Who’s to blame for the current meltdown of the financial sector, caused by the dependence of so many corporate balance sheets on defaulting home mortgages? Since the White house has been occupied by a Republican — and one with low approval ratings, at that — for the past eight years, many may be inclined to […]
Man, what a mess those jokers on Wall Street have gotten themselves into, hey? Now, I know it’s unseemly to gloat. On top of that, columnists are supposed to make like we share the suffering of the “little guy,” put on our Pierre Cardin suit pants one leg at a time, that kind of thing.
Huge financial institutions long screened from normal investor skepticism by the assurance that “They can’t fail, they’re federally regulated!” are dropping like dinosaurs in the snow. In this crisis of consumer confidence, the unreconstructed statists of academia and the Left Coast press finally see their main chance to advance socialism in America by another two […]
In recent days, the federal government has stepped in to bail out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while the Treasury Department took a contrasting decision to stand aside and let the Lehman Brothers investment bank seek bankruptcy protection. Another longtime Wall Street institution, Merrill Lynch, announced it will accept a discounted buyout from […]
The trouble that Democrats and other “progressives” face in selling their economic theories is that they don’t seem to really believe them, themselves. Yes, at the federal level, there’s hypocrisy on the topic from both major parties. But grown-ups should have questions when Democrats contend they can vastly expand the welfare state — free universal […]
It’s our own money. In their magnanimous generosity, our taxmasters in Washington allow Americans to set aside each year some small portion of our earnings in a “tax-free” retirement savings account, called either an IRA or a “401(k),” after the section of the law that sets the rules. And what rules they are. Apparently nothing […]
I’m a coin collector, in a small way. British issues of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, mostly: Pistrucci, the Wyons — apogee of the engraver’s art. To determine the market value of such coins, advanced collectors keep up to date on current auctions, stuff like that. But as a starting point, the standard […]
Proponents were full of assurances as they took their dog-and-wheelchair show around the country back in the late 1980s: The proposed Americans with Disabilities Act wouldn’t impose undue costs or hardships on businesses. It would simply require a few “reasonable accommodations.” Widen a doorway here, provide a wheelchair ramp there — there weren’t even likely […]
There appears to be a conscious attempt underway to shift the grounds of the current American political debate in preparation for this fall’s presidential campaign. Interestingly, this attempt to shift the goal lines (advancing the motionless Party of Big Government from their own 20 yard line to the other guy’s 20 by the simple expedient […]
There are precedents, though they’re weird. In some ancient cultures, we’re told it was customary to choose one or more citizens of the city and treat them as royalty for the period of one year. Freedom from labor, the best food and drink, a free hand with the temple prostitutes, whatever. Then — on some […]