"My message is as follows: stocks stink and will continue to do so until they're priced appropriately, probably somewhere around Dow 5000, S&P 650, or Nasdaq God knows where." That's what Bill Gross, the usually mild-mannered managing director of Pacific...
POLITICS
The Real Accounting Problem in America
Is it me, or have recent business stories begun to resemble episodes of VH-1's "Behind the Music"? Think about it: Executives cook the books and make millions. They live fast and high on the company dime, buying items such as $6,000 shower curtains and African...
Dangerous Restraint
President George W. Bush's speech on Iraq in effect reiterated what Edmund Burke said more than two centuries ago: "There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men." Today, in a nuclear age, those words apply more strongly than...
Congressman Jim McDermott: Saddam Hussein’s Useful Idiot in the U.S. Congress
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, post-Sept. 11, held up a New York Post headline, "Bush Knew." "Bush knew," said Sen. Clinton. "The president knew what?" Then Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., on a radio talk show, insisted that Bush not only knew, but...
The Case for Action Against Iraq
There is no honest question that Saddam is evil. Saddam is a dictator in the classic Stalinist model and Iraq is the antithesis of a free republic. Rather than make reason, persuasion and individual freedom the hallmark of its regime, Iraq relies upon the systematic...
Would-Be Intellectual Vandals Get Their Day in the Supreme Court
In 1998 Congress, pursuant to its Constitutional power to determine the duration of federal copyright protection, passed a law extending the term of that protection by 20 years. This law brought United States copyright protection in line with that already afforded in...
The Rise of Religious Radio
NPR liberals are horrified. Across the country, thousands of radio listeners are tuning out conservative-basher Nina Totenberg, and tuning in conservative heroine Phyllis Schlafly. The growing Christian radio audience is bidding "adieu" to "Morning Edition" and saying...
Permission to Speak: The End of Free Speech
Two recent events show the real meaning of two popular ideas: "hate speech" regulations and campaign finance controls. The real meaning of both is the end of free speech. The first story comes from Canada, where "hate speech" laws are already on the books. Last week,...
Solar Power Statists: Blinded by the Light
For the past week, the National Mall in Washington has been host to the Department of Energy's "Solar Decathlon," a collegiate competition and demonstration project to build a 500 square foot home powered only by the sun. Despite generous government and corporate...
A Spring-loaded Bull Market
U.S. corporate profits rose 56% in the first half of 2002, yet stock prices have plunged. The problem is not corporate governance, it's political governance Contrary to popular opinion, most of America's CEOs are doing a fabulous job. On the heels of a 50% profit...
Race and IQ
Years ago, while doing research on education and IQ, I happened to be in the principal's office at a black school in Cincinnati, as he was preparing to open a large brown envelope containing the results of IQ tests that his students had taken. Before he opened the...
Read Our Lips: No Tax Increase
At a time when more than 8 million Americans are unemployed, business investment has stalled and the recovery is still tentative, Congress is considering a tax hike. Even more surprising, the misguided proposal is sponsored by Republican Rep. Bill Thomas of...
Apply the Bush Doctrine to Saudi Arabia
Recent intelligence reports indicate that our desultory efforts abroad so far--and our fortress "homeland defense" mentality--will fail to prevent further horrendous attacks on the US. We're losing because Bush has defaulted on the "Bush Doctrine"--the idea that...
How Today Show’s Matt Lauer Patronized Charlton Heston
Is it me, or does "Today Show's" Matt Lauer condescendingly give Republicans/conservatives the old "look-me-in-the-eye" treatment when asking questions? In an interview with President George W. Bush, for example, Lauer questioned the president about the environment....
The Republicans Impotence and the Future of Our Freedom
According to an article in the Washington Post, the Bush administration has decided to distance itself from the term "privatization" at the request of the National Republican Congressional Committee, claming the word never accurately reflected the White House's views....
Can’t Pin Fiscal Woes on W.
Facts often are the first casualty of any political battle, and never more so than during an election year. But sometimes the debate shifts from routine exaggeration and distortion and becomes flagrantly misleading. As with Al Gore's recent fusillade, including his...
Terrorism: The Second-Biggest Threat to America
Throughout the "war on terrorism," we have all heard our nation's leaders pay extensive lip service to "protecting America." But if "America" is just a collection of people on a slab of land somewhere, then there's no significant difference between the United States...
Investing: One to Grow On
Now in his 12th year, Will Danoff is running Fidelity Contrafund, and, as usual, he is running it brilliantly. In 1996, I conducted one of those exercises to which idle minds are often prone, attempting to find the best core mutual fund - that is, a fund that could be...
Guns for Rapists, But Not For Potential Victims
A picture on the front of The Boston Globe's metro section last month showed a group of women waiting to apply for firearm identification cards at the District 14 police station in Brighton. They were in a line, the accompanying story noted, that stretched the length...
Hollywood Actors: False American Idols
The singer. The actor. The empty vessel. Many pundits believe celebrities are frivolously easy targets unworthy of our scorn. They must realize, however, that a single voice of a celebrity reaches more common Americans than a busload of think tank intellectuals. The...
Bilingual Education’s Voluminous Failure
If I were a Hispanic American, I would feel humiliated every time an automated telephone-answering system prompted me to press 1 for English, or 2 for Spanish. I would wince every time an ATM machine invited me to conduct my transaction en Espanol. It would mortify me...
Mad Dogs of War
My dog Clancy was an oversized Irish Setter with a blockhead and big paws and strong jaws who our son had rescued from the Humane Society after his friend's mom got rid of him because he had, as they say, some issues. One of Clancy's issues was that he had crashed...
Open Source Socialism
At a recent Stanford University lecture, open source proselytizer Bruce Perens encouraged students to get involved in the open source political movement. A few folks were enthused, but many seemed confused by how a method of software production and distribution can...
Iowa Electronic Markets: Vote Early and Often
In the good old bad old days of corrupt Chicago politics, the voters were urged by city bosses to "vote early and often." Now that's exactly what you can do -- and you might even make some money at the same time. If nothing else, you'll be participating in an...
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