drugs. Doesn’t this show that addictive problems are a medical disease, and that Limbaugh’s (and your own) emphasis on choice and...

There are some arguments so illogical that only an intellectual or politician can believe them. One of those arguments is: capitalism benefits the rich more than it benefits the ‘common man.’ Let’s look at it. The rich have always had access to...

David Kay, the US government’s top weapons inspector in Iraq, reported this month on his team’s first three months of searching for weapons of mass destruction. “We have not yet found stocks of weapons,” he testified, nor anything to...

“If George Bush rebuilds Iraq the way he rebuilds the United States, they’re going to lose 3 million jobs over the course of the next three years,” said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who’s hoping to run against President Bush next year. Clever...

In a recent column, I discussed some of the support for supply-side economics at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and in academia. Today, I would like to extend my discussion to some emerging research on labor supply that further supports the supply-side...

President Bush, while being heckled by anti-war protesters in Australia, asked his audience how anyone can believe the world is not a better place with Saddam Hussein out of power. Good question. He asked it rhetorically, not expecting an answer. But there are...