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...
POLITICS
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:...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
PBS: The Impracticality of Theft
According to Fox News: “Critics say that PBS has compromised its mission over the last 30 years, squandering taxpayer dollars with little thought to viewer accountability and becoming slaves to corporate underwriters and political correctness. And while some...
Patriotism and Tax Havens
What defines a patriot these days? Is it one’s dedication to the principles of freedom, or is is it one’s willingness to place their life second to the needs of the state. These days, it looks a lot like the latter is the common view. Take for example, the...
An “Unselfish Love”
Q: If a man tells a woman that he loves her but then is always concerned about other people’s feelings and not about hers, does he really love her? For example: He lives far away from his girlfriend. He has only two days to spend with her, when visiting, but he...
The Friends of James Ujaama
Just when you think you know somebody, he goes and gets himself detained by the FBI for questioning in connection with alleged ties to the terrorist network of Osama bin Laden. So, whom do you stand by: your country or an individual who you’ve known all your...
Put Dow Doubts to Rest
When our book, “Dow 36,000,” was published in September 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 10318. The Dow closed in the middle of last week at 8736. What went wrong? Actually, nothing. Despite its flamboyant title, “Dow 36,000” was...
The Anti-Capitalist Offensive
At the same time that John Walker Lindh is allowed to cop a plea, getting who knows how few years in prison, the media and a segment of the public are demanding to get the heads on a platter (the phrase actually used) of a number of CEOs of business firms who have yet...
Affirmative Action Hero: The Life and Death of Patrick Chavis
Dr. Patrick Chavis is dead. Will the liberal politicians and gullible media who made him a poster boy for government-imposed affirmative action shed a single tear, or will they continue to ignore what a shameful tragedy his life became? According to a Los Angeles...
The Fast Food Three vs. The Whopper
Stop me before I eat again! This explains a recently filed lawsuit against four fast-food restaurant chains: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC Corporation. A lawyer, seeking to eventually file a class-action lawsuit, found three plaintiffs who claim...
Blame Congress for America’s Tax System
Does the IRS always merit the harsh criticism it receives? No. Politicians deserve much of the blame for the way our tax system operates. Take, for instance, the Earned Income Tax Credit. It was Congress that created the EITC-essentially an income-redistribution...
What’s Good for Tom Daschle…
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has seen the light. People — specifically, people who live and vote in his home state of South Dakota — must come before plant life. This sudden insight was illuminated by the glare of 50,000 forest fires, which have...
Blood for Oil
Someone, finally, has stated the truth to the administration and to the world: Saudi Arabia is our enemy. According to the Washington Post, that was the message of a recent briefing to the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. The presentation, by Rand Corporation...
The Threat Of The Paternalistic State
A precondition of freedom is the recognition of the individual’s capacity to make decisions for himself. If man were viewed as congenitally incapable of making rational choices, there would be no basis for the very concept of rights. Yet that is increasingly how...
Race, Sex, Class & Tiger Woods
The ancient Scottish game has expanded in popularity steadily since the simultaneous rise of Arnold Palmer and television coverage of the PGA Tour in the 1950s; in recent years the game has seen increased participation at all professional and amateur levels, and much...
One Nation Founded Under Higher Taxes: Europe’s “Savings Tax Directive”
Two years ago, politicians and bureaucrats at the European Commission announced their intention to turn the 15 nations of the European Union into “the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.” This is a tall order. Smothered by...
No Conflict Between Liberty and Security
Most Americans, including our politicians, continue to believe the insidious proposition that we must “strike a balance” between liberty and security. Even though the House’s new homeland security bill specifically prohibits the President’s...
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.