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...
POLITICS
Soft-Line Ideologues Revisited: Foreign-Policy Soft-Liners are Pragmatists
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...
The Man with “Television Addiction” Threatens to Sue Cable Company
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...
George W. Bush: The New JFK?
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...
Taliban Lite: The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
The New York Times reported this week: Afghan Council Gives Approval to Constitution: In a carefully balanced wording, the country will be renamed the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, combining democracy and religion. There is to be a system of civil law, but no law...
Random Thoughts for January 2004
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Some people's jobs will allow them to be important only by being a pain. Politics is the art of making your personal desires seem like the national interest. One of the people I am glad I trusted is someone who got angry and told...
A Nation of “Hamburger Flippers”?
It might have been Ross Perot who first used the expression that America is turning into a nation of "hamburger flippers," in reference to the decline in good paying manufacturing jobs replaced by low-pay service sector jobs. Here's my question: If millions of...
“Save Manufacturing Jobs”
"Manufacturing jobs" has become a battle cry of those who oppose free trade and are sounding an alarm about American jobs being exported to lower-wage countries overseas. However, manufacturing jobs are much less of a problem than manufacturing confusion. Much of what...
Profiling and Prejudice: A Call for Intelligent Profiling
In mid-November, Yusuf Suleman Motala, a Muslim leader in the United Kingdom said to be highly regarded and have a vast following, was at Heathrow Airport on his way to the lesser pilgrimage in Mecca. But British officers stopped him and Mr. Motala reports they asked...
Martha Stewart: Guilty Until Somehow Proven Innocent?
As the Martha Stewart case finally goes to trial, it is clear that Ms. Stewart has already been convicted in the court of public opinion. Observe the undisguised delight with which reporters and pundits describe the prospect of seeing Stewart hauled up before the...
NASDAQ vs. NYSE: Stock Trading Transformed by Technology and Competition
Today's bold and surprising announcement that six New York Stock Exchange companies would also list their shares on the NASDAQ Stock Market is a clear sign that more competition is coming to the vast markets where stocks are bought and sold. The decision by the six...
A Slave State: Society in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia
Sir Thomas More's Utopia lays out several important ideas that help us understand the political thought of both now and the Renaissance as well as providing us with a look into the conditions of sixteenth century Europe. The book primarily acts as a vehicle for More...
The Privilege of Driving
It is often said that driving is not a right, but a privilege. As such it can be extended and revoked at will, by those vested with the granting of the privilege, a government. The question that must immediately strike anyone is, "What gives the local governing...
Mugged By The State
Dan Peruchi, father of four, enjoyed fixing up old cars and reselling them. Because the dealers he worked with dealt mainly in cash, he usually had lots on hand. Peruchi was driving home to Ft. Worth, Texas when he noticed the flashing lights of a police car behind...
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement Plan
In a much-noted speech late last month, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ostensibly made a dramatic reversal in course. But I am wondering whether to take his shift at face value. Mr. Sharon announced that the "road map," a U.S. plan that envisions Israel and the...
The Terror of “Animal Rights”
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...
Honesty During the Holiday Season
While recently driving and listening to National Public Radio, I heard a piece on holiday homelessness. During this time of the year, one frequently hears stories about the downtrodden and homeless. No one seems to agree exactly on the number of homeless, and the...
The Liberty League: An Alternative to the United Nations
It is clear for a variety of reasons that the United Nations is not only ineffectual, i.e. it can't enforce its own resolutions, but is operating against the interests of the United States and free people everywhere.One reason for this is simply that there are more...
Media Confusion Between Objectivity and Neutrality
The British Broadcasting Corporation has made itself look ridiculous by issuing orders that its reporters are not to refer to Saddam Hussein as an ex-dictator. Apparently using the word "dictator" would compromise the BBC's neutrality and call its objectivity into...
Merv Grazinski: An Urban Legend
Literally hundreds of readers informed me that in last week's column, "Some Things I Wonder About," my reference to a Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City -- who set his 32-foot Winnebago on cruise control, left the driver's seat to brew a cup of coffee, crashed, then sued...
Politics Is One of the Drivers of Good Investment Strategies
Many of my readers can't understand why, as an investment strategist, I write so much about politics and government policy. Politics doesn't have anything to do with investing! Well, unless you slept through 2003, now you know that they do. The year 2003 was a...
Ten Suprises for 2004
Byron Wien, the veteran Morgan Stanley strategist, is one of my favorite market seers. Annually since 1986 he has sent clients a list of "ten surprises" he expects for the year ahead. The list for 2004, released this morning, is wonderfully optimistic, and it includes...
Skeptical Environmentalist Vindicated
Last month, The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation severely repudiated a board which, a year ago, had judged The Skeptical Environmentalist, the best-selling book by Bjorn Lomborg, "objectively dishonest" and "clearly contrary to the standards of...
Libyan Dictator Moammar Gadhafi: Learning the Lessons of Stalin
The Bush Administration is declaring victory now that the dictator (or for the BBC, "Leader") of Libya, Moammar Gadhafi, has agreed to let in United Nations Weapons Inspectors and to dismantle all Weapons of Mass Destruction programs. To "reward" Gadhafi for his...
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