The events of the past few weeks in Israel have offered a timeless lesson on the real cause of terrorism and the real meaning of the “peace process.” The pattern of these events is crystal clear: Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority have escalated...
POLITICS
Enronic Cleansing: Be Warned
I alienated some friends and clients when I e-mailed a TrendMacro Live! note last week warning of a dangerous new phase of the Enron scandal. Everyone is understandably eager to round up the bad guys and hang
Behind the Environmental Working Group
Among the political chattering classes, there’s a big buzz over a tiny activist organization called the Environmental Working Group. Both liberals and conservatives, including the left-leaning New York Times editorial page and the right-leaning Wall Street...
New Words for the Same Old Hustle
What would Martin Luther King Jr. have made of a recent ad last month (Jan 21) in the Boston Globe? On Page 10, to honor King’s memory and legacy, a full-page ad reproduced the peroration of his unforgettable 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial: “I have a...
Enron, Tyco, and Accounting for Conglomerates
In the wake of the Enron scandal, investors are all of a sudden focusing intensely on the integrity of corporate accounting. So self-righteous pundits and politicians are elbowing each other for space at the head of the lynch mob demanding new regulations to enforce...
Who Pays The Tariffs?
As predicted, the steel industry has bellied up to the federal concession stand for all forms of relief and favors. The emotionally charged premise is that the steel industry is vital to our defense and economic strength. This same argument was successfully used by...
Defending the rights of John Q — Dr. John Q
John Q — a propaganda flick about an uninsured worker who forces doctors at gunpoint to treat his son — has reinvigorated the widespread misconception that health care should be a “right.” But believers in such a notion, and the politicians...
Snub the Tyrants and Grow Your Own
Allow me to suggest a New Year’s resolution you’ll thank me for: Grow your own tomatoes. As you’ll see, becoming a grower can be rewarding far beyond the sweet taste of your crop. The traditional extra benefits keep bringing many of us back season...
OPEC, Oil, and Energy Economics 101
We are all familiar with pundits from all corners decrying our dependence on foreign oil. Before the oil embargo in the 70’s and subsequent attempts to wean ourselves from OPEC, we were importing about 25% of our oil and now we are importing over 50%. This is...
Enron, Krugman, and the Public Intellectuals
The failure of Enron has had important impacts for its shareholders, creditors and business counterparties. There will be some important second-order impacts, too. Enron has already become an excuse for politicians and special interest groups to seek useless and...
For-Profit Schools: Profit’s not a Four-Letter Word
“It’s not ethically sound to make a profit off educating students in a school that serves the public, which a charter school is, using funds from public coffers.” That’s not a sentence from Mao’s Little Red Book. It’s from Philip...
Why is “Campaign Finance Reform” Popular–Amongst Politicians?
In its reckless disregard of the Constitution when it passed “campaign finance reform” legislation, the House of Representatives has demonstrated dramatically why we need real political reform. The First Amendment to the Constitution begins “Congress...
A Deadly Error
How well is the Bush administration conducting the war on terrorism? Overall, it deserves high grades, having shown an impressive seriousness of purpose, discipline, and vision. It made winning the war the guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy and almost flawlessly...
The Media That Couldn’t Shoot Straight: How a Hand Gun Saved Lives
On January 16, 2002, a law student at Virginia’s Appalachian School of Law shot and killed the dean, a professor and another student, while wounding three others. How did the shooting spree end? According to the Los Angeles Times, “Other students tackled...
Biotech Comes Down With Enronitis
The biotech sector is sick. The industry that promises to cure cancer and AIDS can’t cure itself. And it’s all so sudden. All last year I thought favorably of biotech as a “defensive growth” sector — a group of high-risk/high-reward...
Who Is the Enemy?
With whom, or what, is the United States at war? The answer to this question has far-reaching implications for strategy, for public diplomacy, and for foreign and domestic policy alike. It may seem that the answer is obvious; but it is not. In the first few weeks...
A Sign of Things to Come? Expanding the Tobacco Industry Lawsuits Against All Industry
Let’s face it, we’re too damn fat and, this being America, someone should be sued! Professor Marion Nestle at New York University provides the target: “The function of the food industry is to get people to eat more, not less. It’s not...
Saudi Arabia: America’s Dysfunctional “Friend”
For Thanksgiving in 1990, former President George H.W. Bush went to Saudi Arabia to visit the 400,000 American soldiers stationed there as part of Operation Desert Shield. The Saudis welcomed Bush, but made it clear that no Christian worship — including grace...
Sobering Up
When the stock market soared in the first two weeks of this new year, it seemed to validate a growing confidence that the economy was destined to overcome the tech-wreck and the recession, just as America had moved beyond the terrorist attacks of September 11....
American Taliban: No Excuse for Treason — But No Accountability Either
According to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, in reference to John Walker Lindh, the treasonous American Taliban fighter: “We may never know why he turned his back on our country and our values, but we cannot ignore that he did … Youth is not absolution for...
The Illegal Alien Pander-lympics
There’s a rigged competition going on in politics that you won’t see on television this week. It’s the deceptive speed-spending race to fix our immigration enforcement woes. President Bush proposes boosting the Immigration and Naturalization...
The War on Terrorism and the War on Reality
Here is the painful dilemma America faces: If we don’t attack Iraq, we could risk a nuclear attack on New York or Washington by Iraqi-backed terrorists. But if we do attack Iraq, we could risk “alienating” our Arab and European allies and earning the...
The Education Bill
The compromise education bill just passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush provided some good political theater and even a little humor, with the president embracing Ted Kennedy. But what did it do for American education? Not much. The new legislation...
Looters In “Public Good” Suits
“They can stoke me with money,” said Senator Ted Kennedy, referring to how the Bush Administration can win his favor. “I’m an easy stoke.” Why can’t we just stoke him? Or, more importantly: stoke his ideas and policies? We should...
Enron Employees Must Shoulder Their Share of the Blame
To avoid “another Enron,” President George W. Bush proposes measures to “help” workers to protect their 401(k) money. Under Bush’s proposals, companies must allow workers, if they choose, to sell company stock after three years, a shorter...
Ramsey Clark’s “Terrorists ‘R Us” Law Practice
Murderous thugs of the world, rejoice. Once again, Ramsey Clark has come to your aid — whether you want him to or not. Now, if only Clark would permanently move himself and his “Terrorists ‘R Us” law practice to a sand dune outpost in Kandahar,...
Modern Moralists Condemn Terrorism But Don’t Ask Them Why
Do you support our government’s actions for the attacks of 9-11? Can you explain why or why not, with reasonable precision? In particular, can a follower of Jesus provide a consistent argument for supporting military strikes against the terrorists? Certainly not...
Ted Kennedy Wants Your Money
In a demonstration that the more things change, the more they remain the same, Senator Ted Kennedy called last week for expanding the public sector at the expense of the private one. His speech at the National Press Club in Washington drew a lot of media attention...
Dealing with Terrorism
Q: How are people coping with the aftermath of the events of September 11th, so that the psychological impact of the terrorist events does not overwhelm them? A: In many different ways. At first, some found an oddly kind of pleasant escape in focusing on events in the...
Loving Thy Enemy
From a FoxNews.com report: Shackled, blinded and bound, 30 Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees stepped off a U.S. Air Force C-141 cargo plane in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Wednesday after an all-night flight from Afghanistan, halfway around the world. Sixty gun-toting Marines...
“Diversity” as Doublespeak for Ideological Conformity
Diversity is simultaneously an important and contemptible term in today’s climate of political correctness. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, diversity means: diverseness, multeity, multifariousness, multiformity, multiplicity, variousness. Its...
Colin Powell “hooks up” with MTV
This month, sandwiched somewhere in between Britney Spears’ videos, Trojan condom ads, booze-drenched Mardi Gras parties, soft-porn soap operas, and reruns of vulgar stunt shows, MTV will broadcast a “global town meeting” featuring Secretary of State...
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