The conversation began harmlessly enough. Sunday morning, after breakfast, I walked out of the cafe and passed a gentleman sitting at an outdoor table. The man intently scribbled on a legal pad, engrossed in his subject. On the table among a stack of papers sat a book...
Some readers objected to a statement in this column that black students usually do not perform as well in school as white students or Asian American students. These readers seemed to think that this was a personal opinion -- or even an immoral statement. It never...
Researching an article on outsourcing a week ago, I came across a remarkable list on the website of CNN's Lou Dobbs. It was a sort of rogues' gallery, touted nightly on the show. "These are companies," says the Dobbs site, "either sending American jobs overseas, or...
One of the confusions that plagues discussions of equality and inequality is a confusion between the vagaries of fate and the sins of man. There are plenty of both but they need to be sharply distinguished from one another. The plain fact that there are large...
The first concept an economics student learns is that for every benefit there's also a cost -- or, as my longtime colleague and friend Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman has put it, "There's no free lunch." While the person who receives the benefit might not pay or even...
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...
"Anyone concerned with what's happening in our world ought to spend some time reading the Koran." Andy Rooney, the famed CBS commentator, gave this advice shortly after 9/11, as did plenty of others. His suggestion makes intuitive sense, given that the terrorists...
This is truly the age of dogma when it comes to differences between groups. Some will blindly deny that intergroup differences in performances are anything other than "stereotypes," "perceptions," or discrimination. At the other end of the spectrum, the dogma is that...
In a huge breakthrough for medical progress, scientists from South Korea have finally created a cloned human embryo and extracted its stem cells--a feat that makes life-saving embryonic stem-cell treatments that much closer to reality. Instead of taking this thrilling...
Some people believe in the lost continent of Atlantis and in unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Others worry about an 18th-century secret society called the Bavarian Illuminati or a mythical Zionist-Occupied Government secretly running the United States. What if...
As Martha Stewart's trial moves into a third week, an important question remains unasked: Why are the feds prosecuting someone for receiving inside information, anyway? Isn't the criminal the corporate official who acts on knowledge that the public doesn't have?The...
The time has long since passed when the United States should be referring to Saudi Arabia as an ally. It is our enemy and an unprecedented demand for the bank account records of the Washington, DC Saudi Embassy in November 2003 demonstrates that the National Security...
Antitrust laws are supposed to protect us little guys, right? Think again. Here's the story of how PeopleSoft chief executive Craig Conway is using the antitrust laws to deprive his own shareholders of the opportunity to sell their shares at the best price. I'm a...
Conversation at the Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 6, 2004: Larry Elder: Let me tell you what an honor this is. This is like meeting royalty. Nancy Reagan: Thank you very much. Thank you. Elder: Tell me what you consider your greatest...
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 place....
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,...
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...
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 Saddam...
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 worried...
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...
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 University has dropped plans to build...
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 great...
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 moniker...
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 people DEMAND solutions!" she shot back...
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