POLITICS

The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded, and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of “conservatism” and “liberalism” which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men. – AYN RAND

Are Taxes “the Price We Pay for Civilization”?

I want to challenge the premise that the tax-funded welfare state is the ideal civilized society.

Free Dr. Kevorkian

The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed last week the murder conviction of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who was sentenced in 1999 to 10 to 25 years in prison. He was convicted on charges of second-degree murder in a clear-cut case of assisted suicide. Was justice done-or...

Getting Out Of Bondage

First, a confession. Nearly 20 years ago, when I was in my mid-thirties, I got a chance for the first time to manage my own tax-deferred retirement portfolio. I was confronted with the same choices as the 42 million Americans who now have 401(k) plans and the millions...

Drugs and Politics

Drugs and Politics

A tourist in New York’s Greenwich Village had his portrait sketched by a sidewalk artist, who charged him $100. “That’s expensive,” the tourist said. “But it’s a great sketch, so I’ll pay it. But, really, it took you just five...

The Truth and Mr. and Ms. Clinton

The Truth and Mr. and Ms. Clinton

Oh, those Clintons! On September 17, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) appeared on “Dateline NBC.” Where, Dateline asked, was Chelsea on that fateful day? Senator Clinton told NBC’s Jane Pauley: “She’d gone on what she thought...

An Afghanistan Thanksgiving

This year’s Thanksgiving was an unusual one. This uniquely American holiday was punctuated with a constant flow of news … at our house, most of it courtesy of my friend Jack, an inveterate news hound … about far-off Afghanistan. I had feared, after...

Mary Kay Ash: One of America’s Great Entrepreneurs

Mary Kay Ash, one of America’s great entrepreneurs, died Thanksgiving Day at 83 in Dallas. She was 45 when she started a company (with just $5,000) to sell cosmetics through home and office demonstrations by sales reps – the best of whom were awarded pink...

Tears and Toughness

The victims of American Airlines Flight 587 and their families deserve our deepest sympathy and prayers. But compassion must not override vigilance. Our resolve to enforce immigration laws in the wake of Sept. 11 must not be weakened. According to the Associated...

By the Word or by the Sword

“Islam is Peace.” So explained President Bush to the American public soon after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Since then, the President has gone out of his way to assure Americans that they have nothing to fear from the religion of Islam....

Avoiding the Next Nightmare

The United States has buried its head in the sand for too long. Despite the continued talk of unity, some in Washington — for whatever reason — still want to tie up or slow down America’s missile defense program. Pretend for a moment it was Israel,...

Hypocrisy in Indonesia

If nothing else, give the president of Indonesia credit for impeccable timing. First, Megawati Sukarnoputri snubs Australian leader John Howard at the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Council (APEC) meeting in Shanghai, only to have her husband suffer a heart attack a few...

The Deflation Investor’s Checklist

Iconoclastic economists have been warning of deflation for almost five years, based on subtle signs that Alan Greenspan hasn’t been supplying enough liquidity to meet the needs of the U.S. economy. And now — finally — these warnings have come true in...

Washington D.C., Our No-Spine Zone

Suppose one day you meet with a security specialist to safeguard your business. They’re called “For Everyone’s Defense” — FED. Fed tells you what bad things could happen and how they’ll protect you from them. You say okay and sign...

Missile Defense: No Time for Easy Assumptions

David Halberstam, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, has compared ballistic missile defense to the Maginot Line, the wall built after World War I to protect France from German invasion: Brilliantly constructed. Thorough to a fault. But utterly useless against the real...

Laffer’s Curveball

Arthur Laffer’s op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal (November 21, 2001) will set supply-side tongues wagging — or more likely, supply-side teeth gnashing. The upshot is: Laffer is endorsing the idea of a 10-day federally underwritten suspension of state...

An INS Horror Story

The INS bureaucracy is a cesspool of elbow-rubbers, string-pullers, chest-puffers and cover-uppers who care more about protecting their backsides than upholding the law. Look no further than the man who currently heads the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization...

The Trouble With ‘Timing’: It Doesn’t Work

In the stock market (as in much of life), the beginning of wisdom is admitting your ignorance. One of the many things you cannot know about stocks is exactly when they will go up or go down. Over the long term, stocks generally rise at a nice pace. History shows they...

Protect Yourself Through Diversification

Warren Buffett, who was probably the greatest investor of the 20th century, is fond of quoting the salacious actress Mae West as saying, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” In the market, such a motto would lead you to avoid diversification and...

The End of the Beginning

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” So declared Winston Churchill after an early allied victory in World War II. It was a reminder to his nation that the war would require many more...

Contradictory Notions of Fairness

Contradictory Notions of Fairness

There was a time when Thanksgiving meant an occasion for counting our blessings. But, now that we have so many blessings that previous generations could hardly have dreamed about, we take them all for granted and are much more likely to count our grievances and the...

Arab World Poverty: Whose Fault?

Arab World Poverty: Whose Fault?

“I don’t have the knowledge to blame a government,” said Bakhtiar Khan, an Afghan man in his mid-twenties. “I don’t know about politics, but for our problems I blame the world community. All humans should be equal, but we are not. You ask...

The ‘Next Big Thing’ in Technology?

You may know Jim Jubak from his frequent appearances on CNBC. Jubak, the senior markets editor at MSN Money, holds a core investing principle: the conventional wisdom is always wrong. Suffice it to say that this guy has an independent streak, which is a great virtue...

Diversity vs. “Diversity”

Diversity vs. “Diversity”

Sometimes it seems as if “diversity” is going to replace “the” as the most often used word in the English language. Yet the place where this word has become a holy grail — academia — shows less tolerance for genuine diversity of...

On Shovels, Caterpillars, and the Capital Gains Tax

I live up a narrow, one-lane private road that winds up a steep, wooded canyon in Northern California. A couple years ago, during the El Nino winter that dropped record rains here, a side of the canyon collapsed and a massive mudslide closed the road. Heading uphill...

U.S. Kids Speak on the War

U.S. Kids Speak on the War

Why did 19 Islamic extremist terrorists attack America on Sept. 11, 2001? Why do so many hate America? Here’s how some American children answered those questions. Josh, age 12: “I just think (Osama bin Laden) needs to find something a little bit like the...

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