Problems with our health care system are leading some to fall prey to proposals calling for a nationalized single-payer health care system like Canada's or Britain's. There are a few things that we might take into consideration before falling for these proposals....
POLITICS
Simple Rules for a Complex Market
Although investing is a subtle and complicated endeavor, everyone can benefit from a simple set of rules and principles. One of my favorite portfolio managers, Thomas K. Brown, chief executive of Second Curve Capital, a New York hedge fund that specializes in...
Random Thoughts for August 2004
Random thoughts on the passing scene: I don't even like campaign oratory that I agree with. Alaska is much larger than France and Germany -- combined. Yet its population is less than one-tenth that of New York City. Keep that in mind the next time you hear some...
Election Year 2000: A Million Black Voters Disenfranchised?
Tell me again. Which of the presidential candidates calls himself a "uniter" and not a "divider"? "Don't tell us that the strongest democracy on earth," said Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in a recent speech for the NAACP, "that a million disenfranchised...
The Real Price of a Free Lunch
Economic ignorance allows us to fall easy prey to political charlatans and demagogues, so how about a little Economics 101? How many times have we heard "free tuition," "free health care," and free you-name-it? If a particular good or service is truly free, we can...
Political Power and Knowledge
Despite clever and hard-working political handlers who have done a masterful job of concealing and distracting attention from John Kerry's voting record in his long Senate career, and the liberal vision behind that record, glimmers of reality still break through now...
The Collectivist Convention: The Democrats’ Bait-and-Switch Philosophy
What does America stand for? What are its founding ideas? In this contentious election, each side is trying to convince us that its policies and ideals are the answer to this question. The Democrats have traditionally relied on a simple technique: appeal to the values...
Liberals Cannot Level
Sometimes little things can tell you about big things. While Senator John Kerry and his running-mate Senator John Edwards were recently being photographed at lunchtime at Wendy's, to show what regular guys they are, their real lunch was from a local yacht club, which...
Dispelling Some Crude Myths About Oil’s Real Impact
Economists are beginning to panic about the recent run-up in the oil price (+36%, year to-date, to $44.4/barrel) and its likely future impact on stock prices, profits and output in the U.S. But there's no reason to panic. A fast-rising oil price is no necessary...
Bullish on Asia
Returning from my latest trip to Asia, I'm both exhilarated and perplexed. Exhilarated because Asia is booming, and it's a joy to see. Thailand, my main stop this time, is growing at 7 percent a year -- twice as fast as the United States and about four times as fast...
High Prices at the Gas Pump: NIMBYS, BANANAS and Greens
Prices at gas pumps are at some of the highest levels ever this summer and Americans want answers. In particular they want the names and numbers of those to blame. To answer that question perhaps they should simply consult the phone book or look in the mirror. Because...
The New York Times: Newspaper of Broken Record
"Is the New York Times A Liberal Newspaper?" asked a headline on the last Sunday in July. The first sentence had the answer: "Of course it is." If that sounds like a dog-bites-man story, then consider the kicker: The article appeared in The New York Times itself. Its...
The Left’s Vision
Santa Monica, California, has decreed a fine of $2,500 a day for not cutting your hedges! Has someone discovered some terrible health hazard or other danger from hedges that are too high? Not at all. The politicians who run Santa Monica have simply decided that people...
Lance Armstrong — Role Model for Success
"I believe that the man who works the hardest is the man who deserves to win." -- Lance Armstrong"Perfect! No gifts." That's what Frenchman Hinault said to Lance Armstrong from atop the winner's podium after Armstrong constructed a brilliant, record-setting...
The Left’s Vocabulary
A recent angry e-mail from a reader said that certain issues should not be determined by "the dictates of the market." With a mere turn of a phrase, he had turned reality upside down. Decisions by people free to make their mutual accommodations with other free people...
I Survived the Democratic Convention
At the Democratic National Convention, Janeane Garofalo -- comedienne, talk show host and liberal pundit -- called me a "house Negro" and a "fascist." Well! For four days, the Democratic Party put on its quadrennial scare-old-people-and-minorities party. Democrats, of...
American Muslim Council Founder Heads to Jail
In 2002, the spokesman for FBI director Robert Mueller memorably described the American Muslim Council (AMC) as the "the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States." A year later, the Catholic bishops called the AMC "the premier, mainstream Muslim group in...
Electing an Image
Much of what is being said and done at the Democratic convention in Boston is so 1960s. The old favorite songs of the left, the old rhetoric, the old gestures, the delegates swaying together, all take you back to a time 40 years ago when the liberal vision seized the...
Conservatives, Liberals, and Blacks
During the first Reagan administration, I participated in a number of press conferences on either a book or article I'd written or as a panelist in a discussion of White House public policy. On occasion, when the question-and-answer session began, I'd tell the press,...
Conventional Wisdom: A Test for the Market and For John Kerry
This week's national convention of the Democratic Party was a test for nominee John Kerry. It was a test for the stock market, too, with all the major indexes probing their lows for the year. It's no coincidence that these two tests occurred in the same week. The...
Big-Bucks Class Action Lawsuits: Sharing the Lawsuit Wealth
My ears picked up when my wife told me that she was one of the beneficiaries of a class-action lawsuit that brought a settlement of more than $100 million. "How many millions do you get?" I asked. I could envision our retiring to the Riviera or some such place. Here...
The Triumph Of the 9/11 Commission
The enemy is “Islamist terrorism…not just ‘terrorism‚’ some generic evil.”
Socialism is Evil
What is socialism? We miss the boat if we say it's the agenda of left-wingers and Democrats. According to Marxist doctrine, socialism is a stage of society between capitalism and communism where private ownership and control over property are eliminated. The essence...
Democratic Health Care Fantasies
Americans who care about their health care need to pay close attention in an election year to politicians of all parties who seem bent on becoming much more involved in the details of what health care will be allowed and at what cost. Neither the Democratic nor...
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