The president returns to Washington this week after a month on vacation in Texas and three months seemingly on vacation from America’s foreign policy. Since June, President Bush has been telling everyone who asks that he has made no decision on Iraq. Making that...
POLITICS
Taiwan is not China
The diplomatic storm that blew across the Taiwan Strait last month is over now, but it is only a matter of time until the heavy weather returns. Sooner or later, Taiwan’s president, Chen Shui-bian, will again say something that suggests Taiwan ought to be...
Bush Bails out Brazil–and Wall Street
United Airlines, to stave off bankruptcy, wants $1.8 billion dollars in federal loan guarantees. With the exception of Southwest Airlines, all major airlines now lose money, with United — one of the highest-cost airlines — incurring losses of nearly a...
America: A Sissified Nation
Benjamin Franklin warned, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” But that’s what the Bush administration and Congress have asked of Americans — to give up essential...
Slaves to Words
In the old-time comic strip “Li’l Abner,” one of the characters revealed that a new stranger in town had spent many years in reform school. Another character replied, “Well, he must be reformed by now.” Unfortunately, the same gullibility...
What’s Bugging the Environmentalists?
Whenever I head out for an early evening walk by the neighborhood lake with my husband and toddler, we follow the same routine. Put on our shoes. Take a trip to the Blue’s Clues potty. And finally: Spray. We don’t give a second thought to applying a small...
The Alleged Harm Done By Tax Havens
Tax burdens imposed by the world’s welfare states — especially those imposed on the wealthiest, most successful entrepreneurs and shareholders — have increased with every passing year. No wonder “Atlas is Shrugging.” By accessing tax...
Diplomacy does not apply toward Dictators
“The imminence of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the huge dangers it involves, the rejection of a viable inspection system, and the demonstrated hostility of Saddam Hussein combine to produce an imperative for pre-emptive action,” Vice...
Greenspan on “Infectious Greed”
[Previously], I wrote: “Those on the moral code of altruism have to view all businessmen as guilty, guilty by nature, since their life’s work is to seek selfish gain. The current legislative frenzy is just the latest manifestation of the altruist premise:...
Modern Academia: The Educational Equivalent of Fool’s Gold?
Parents should pay close attention to what courses students are expected to take at colleges and universities. Used to be, parents had to warn their college-bound sons and daughters not to let frat parties and football games interfere with their studies. Now they have...
Relationships: It Only Takes One
Q: In the past year I’ve gone on a few dates and befriended a few women, but I always find they have poor self-esteem. I hope this is not saying something more about me, in that I only seem to attract such women. However, it just seems that there are so many...
On Tolerating the Intolerable
Q: Dr. Hurd, I believe — as you write in your articles — that the U.S. carries moral superiority over many (perhaps all) of the nations [Iran, Iraq, etc.] you list in your article, and I believe it has the right to defend itself. However, the world would...
Investing: Confidence in the U.S. Securities-Trading System
The test of a good system is not whether failures occur but whether they are remedied with speed and certainty. Despite the hysteria generated by media and politicians, the U.S. securities-trading system has clearly met that test. Since a series of corporate...
How Taxpayers Prop Up Sport Mogul’s Profits
Art Modell, owner of the NFL Baltimore Ravens, observed during one of his struggles to get local taxpayers to build him a stadium that “The pride and presence of a professional football team is far more important than 30 libraries, and I say that with all due...
Global Warming Science vs. Computer Model Speculation: Just Ask the Experts
In 2001 the National Science Foundation surveyed 1,500 people nationwide and found that 77% believed that “increased carbon dioxide and other gases released into the atmosphere will, if unchecked, lead to global warming …” Yet half of those polled...
Who Says We Can’t Topple Saddam Hussein
You can’t go changing regimes just because you don’t like them! So claims a caller on a talk radio show, regarding whether or not President Bush should ever topple Saddam Hussein. This claim is wrong. It’s based on numerous faulty premises, such as:...
A New “Standard” For Customer “No-Service”
From time to time, I like to write a column about a subject that is near and dear to my heart: customer service. Sometimes I use these columns as a forum to recognize companies who do an outstanding job of providing customer service. Sadly, I so rarely have positive...
“Unnecessary Attention” from the Federal Bulldozer
There was a painful irony in an upbeat newspaper story about a man of modest income who was able to continue living in San Mateo County, California, only because he could rent a government-subsidized apartment for $850 a month. Without the subsidy, the rent would...
Investing: Stop the Dumb Bond Jokes
In what may be the best signal yet that the stock market has hit bottom and is on its way back up, this week I am going to write about bonds. Regular readers know that I am not fond of bonds as long-term investments. History has convinced me that they return far less...
Carl von Clausewitz’s Advice: Make War, Not Love Against Terrorism
I just recently finished reading Carl von Clausewitz’s On War (Vom Kriege)–the first time I had read the book since college. It occurred to me just how much the planners of the war on terrorism can learn from Clausewitz as they strategize the destruction...
Iran’s Summer of Discontent
It’s turning into another long, hot summer for Iran’s rulers. Riots are bubbling up throughout the Middle Eastern nation, just as they have in past summers, and the list of reasons are as long as the beards of the old men who govern the country: Economic...
“Open Space” = Housing Ban
A black man waiting at a bus stop called to me as I was bicycling down the street: “You’re the first black man I have seen over here in a long time.” “It will be a long time before you see the next one,” I said, and we both laughed. In a...
ABM Treaty: Not With a Bang…
Here we are, officially leaving the confines of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and hardly a peep can be heard from the arms-control crowd. Excuse me, but where’s the outrage? For years, they warned us not to withdraw. They told us how the treaty formed the...
The Big Chill: Politics vs. the Science of Stem Cell Research
Every researcher has to evaluate several factors before entering a field of study. The work should be challenging, it should be helpful to humanity — and it should pay enough to make a living. Today, stem-cell research – supporters of which hope will lead...
Get Out Your Reparations Calculator
Thousands of aggrieved activists are headed to Washington, D.C., later this week for the “Millions for Reparations” march. The theme is: “They Owe Us.” “Us” means black Americans who allegedly endure lasting psychological and...
Law Requiring CEO Certification of Financial Statements is the Work of Idiots
The August 14th deadline for CEO’s and CFO’s of America’s largest 947 companies to certify their financial statements has come and gone without incident. There have been no significant or unexpected earnings restatements, and virtually every company...
The Psychology of Anger and Revenge
Q:I have a friend, Mary, who was nearly sexually molested by a 30-year-old adult when she was about 15 years old (she convinced him to stop). She never told anyone about it until she shared her secret with me about 6 months ago. Mary is now 35 years old. The accused...
Red Tiger Rising
Washington cocktail-party conversations about China typically go something like this: A person from the China-as-a-peer-competitor school of thought says “I think China, with its growing economy, growing military, and young, nationalistic population, will only...
What or Who is the Market?
Every day, we hear something about markets. Your 6 o’clock news anchor might say, “The market had a bad day.” Last year, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan talked about the market’s irrational exuberance. I guess now he’d say...
The President’s Economic Summit: Talk vs. Ideas
No bold new ideas have been heard so far, or are likely to be heard, at the president’s “economic summit” today in Texas. Bold new ideas, it is becoming increasingly obvious, are not Bush’s style. In place of new ideas, the summit offers a lot...
Bad Medicine
The one monumental fact that is being ignored in all the political schemes to bring down the cost of pharmaceutical drugs is that it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to develop one successful new medicine. No matter how cleverly the politicians try to shift those...
Guidelines for Investing
If you are having a tough time deciding whether to dump a stock you own, don’t despair. You aren’t alone. In investing, nothing is harder. Nothing. Some people offer a simple formula — such as, always sell a stock if it has dropped 20 percent or if...
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