As the season for annual meetings begins, activists are presenting shareholders with resolutions seeking social change and better corporate governance. A few of the proposals have merit; most are obnoxious but harmless. And nearly all will be rejected - mainly because...
POLITICS
First Amendment Bull: Tim Robbins vs. Free Speech
Lately, it seems as if almost every week some leftist celebrity finds the time and energy to publicly demonstrate their gross misunderstanding of a simple two-word phrase: "free speech." Although few people expect them to be literate enough to read the second...
Not in My Name: My Version of a “Statement of Conscience”
Thousands of Americans chose not to pay their federal income tax this year as a political statement, many because they don't want their money supporting the U.S. military. [Associated Press, 4/16/03] I would gladly concede to war protesters the right to withhold their...
Martin Sheen: Victim of Hollywood Status
A sensitivity guidebook, used by schools nationwide, urges teachers to diligently watch for "differential treatment of an individual due to minority status; actual and perceived" in the classroom--that's differential, not deferential. The University of Kansas, like...
Conservatives for the Separation of God and Religion
The House of Representatives passed a resolution last month recognizing "the public need for fasting and prayer in order to secure the blessings and protection of Providence for the people of the United States and our armed forces." On Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show...
Human Lifestock and The Welfare State
An old television special featured great boxing matches of the past, including a video of a match between legendary light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore and a young Canadian fighter named Yvonne Durrell, in which each man was knocked down four times during the...
Fleeing Castro’s Communist Paradise to Get to Evil Capitalist America
Just last week three of the men involved in hijacking a Cuban ferry in order to flee to America were executed under the regime of Fidel Castro under the charge of terrorism. Where was the United States in all of this? Unfortunately while freeing a people and riding...
Call It Like It Is
There's considerable unnecessary confusion and debate on public policy issues that would be more intelligently discussed and resolved if we'd say what is actually meant rather than using euphemistic disguises. The Grutter and Gratz vs. Bollinger cases before the U.S....
A High-Tech Agenda for AIDS
The entire op-ed page of the New York Times on March 1 was consumed by six pieces under the general heading, "The New AIDS Fight." So far, so good. But take a look
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer is But One Example of the Petty, Partisan Press
Perhaps nothing so epitomized what is wrong with the media as Wolf Blitzer of CNN "reporting" on the war in Iraq, talking not about what had happened but about something that had not happened. No one had yet found weapons of mass destruction, he said, even though it...
Japan’s Crippled Banking System
Back in the 1980s, a lot of best-selling books were written about how the United States should emulate Japan. Pursuing free market economics based on individual entrepreneurs was passe, so it was often said by Ronald Reagan's critics. Instead, we should follow Japan's...
The Ideological Reconstruction of Iraq
Estimated to cost as much as $200 billion, the plan for rebuilding post-war Iraq is astounding in its scope--from repairing roads and sewer systems to revamping the Iraqi government payroll system and printing school textbooks. Yet no one is paying attention to the...
Can Individual Investors Beat the Market?
Among financial scholars, it's an article of faith that the vast majority of investors can't beat the stock market regularly. According to the traditional academic literature, if you invest long enough, spread your money around in a diversified portfolio, and hang on...
Capitalism Triumphs at Augusta
Mike Weir became the first Canadian, and first left-hander, to win the Masters. Weir triumphed in a one-hole playoff with American journeyman Len Mattiace after both players finished the tournament 7-under-par. Although the playoff was somewhat anticlimactic--a...
Bad Cuban Medicine
The shelves in the neighbourhood pharmacy, like those in the other neighbourhood pharmacies I had seen in Havana, were half empty and full of dust, the small selection of medicines on display arranged in lonely rows of old-fashioned little bottles. Customers were as...
Iraq is Better off without the International Monetary Fund
Leaders of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund met in Washington over the weekend for their annual spring meeting. They were under great pressure from the United States to step in to Iraq and help get that country's economy back on its feet. However, if the...
Victory Not Enough: We Need Tax Cuts Now!
Three months ago, President Bush proposed reviving the economy with a package that would cut the tax bills of 92 million Americans. The president has had other things on his mind since then, and the opposition of only a few Senators pared the package back in the...
Nine Simple Guidelines for Pro-Growth Tax Policy
Economic growth occurs when people work more, save more, and invest more. These are the behaviors that increase national income and boost the nation's wealth. People do not produce more simply because the government has a balanced budget. Nor do they increase their...
Failure and Denial in the Arab World
It's hard to come off as more bizarre than Madonna (she works at it) but that's how Mohammed Saeed Sahaf, Iraq's information minister, looks on TV as I'm writing this. With U.S. jets controlling the air over his head and American soldiers just 100 yards or so from...
The Caribbean’s Saddam Hussein Still Rules Cuba
One of the first people I met during a week's stay in Havana last year was the economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a once-ardent communist who had turned against Fidel Castro's dictatorial system. For daring to criticize Cuba's disastrous policies, Chepe and his wife...
CNN’s Sins of Omission
I was shocked and disgusted by an op-ed piece I read today in the New York Times. No, it wasn't by Paul Krugman. It was far more serious: Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, revealing what the headline called "The News We Kept to Ourselves." The news concerned...
Bush’s Next War to Liberate the American Economy
Last week I sat across a table from President George W. Bush in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He told me and a dozen fellow economists that "the American economy is a theatre in the war on terrorism." With steely conviction he told us that he intends to win...
Socialism by Agreement
A mixed economy is when Republicans and Democrats reach an unspoken, silent agreement. The silent agreement is as follows. Republicans don't want socialism. At the same time, they're terrified of endorsing principles such as freedom, individual rights and capitalism....
Academia and the War
Those of us whose pessimism about our country's social degeneration sometimes borders on despair have been given a reality check by the dedication, discipline, and decency of our troops in Iraq, as well as by the advanced technology of the military equipment they use....
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