POLITICS

What a Rational Immigration System Actually Looks Like

Americans have a rational self-interest in admitting people who will strengthen that protection and excluding people who will undermine it.

America’s Greatest Unknown Market Analyst

"I happen to love Cleveland," says Elliott Schlang as we sip our drinks in the dark and stylish bar of the Jefferson Hotel, which, to my parochial Northeast Corridor mind, is about as far from Cleveland as you can get. I happen to love Elliott Schlang, and the fact...

The Mixed Legacy of Ronald Reagan

The hyperbole of remembrance that follows the death of any President, as has certainly followed the death of Mr. Reagan, will subside eventually and it will be left to historians to analyze what it was he did as President and whether or not that had any value. The...

Talkers vs. Doers, Part 2

Talkers vs. Doers, Part 2

The fact that benefits have costs means that those who create these benefits are tempting targets for accusations from those who know how to dramatize the costs. This means that the doers are constantly on the defensive when attacked by the talkers. These attacks are...

Talkers vs. Doers

Talkers vs. Doers

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers. Think about the things that have improved our lives the most over the past century -- medical advances, the transportation revolution, huge...

Three Cheers for Bill Cosby, Part II

Bill Cosby's May 17 remarks at a Washington, D.C., gathering commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision continues to draw controversy and debate. That's good. Some of the debate highlights a point made by my colleague...

“We Need Ronald Reagan”

Why has the country gone so crazy over Ronald Reagan? Back in 1982, President Reagan boldly told the world in a speech that Communism would end up on "the ash heap of history." At the time most considered this wildly optimistic; seven years later it was fact. Aside...

McCain as Kerry’s Secretary of Defense?

Q: John Kerry is floating Senator John McCain's name as a possible Secretary of Defense. John McCain is a hawkish Republican. How does this square with Kerry being a pacifist, like you claim? A: First of all, you believe Kerry; how wise is it to believe most...

Rational Exuberance

It was December 1996 when Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, first questioned if "irrational exuberance" had pushed stock prices too far, too fast. Although his comment sent the market into a brief plunge, history proved Greenspan dead wrong....

The Threat of a Faith-Based Defense of America

In the war between reason and religion, declared by militant Islamic fundamentalists, President Bush is firmly on the side of religion. The positions he supports most passionately are those of theocracies: prayer in schools, a national pledge "under God" recited by...

War: Then and Now

War: Then and Now

It was refreshing recently to see a front page of the New York Times that was not full of editorials disguised as "news" stories, undermining the war and the president. However, it was a souvenir front page, reprinted from the New York Times of June 6, 1944 --...

Terrorists Attack Already Priced Into Market

This column is going to be about what no investor wants to talk about: another terrorist strike on American soil, and how could it affect the stock market. How likely it is to happen -- and when? "When" is really the only question. Not "if." Who knows how many...

Three Cheers for Bill Cosby

May 17 saw several gatherings commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. But the event held in Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall will be the one to be remembered because of Bill...

The “Working Poor” Scam

The “Working Poor” Scam

BusinessWeek magazine has joined the chorus of misleading rhetoric about "the working poor." Why is this misleading? Let me count the ways. First of all, Census data show that most people who are working are not poor and most people who are poor are not working. The...

The Day After Tomorrow: The Ice Age Cometh?

Coming to a theatre near you on Memorial Day is "The Day After Tomorrow", a movie based on the notion that global warming will lead to a new ice age in America. As science fiction goes, this is as fictional as one can get because there is absolutely no scientific...

Majority Rule: The Tyrants Next Door

There's a funny little radio spot that's been running locally. It's a (fake) phone conversation between a man who wanted his car painted midnight blue and a guy at the paint shop who tells him they've gone with "a stunning shade of lilac" instead. "We just thought...

Buy, Buy, and You’ll Fare Well

Are your surprised that the stock market has broken out of its funk this week, even though it practically seems like the world is coming to an end? If you've been reading this column, you shouldn't be. Last week I said don't worry about high oil prices (they'll come...

Conservativism vs. Individual Rights

Consider the following paragraph in an unsigned editorial that appeared last month in the Wall Street Journal arguing in support of the detention of US citizens such as suspected al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla as enemy combatants without the writ of habeas corpus: In...

America’s New National Pastime: Bashing President Bush

America’s New National Pastime: Bashing President Bush

Move over, NASCAR. Out of the way, major league baseball, horseracing or gambling. For bashing President Bush now takes its place as America's No. 1 national pastime. Sure, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said the president deceived the American people about why America...

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