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
Fraud is so inherent to the operation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that "HUD Scandal" might as well be one word. The latest hudscandal involves a feel-good program (what else?) for cops and teachers. Since 1997, police officers have been...
I've been saying for weeks that the markets would be waiting for Cisco's earnings report -- which was released yesterday after the bell -- to set the tone for the post-earnings season world. That's because Cisco was a winner of "the gorilla game" as it was played...
Earlier this year in April (2001), Secretary of State Colin Powell rebuked Israel for sending tanks and bulldozers into Gaza following Palestinian mortar attacks on the Israeli town of Sederot. "The Israeli response," he said, "was excessive and disproportionate." Of...
The United Nations will open its "World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" (let's call it WCAR) on Aug 31 in Durban, South Africa. Already there are threats to pull out by the United States unless agenda proposals...
Every night, I roll up my sleeves, take off my socks, and climb into the bathtub with my 11-month-old daughter, her two rubber duckies, a Mickey Mouse sponge, and a pile of floating toy debris. She splashes and squirms incessantly, but I have at least one hand on her...
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran an extraordinary op-ed piece by George Gilder, called Tumbling into the Telechasm. In it, the celebrated author of Telecosm and the publisher of the Gilder Technology Report lists all the federal government's catastrophic policy...
His nomination isn't even official yet, but the knives are already out for Gerald Reynolds, the former president of the Center for New Black Leadership whom President Bush has tapped to run the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights. His crime? He opposes...
Aren't most people too unsophisticated to manage their private account? This is a valid concern, but there are simple solutions that have worked well over twenty years with 401(k) plans, and they could easily be applied here. First, rudimentary investment education...
As we continue through the slow and painful process of building a bottom after the great techwreck of 2000/2001, we have the opportunity to crash-test a great investment thesis from the irrationally exuberant era of the late great bull market -- "gorilla investing."...
Over the past few months, congress has been trying to make it easier for employees to sue their employers if they are not happy with their health insurance plans. Yes, you read that correctly. Liberal-socialist-statists want to hold employers responsible for the fact...
The Green Party has 362 candidates running in 39 States. If they can tap into the uncertainty and resentment of voters, they are likely to draw votes from Democrats in the mid-term elections. Political analysts believe Ralph Nader's run for the presidency in 2000 took...
In my commentaries this week, I've discussed the transcendent importance to the economy and the markets of the potential for restructuring Social Security, to include individually managed private accounts. I've talked about some of the myths about Social Security, and...
June 30 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Bastiat. If one were to list the top 10 advocates of liberty, French philosopher-economist Bastiat would rank high on that list. He'd easily outrank any one of the founders of our nation. I'm honored to...
This week I'm focusing on the myths that will keep investors from grasping the risks and opportunities on the road ahead as President George W. Bush pushes for restructuring Social Security -- probably with the introduction of private accounts that could be invested...
We may be on the brink of a once-in-a-decade investment opportunity, a rare chance to catch a huge environmental change in the economy and the markets. And it's still early on this one -- you can still catch this one before it becomes part of the conventional wisdom,...
Some people will do anything to get their hands on federal wampum. Across the country, scam artists claiming to be oppressed "indigenous peoples" have used dubious family histories, altered documents or shady land claims to win government recognition as Indian tribes....
Foundry Networks reported better than expected earnings and revenues for the second quarter (July 25, 2001). The company reported revenues of $88.6 million, up sequentially by 7.3%, and $16 million above consensus forecasts. Earnings per share were $.07, which was...
Does the market ever go up on a day when Alan Greenspan talks? I can't remember when it ever has. On July 18, 2001, the markets gapped lower on the opening. They tried to recover in the first hour, but as soon as the prepared text of Greenspan's testimony before the...
Gao Zhan has seen the cruelty of the Chinese dictatorship firsthand and up close, as a native of China and through the last five and a half months of captivity under trumped-up accusations of spying. But she has emerged unbowed. Here are her words upon returning to...
Did Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill commit a "gaffe" of epic proportions? Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich certainly thinks so. In an interview with Financial Times, O'Neill said, "Able-bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so that they can...
A measure of accommodation is accorded children because they are not adults and thus not to be held to the same accountability standards. But should that same accommodation be accorded to a race of people? In the March 2001 edition of The American Enterprise magazine,...
"Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled." Did you know that? It is just as well if you did not, because it is not true.It takes no research to prove that it is not true. If there had been just two children in America gunned down...
President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" school reform proposal passed in the House last week. Considering what a colossal black hole the U.S. Department of Education has become, the $24 billion plan would be more appropriately dubbed: No Dime Left Behind. If Beltway...
The clones are coming! Lock your doors, hide your wives and children -- or, better yet, hold congressional hearings and pass a law. Angry villagers in academia and on Capitol Hill are crusading for a ban on human cloning -- a ban potentially so sweeping that it would...
A 4-year-old boy died last weekend at the Malibu home of rock star Tommy Lee. How any right-thinking parents could entrust their child to a drug-addled celebrity who pled no contest to kicking his ex-wife (actress Pamela Anderson) while she held their newborn baby is...
"Our goal is not to have an embargo against Cuba; it is freedom in Cuba." Thus spake President Bush last month, at a White House ceremony marking the 99th anniversary of Cuban independence. "The sanctions our Government enforces against the Castro regime are not just...
Who is Mark Jimenez? More importantly: Where is Mark Jimenez? And why doesn't anyone in Washington care that this fugitive businessman -- indicted in 1998 on 17 counts of illegal campaign contributions to Democrats -- remains at large, defiantly thumbing his nose at...
I buy more from my grocer than he buys from me. I buy more from my auto dealer than he buys from me. The trade imbalance doesn't stop there. My grocer and auto dealer both buy more from their wholesaler than the wholesaler buys from them. These are examples of trade...
Two days after Timothy McVeigh's execution, The New York Times published eight letters to the editor discussing the event and expressing an opinion on the death penalty. Six of the eight were against executing murderers, one was in favor, and one was in favor in a...
Limp Bizkit lyrics. Beeper numbers. TV jingles. Carson Daly's vital statistics. Such is the stuff that clutters the minds of American boys and girls. It wasn't always this way. Once upon a time, students had their heads crammed full with poetry by great old writers --...
The execution of Timothy McVeigh has again raised the issue of capital punishment. Much of the case against capital punishment does not rise above the level of opaque pronouncements that it is "barbaric," by which those who say this presumably mean that it makes them...
The Palestinians, you may have noticed, have changed their tune. When the current orgy of violence against Israelis began last fall, the explanation out of Gaza City -- faithfully echoed by most of the Western media -- was that it was all Ariel Sharon's fault. His...
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