When Charles Rossotti became commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service five years ago, taxpayers hoped this marked a new beginning. Unlike all the tax lawyers who preceded him, Rossotti came from a business background. Presumably, he understood the need to end some...
POLITICS
Unlimited Liability
Americans believe strongly in the principle that an individual is innocent until proven guilty--and thus consider it a moral outrage to hold someone responsible for an evil he did not commit. In response to reports of a handful of innocent Arab-Americans being...
Trent Lott, Race, and Hypocrisy
Too many people have asked the wrong question about Trent Lott and have come up with the wrong answer. The real question is not so much about Senator Lott's past statements but about the Republican Party's future. What will Trent Lott's continuance as majority leader...
Destroy the WorldCom Zombie Already
With phony profits now expected to top $9 billion, WorldCom, Inc, the Mississippi-based telecommunications company, has earned the distinction of committing the worst accounting fraud in American history. As a result, investors have marked down WorldCom's stock to...
Thanks a Lott
Of course it was an idiotic thing to say. And of course Senator Lott's remarks have been taken out of context. Neither of these opposing viewpoints refer to the real issue. The real issue is power. Democrats who now condemn Senator Lott for his apparent racism have...
Fatwa: Coming to a Country Near You
"There is no room for play in Islam... It is deadly serious about everything." So declared Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, in 1980. Nine years later, Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie discovered the grim consequences of free expression in...
The Foreign Policy of Doing Business With Criminals
Eight years ago, a particularly stupid U.S. Administration at a particularly stupid juncture in American history offered Communist North Korea a deal: if you don't develop nuclear weapons, we'll give you free American oil -- at U.S. taxpayer expense. Even hard-right...
Digital Television and Copy Protection: Government Mandated Technology is a Bad Idea
Earlier this year, Silicon Valley was outraged at a proposal to prohibit the sale of almost any technology unless it contains copy protection standards endorsed by the federal government. While that proposal is unlikely to become law, there's a similar initiative...
Americans with Disabilities Act vs. The Internet
Common sense may seem in short supply in today's litigation-happy world, but it got a boost recently from -- of all places -- Florida, where a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit claiming that Southwest Airlines' Web site violated the Americans with Disabilities Act....
The Innovator’s Decision
Tom Daschle tried to turn the election into a referendum on the economy, blasting the Bush administration for "the worst performance in terms of real economic growth that we have seen in the last 50 years." However hyperbolic, he raised a paradox: If the economy was...
Tonya Harding’s Army
Here is an interesting quote by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz, the federal judge overseeing Sun Microsystems' request for an injunction against Microsoft, "Capitalism is about making money, but it's also about something else. It's also about pride of product."...
Mutual Fund Failure
Despite the miserable performance of the stock market in recent years, the number of Americans owning mutual funds continues to rise. At last report, 48 million families owned stock funds. That's roughly half of all U.S. households - up from only about one-fourth in...
Tax Credits for Health Care Coverage
It appears high on nearly every wish list President Bush has mentioned for the next Congress: health-care legislation. Why? Because lawmakers can't wait much longer before they do something about the growing number of Americans who lack health insurance. The latest...
Cramer vs. Cramer: Another Day, Another Fantasy
If you're a financial media pundit, you live every day with a fundamental challenge with respect to accountability and intellectual honesty. As your forecasts, opinions and views accumulate over the years, how do you reconcile what you are saying today (or failing to...
The Case for Invading Iraq
With each passing day the United States comes ever closer to launching a new war against Iraq. And yet, before it has even begun, thousands of people are already marching in the streets demanding that our government not take any forceful action against Saddam's...
Sowell’s Christmas Book Recommendations
Some years, it is hard to find enough good new books to recommend to buy as Christmas presents, so I have had to recommend old favorites like The Federalist Papers or recommend gift subscriptions to magazines like The Economist. This year, however, there have been so...
Lott and Thurmond: When Saying ‘I’m Sorry’ is Not Enough
The meaning of a bumper sticker “Don’t blame me–I voted Dixiecrat” is clear and unmistakable, it means regret for the end of segregation.
Senator Trent Lott’s Tin Ear and Loose Tongue
Anybody can put his foot in his mouth but making it a habit is too much, especially when you are in a position where your ill-considered words can become a permanent albatross around the necks of other people whom you are leading. That is the situation now, in the...
The Implosion of the Republican Party
It's been nearly a week since Trent Lott got all misty for Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist campaign for president, and yet not one of his peers in the Senate has called for his ouster as Majority leader. Not one Senator has demanded the Senate censure Lott for...
The Pseudo-Science of Rubinomics
What is "economic analysis" when it comes from a newspaper? It's usually just like Daniel Altman's "Economic Analysis" column in the New York Times this morning: a montage of sound-bites from "experts" (or, if not experts -- are there really any "experts" in the...
Hope for Iran
Americans who care about Iran had something to be grateful for this Thanksgiving: The State Department finally came out foursquare in support of the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who have been demonstrating for an end to their country's ruthless Islamic...
Venezuela’s Lonely Rebellion
Rebelling against tyranny is a lonely business these days. If the brave citizens of an oppressed country dare to resist evil, they can expect the rest of the supposedly civilized world to react with hostility or indifference. That's the case right now in Venezuela,...
Majority Leader Lott Must Go
On Thursday, December 5, 2002, Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these...
A Choice Future for Students
The big winners on Election Day weren't politicians. They were students. That's because many of the politicians who won -- Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Senator-elect James Talent of Missouri, to name just two -- are vocal supporters of school choice. Coming only a few...
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