POLITICS

Basically, the tax system is designed to punish success. Work harder than the next guy, innovate, invest wisely, or get lucky--and the government will put the squeeze on you. Almost every argument made by liberals against tax cuts, it seems, comes down to a familiar...

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based institution with 29 member nations from the industrialized world, has launched a project seeking the elimination of "harmful tax competition."In a report titled "Towards Global Tax...

Imagine a world in which you're forbidden to spend your own money to obtain medical care. Imagine that, regardless of your personal needs, you're forced to rely on the government for health care, no matter how long it takes or how substandard it may be. A far-fetched...

A cloud is hanging over this year's Christmas season: the cloud of recession. You can see it in weak Christmas shopping sales and the desperate deals being offered by car makers. You can see it in the words of a shopper interviewed on television, who explained her...

So who are these cads, this "wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers," anyway? We heard a lot about this select group of villains in the presidential debates. Indeed, certain politicians almost seem to hold their noses, their voices dripping with disdain, as they deplore...

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a member of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, has led his country to the brink of implosion. His policies flout freedom and the rule of law and have ruined a once-healthy economy. Washington should urge Mugabe to...

President-elect George W. Bush is being advised by his political foes to abandon tax cuts. This step, they tell him, is the only way to heal the wounds caused by weeks of legal wrangling and partisan rhetoric. Yet abandoning tax cuts would be a big mistake, both...

Democrats have no constituency more loyal than black Americans. Much of that loyalty is delivered by black elected officials, civil-rights organizations and church leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. During the last election, these people did a yeoman's job...

It used to be a raging debate in psychology: Are human beings primarily determined by physiology -- or by other factors such as environment, family, thinking habits, etc.? Today, such a debate is nearly non-existent. Instead of looking for the role of...

This past week, Russian president Vladimir Putin visited communist Cuba on a diplomatic visit to that tropical paradise, that CNN commentators love to gush about, Cuba. [Now if only CNN would only move there permanently!]Many have questioned the purpose of the trip,...

"Buy the stock - it's a good company." This oft-repeated platitude is one that's very popular on Wall Street, but it's also one that I'm sick of hearing it because it's not necessarily a useful guide for investors. A major study by Michelle Clayman, entitled "In...

Given the inevitable liberal attack on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that settles the election contest, it is important to be clear about what the Supreme Court did and who is ultimately responsible for its ruling. There are many pernicious lines of attack, but I...

While the election crisis was still upon us, I hated it as much as anyone else. As a columnist, I probably hated it more. How do you write about politics when the news reverses direction every two hours? But now that it's all over, I'm getting downright nostalgic...

Q: There's a new corporate term in use lately -- "emotional intelligence." People are even being tested for their "emotional intelligence" levels. Is there any value in this? A: The very concept of "emotional intelligence" is preposterous. Your intelligence does not...

If you live in Albuquerque, N.M., and you have teen-agers who might be inclined to raid your wine, beer or whiskey cupboard while you are away, rent your housing, don't buy. The city council has recently passed a law [September 2000] that lets the city seize your home...

One of my favorite bands, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recently penned an ode to "Californication." The term refers to the spread of the Golden State's worst attributes: smog, strip malls, drive-bys, and celebrity worship. "It's understood that Hollywood sells...