You’d be surprised by the newly discovered requirements for national security revealed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. We discovered that a thriving airline industry is necessary for national security. Congress acknowledged this by bailing out airline...
POLITICS
Interview: The Well Trained Mind and Homeschooling
When her daughter Susan started kindergarten in Virginia in 1972, Jessie Wise quickly heard complaints from Susan’s teacher that the child would become a social misfit because she wanted to read during free time instead of playing. This was not good news for...
Education Fraud in Philadelphia
Education in Philadelphia’s public schools is so rotten that the state government is threatening a takeover. There are 176 out of 264 schools on the failing list. The primary victims of Philadelphia’s public schools are black students whose chances for...
Media Fraud
Media bias is no longer news. Poll after poll has shown that the vast majority of journalists vote for Democrats, even though the country as a whole is pretty evenly split between the two major parties. By itself, there is nothing wrong with this. It becomes a problem...
Therapeutic Cloning is Pro-Life
On November 25 Advanced Cell Technologies announced the creation of the first cloned human embryo. The company described its achievement as a crucial step in therapeutic cloning research, which aims at cloning new organs to replace damaged ones. Like healthy new skin...
Stupid Accounting Tricks: Pro Forma Accounting, Part 3
Well, I just can’t seem to get away from this subject. You all keep writing, and in doing so, engender material for follow up columns. Hopefully, this will be the last for a while, but a couple of letters bought up important points that I wanted to address...
Israel May Be Winning
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell recently observed that the Palestinians “need to understand that [terrorism] leads nowhere,” and on this basis he urged them to stop their violence against Israelis. Good policy advice, but does the Palestinian use of...
Deflation: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
This commentary continues a series intended to address some of the misconceptions in the flurry of recent media reports about deflation. My last commentary (“Deflation: The Basics”) began by defining deflation as strictly a monetary process, and one that...
A Palestinian Education
Last month, retired Marine General Anthony Zinni began a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the latest in a depressingly long line of US envoys sent to nudge along the Israeli-Arab “peace process.” Zinni’s mission, it is safe to say, will...
Stupid Accounting Tricks: Managing Earnings, Part 2
I received so much feedback on my column (Stupid Accounting Tricks) that I thought I would respond en masse today and elaborate a bit on the subjects of pro forma accounting and managing earnings. First, the title of my column “Stupid Accounting Tricks”...
The Military Draft and Draft Registration Versus Freedom
No organization has done more for the federal government than al Qaeda. What other group could free it of so much restraint? Our elected officials swear to support and defend the U. S. Constitution as part of their oath of office. We, the people, through the...
Ending the “Peace Process War”
When Yasser Arafat unleashed his intifada against Israel last year, I named it the “ Peace Process War. ” I wanted to capture the irony of mob violence and bombings as the culmination of seven years of an alleged “peace process.” I did not...
Deflation: The Basics
Deflation is not falling prices. Deflation is not economic contraction. Deflation is when the Fed screws up. The idea of deflation has gotten more play in the press over the last two weeks than it has over the last ten years — thanks to unusual negative readings...
Phony Victims of Freedom in Academia
One of the most shameless frauds in academia today is the claim that a new “McCarthyism” is threatening academic freedom. According to this new cry of victimhood, conservative groups are “drawing up enemy lists” of professors who are opposed to...
Stupid Accounting Tricks: Extreme and Foundry By the Real Numbers
Remember back in high school algebra when you were first introduced to the concept of imaginary numbers? That’s a good way to describe quarterly earnings reports these days — as imaginary numbers. In the old days, when a company reported quarterly...
Hostile Fire from Eco-“Extremists”
Which is more important: Well-trained Navy pilots or well-rested toads? Increased military preparedness or increased antelope populations? Improved bombing facilities or improved fairy shrimp habitats? The choice of environmental “extremists”, no-growth...
Where Were You on December 7, 1941?
Because of the September 11 terrorist attacks, December 7, 2001, the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, became especially significant. Many children never bothered to ask their parents and grandparents, “Where were you on December 7, 1941?” — the date...
Enron and Social Security Reform II
Today I’m going to revisit a theme that I believe is the most important of all — the revolution in the empowerment of the individual investor to make his own decisions and take his own risks. It’s critical that we look at this now, because with the...
Enron and Social Security Reform
Everyone with an axe to grind is using the example of Enron to grind free markets. And Paul Krugman is doing no less in a December 4, 2001, New York Times op-ed, “A Defining Issue.” Krugman is using Enron to demonstrate the terrible dangers of...
What is Economics?
To know what economics is, we must first know what an economy is. Perhaps most of us think of an economy as a system for the production and distribution of the goods and services we use in everyday life. That is true as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough....
What About the War Against Chutzpah?
As we undertake the War against Terrorism, President Bush should simultaneously announce a “War against Chutzpah.” New York Rep. Nita Lowey, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairwoman, stands near the top of the Most Wanted List in our new...
Reducing Expenses in a Down Economy
Most of the people I know are looking for ways to reduce expenses, either because they have lost most of their net worth, lost Wheir job, or feel they are about to lose their job. Not a very happy way to begin this column on personal finance,?but those are the cold...
The Right To Know What the Government is Doing
With America immersed in a war against terrorism, journalists are beginning to face longer FOIA reply periods, and official data on government Web sites disappearing from public view for security reasons.
Investing Lessons from the Collapse of Enron
Leafing through a recent edition of the Value Line Investor Survey, an excellent research service with a track record for prudence and accuracy, I ran across what looked like the perfect company. Its profits were rising strongly and consistently. It had a solid...
Grave Matters for America’s Vets
Arlington National Cemetery, Va. — On a cold gray day, the fierce colors of the American flag cloaked Johnny “Mike” Spann’s coffin and warmed the air with patriotic incandescence. Nearby, the clip-clop of a riderless horse’s hooves and...
Stop Throwing Money at CDC
Dr. David Satcher, the nation’s lame duck surgeon general, wants taxpayers to cough up more money for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This irrelevant bureaucrat’s last-ditch money grab is one of the more distasteful examples of exploiting...
Will eBay Survive?
With the death of Napster, eBay is the closest thing we have today to a broadband killer internet application. Since its inception, eBay has grown rapidly to its position of domination in the on-line auction market. It has been so successful that it’s stock has...
The Ruthless Grip of Logic
Memo to the world: Reality cannot be cheated. Politicians and diplomats like to pretend that you can cheat the laws of logic, that there is no need to commit to absolutes, and that there is something to be achieved by “constructive ambiguity.” The past...
Stennis Families React to World Trade Center Flag
On Thanksgiving, the Aircraft Carrier USS John C. Stennis learned the story of how Sgt. Karl Hagstrom recovered the flag from the rubble of the World Trade Center and had shipped it to them to carry into battle. Karl has since learned the flag was received safely...
Cigarette Nazis on the March
Maryland’s Montgomery County Council passed a measure whereby smokers whose neighbors are offended by the odor of cigarette smoke wafting from their homes would be fined up to $750. After the measure passed, County Executive Douglas Duncan promised to sign the...
In Defense of Missile Defense
“No progress on ABM Treaty,” blared the headlines as President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin departed the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. Those of us who want America to build a missile-defense system as soon as possible missed out on what would...
Should Classes Be Smaller…or Simply More Orderly?
While there is much debate over the cost, wisdom, and effectiveness of different strategies for increasing the amount of learning time available in the average school year–such as increasing attendance rates, lengthening the school day, cutting out recess, and...
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