When I was young, before everything was made from synthetics, we heard stories; stories about undomesticated tires living in the woods near the highway. We had seen them ourselves resting in muddy sties and dangling like monkeys in trees. According to legend, rubber is alive. As old cars roll down the road they deposit...
Read more »
Of the $1.25 trillion purchased under the Fed’s “Mortgage-Backed Securities Purchase Program,†only $877 billion in purchases have been publicized. What happened to the remaining $400 billion?
Read more »
If the goal is to stimulate the economy, the means are already known: Freedom and cheap energy.
Read more »
I’ve, step-by-step, been explaining the history and character of the high level logic problem and the solution being developed in the HLL Open-Source Project. More than once, I’ve mentioned the enormous advantages of modern computer languages over what was available twenty-five years ago when the first few of my brain-cells became stimulated by the...
Read more »
December 15 is Bill of Rights Day. This year is the 219th anniversary of the adoption of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitutionâ€â€the Bill of Rights. Few Americans notice Bill of Rights Day. That isn’t surprising, since we have done such a poor job of upholding and abiding by its provisions....
Read more »
I am bombarded by conflicting reports of the 2010 weather. On the one hand it is said to have been a cold year, with record colds in many places. On the other hand, the IPCC is predicting that 2010 will be one of the three hottest years of all time. (Here also) And on...
Read more »
It could be Bill Clinton (1994) all over again. Barack Obama’s move should not only help the economy dramatically, and spare taxpayers more ludicrous levels of obscene taxation to bail out a profligate federal government, but, in the end, it could save his presidency.
Read more »
In the neoconservative vision, a constant state of alarm must be fostered among the people to keep them focused on something greater than themselves-- namely their great protector, the state.
Read more »
The Japanese government has kept unprofitably invested capital in place with fiscal and monetary stimulus as well as central bank policy that continues to keep bad debt frozen on the books of zombie banks.
Read more »
Last week, having written that the governor of Texas wanted to invade Mexico militarily, I was multiply told that I was crazy. I am, but what has that got to do with it? The Washington Post wants to invade Mexico. I didn’t believe Bob, I’ll call him, a crazy friend from other times. He...
Read more »
Regular readers of this column already know that Vitamin D, which functions more as a hormone than a vitamin, has been linked to multiple potential health benefits. These include a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, improved strength and balance in older men and women, and a decreased risk of certain cancers. In a newly...
Read more »
Last May I wrote a column asking if you should “sell in May and stay away.” I suggested it would be better simply to “rebalance in May and call it a day.” Looking backward it wasn’t bad advice. Looking forward, I suggest saving and investing significantly between now and next May. The original saying...
Read more »
We have encouraged many to believe that going into debt to “get and education†would solve their economic problems for life; actually it has reduced much of the coming middle class to eternal bondage. That is very much worth worrying about.
Read more »
America needs a Lincoln, not another committee of Fillmores.
Read more »
The principle cause of poverty in the U.S. is absent fathers. Fathers in households build the self-esteem of children, pulling them out of the cycle of poverty.
Read more »
Tragically, the Fed appears to have learned little from its mistakes. Its current policy of “quantitative easing†continues its long tradition of creating bubbles by deliberately implementing inflationary policies.
Read more »
North Korea is not an easy issue. I’ve dealt with it since the early 1990s, beginning at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. I had few answers then, and I still have few today. It also is not a partisan issue. For over 60 years, Democrat and Republican presidents alike have suffered the...
Read more »
“I have to cut through the mask even if it’s self-created.‖John Lennon It should come as no surprise that when the appeal of traditional religion began to fade, mass entertainment rushed into the vacuum. In fact, pop culture and the temporal values of entertainment effectively compete with those of religion to such an extent...
Read more »
As of November 7th, the total U.S. public debt outstanding reached an astonishing $13.7 trillion. This means that although Congress just raised the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion back in February, the new Congress will face another debt ceiling vote almost immediately next year. Otherwise, the Treasury will not be able to continue issuing...
Read more »
The growing revolt against invasive TSA practices is encouraging to Americans who are fed up with federal government encroachment in their lives. In the case of air travelers, this encroachment is quite literally physical. But a deep-seated libertarian impulse still exists within the American people, and opposition to the new TSA full body scanner...
Read more »