Many countries often thought to be socialist, either now or in the past, such as Sweden, Israel, and Britain under the old Labor Party, should be thought of as hampered market economies instead.
POLITICS
A Tale of Two Wars
Here we are, five months after the war in Iraq began, and we haven't yet solved all of that country's problems. Who would have thought that we would? Apparently a significant section of the American media either thought that we would or is simply piling on the Bush...
Sept 11th: One Month Until The Anniversary
Next month it will be the second anniversary of the worst day in American history. How goes the war? To our government's credit there has not been a repeat terrorist attack in the US. The Taliban government was overthrown. Saddam Hussein is no longer a potentially...
A Lesson for Arnold Schwarzenegger: Warren Buffet to the California Democrat’s Rescue
Just a week ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the political sensation of California -- and of the national media, with his face on the cover of both Time and Newsweek. Polls showed him leading everyone in the horde of candidates for governor by a wide margin. Now Arnold...
Mortgage Markets: In Control
In writing so much about Paul Krugman I have, to some extent, become distracted from writing about the most common and most dangerous media manifestation of the conspiracy to keep you poor and stupid. Krugman's only a very special case of it: his writings about the...
Bustamante, MEChA and the Media
Now that Democrat Cruz Bustamante is California's gubernatorial recall front-runner, we can look forward to in-depth media investigations of the Latino candidate's long-held ties to the racial separatist group MEChA, right? Ha. While Katie Couric complains about GOP...
Exporting Jobs
Among George Orwell's insightful observations, there's one very worthy of attention: "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." Let's look at a few examples of corrupted language, thought and information. Pretend you're a customs inspection...
Myth of the Muslim Hate Crime Epidemic
Do you believe that a "post-September 11 backlash" has resulted in a nationwide wave of violence and bigotry against Muslims in America? The hype artists and book-cookers at the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) want you to think so. The group's report...
Recall Republicans Must Stand for Individual Rights
The nation's most frenzied electoral battle since the 2000 presidential election -- the effort to recall California Gov. Gray Davis -- offers dramatic evidence that the GOP is intellectually bankrupt. The campaign to recall Davis was sponsored, led and funded by GOP...
A Nation of “Hamburger-Flippers”?
Everybody seems to be worried about manufacturing these days. All the Democratic presidential candidates condemn the practice of "outsourcing" -- laying off manufacturing workers and buying their output more cheaply from China. This is not surprising, given that...
The Interest Rate Boogeyman
We're facing an important inflection point in the stock market. And as always happens at such critical times, investors are likely to get bamboozled by misinformation that they get from the mainstream media. I'm going to try to straighten some of that out. All eyes...
Gone Fishin’ — Guilt Free
My sun-toasted toddler sits on a weathered dock, clutching her pink Barbie fishing pole with grown-up gravitas. Her pigtails bounce as she dangles her bare feet above the deep emerald lake, where her cherry red-and-white bobber waltzes in sync. She takes a swig from...
California’s Real Elections
Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a big splash in the media by entering the California governor's race. But the real news out of California came a few days before Arnold's political bombshell. The latest census data show -- for the first time -- that more Californians...
Africa: A Tragic Continent
Anyone who believes President Bush's Africa initiative, including sending U.S. troops to Liberia, will amount to more than a hill of beans is whistling Dixie. Maybe it's overly pessimistic, but most of Africa is a continent without much hope for its people. Let's look...
Justice Anthony Kennedy vs. Mandatory Sentencing Laws
Justice Anthony Kennedy won an outburst of applause at a recent meeting of the American Bar Association in San Francisco when he criticized mandatory sentencing laws. "Every day in prison is much longer than any day you've ever spent," Justice Kennedy said. "A country...
Activists More to Fear than Pesticides
As public health officials consider spraying pesticides to control the mosquito-borne West Nile virus, anti-pesticide activists claim that spraying devastates birds and other wildlife. But such claims should be viewed with skepticism. It seems that West Nile virus and...
Israel Should Keep Palestinian Terrorists Locked Up
Israel's recent release of approximately 400 prisoners - including 210 members of known Arab terrorist organizations - is immoral, as those released directly threaten the lives of Israelis. Though the Palestinian Intifada officially ended -- for a brief period at...
“The New Economy”– Alive and Kicking
For the last year or two, it has been fashionable to ridicule the idea of a "New Economy," which underlay the stock market boom of the late 1990s. However, last week's productivity report shows that the New Economy is alive and kicking. The original notion of a New...
“Little Doors” For Flying Terrorists
Two questions have been left unanswered following last week's announcement by Homeland Security Department head Tom Ridge that he has temporarily suspended travel programs allowing foreigners to fly into our country without U.S. visas: Why did it take so bloody long?...
Poland is Doing the Right Things
Poland, the fifth-largest country in Europe, is not one of the first places most investors look for opportunities. But maybe it should be. I returned full of enthusiasm a few weeks ago from my first trip to Poland in 40 years. Poland's stock market is small -- a...
Road Map to More Terror in the Middle East
The US-sponsored "road map" to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not a very challenging document. The text, which is posted at the State Department website, is only 4-1/2 pages long, and most of it is written in reasonably clear English. Anyone willing to...
Cameras in the Courtroom
It is fascinating to watch special interest groups seeking privileges for themselves in the guise of protecting the rights of other people. A recent issue of Editor & Publisher magazine -- the trade journal of newspapers -- argued for allowing the use of cameras in...
Hypocrisy, The Name is Rockefeller
Bleeding-heart liberalism for thee, but not for me. That is the expedient philosophy of the wealthy Rockefeller family. Last week, the Rockefeller rule was on full display at a little-noticed hearing in Arlington County, Va. There, Mrs. Sharon Percy Rockefeller...
Islam’s Image Problem
Americans are increasingly negative about Islam and Muslims - or so found an important survey that the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press published last week. Perhaps the most dramatic change has been the jump in Americans who find that Islam, more than...
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