The SEC is investigating possible abuses by the "specialist" firms that match buyers and sellers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The probe comes after revelations that the exchange itself had launched an investigation last year that is now reported to...
POLITICS
The Right Kind of Tax Cut
Listening to Washington policy-makers haggle over the size of President Bush's proposed tax cut -- $350 billion over the next decade? $550 billion? $726 billion? -- you would think nothing matters much beyond the price tag.Just as important, though, is the type of tax...
Income Facts: Work Pays
Those for whom indignation is a way of life often inform us of the fact that families or households in the top 10 or 20 percent in income make far more money than people in the bottom 10 or 20 percent in income. What they almost never inform us of are how much money...
The United Nations: United In Opposition to the American Ideal of Freedom
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan continues to claim that only the UN can grant legitimacy to the United States' successful war to topple Saddam Hussein. Rationally, that claim can be viewed as little more than a pathetic, baseless whine from those clinging...
Ending the Double Taxation of Dividends
If President Bush and his team want a great argument to support their proposed elimination of the unfair double taxation of dividends and retained earnings, they should look to an excellent column in the "Week In Review" section of last month's New York Times. That's...
Why Our Education System Is Failing
Two unrelated events last week provide some clues as to why our education system is failing. First, Canada College in San Mateo, California, held a job fair -- for kindergartners! Apparently there is nothing too silly to spend the taxpayers' money on, even when the...
A Tax Plan Worse Than Nothing
The Bush administration is rapidly losing control of the tax legislative process. Its unwillingness to acknowledge that its plan needed to be totally rethought once a $350 billion revenue loss cap was imposed in the Senate has created an anarchic situation in...
It’s a Gas
Although he's in Houston and I'm in Washington without one of those phone cams that the Iraq war made famous, I can see Marshall Adkins jumping up and down with enthusiasm. "Rigs are going to go berserk for the next five or six years!" "Gas is going to be five, six,...
It’s the Iraqi Economy, Stupid!
For years, we have heard about Saddam's brutal suppression of political freedoms in Iraq where free elections, free speech, and a free press were non-existent. But we have heard little about the absence in Iraq of economic freedom and opportunity. As leader of the...
On May Day Celebrate Capitalism
May Day will once again be celebrated by left-wing and environmentalist protestors united by a single emotion: a virulent hatred of capitalism, especially global capitalism.
Punish France by Enlarging American Freedom
Yes, folks, it finally happened. French President Jacques Chirac swallowed his pride and placed a let's-be-friends-again phone call to President Bush.As well he should have. France's behavior regarding Iraq has been despicable. In addition to providing Saddam...
A Capitalist Takes the Republican Presidential Victory Team Issues Survey
I am a Republican. I chose to be a Republican because in our current political climate, and compared to the alternatives, I judge the Republican Party to offer the best defense of my values. That said, the Republican Party infuriates me. As someone who is...
Letter to Janeane Garofalo: Confusing Free Speech with Nazism
Dear Janeane, You are an idiot of breathtaking proportions. This is incontrovertible based on your recent statement that said: "Hate mail bothers me less than what happens to the Dixie Chicks. There are boycotts and guys driving tractors over their CDs - that's Nazi...
Exempting Dividends from Taxation
President Bush's plan to eliminate the double taxation of corporate profits, by exempting dividends from taxation, appears to be on life support. Even before his tax package was reduced from $726 billion to $550 billion in the House and $350 billion in the Senate, the...
The Left’s Intellectual and Moral House of Cards
They take to the streets to paint President Bush as both a dolt and Hitler incarnate, and to demand that the "unjust" war on a terrorist states be stopped immediately. If you disagree with these "peace" activists, they'll block traffic (including emergency vehicles),...
The Naked Hypocrisy of the Dixie Chicks
"Just so you know," Natalie Maines told a London audience last month, "we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." But in an interview with Diane Sawyer Friday, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks responded to fan backlash by claiming that...
Repeal Sodomy Laws
A political firestorm is beginning to erupt around Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum over comments he made during an interview with the Associated Press. His comments were in response to a question about the pending decision from the Supreme Court on...
“Right”-to-Health-Care Junkies
A "right" to health care is the new opiate of the masses. And politicians are among the biggest pushers. As with most druggies, America started off with the light stuff. It began in the sixties with the marijuana of socialized medicine, Medicare and Medicaid. We were...
The Skyscraper: A Gesture to Reason, Freedom and Human Life
As with many inventions, Elisha Otis's creation proved to have a much more far-reaching affect than just the need it was immediately designed to serve. On April 1, Otis Elevators celebrated its 150th anniversary. Appropriately, it was in New York City that Elisha...
Ralph Nader: Public Shakedown Artist
"Big business never pays a nickel in taxes, according to Ralph Nader, who represents a big consumer organization that never pays a nickel in taxes." -- Dave Barry Crystal Lewis hadn't the slightest idea what "MOPIRG" was. Each semester, she says, the mysterious phrase...
How Tax Credits Help Overcome the Obstacles Facing the Uninsured
Uninsured individuals and families need health care coverage. A key factor keeping them from getting coverage is its cost. Some policymakers suggest opening government controlled public programs, such as Medicaid and SCHIP, to the uninsured. These programs, however,...
A Flat Tax for Iraq
With the end of war, the United States is now working rapidly to restore civil administration in Iraq and get its economy moving again. A key issue will be the Iraqi tax system, which cannot wait until all the questions about Iraq's form of government are worked out....
Random Thoughts for April 2003
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Even though Saddam Hussein's regime has been toppled, there are still pockets of resistance -- not only in Iraq but in Paris, Berkeley, and in the editorial offices of the New York Times. These die-hards may hold out for years....
Why Michael Jordan Makes More Than I: From Whence Comes Income?
Here's part of a letter from a reader: "A hard-working, conscientious person can earn $10,000 a year in a fast-food restaurant. At the same time, movie stars and athletes, who make very little contribution to society, can earn in excess of $10,000,000 a year. A...
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.