TCS Daily : February 2008 Archives
A California Case Study in Liberal Fascism
If there's any place in the United States—or the world, for that matter—more opposed to right-wing fascism than my hometown of Berkeley, California, I sure have never heard of it. The epicenter of 60's-era counter-culturalism, Berkeley is renowned for...
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Splinter States
"Building states in pre-colonial Africa was exceptionally arduous. Imposing taxes or duties on reluctant subjects was hard anywhere. But, where rebelling meant no more than walking away to found a splinter community..." --John Darwin, After Tamerlane, p. 314 (Recen
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McCain-Lieberman?
The sweepstakes for who John McCain's Vice-Presidential running mate will be are already booting up. It is an important choice. The days are long gone since John Nance Garner (D-TX), one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Vice Presidents, said that...
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National Enquirer-N.Y. Times Merger "Dead"
(SATIRENEWSSERVICE). American Media Corporation (AMC), publisher of The National Enquirer, today revealed that its Board had voted to terminate the company's agreement to acquire the New York Times. "Because of recent actions by the Times, we no longer believe...
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STAGFLATION AND THE GREENSPAN-BERNANKE BUSINESS CYCLE
Bangkok, Thailand In the wake of a global investment boom driven by cheap credit, a central-bank-induced crisis marks the beginning of the liquidation phase of the current business cycle. Unlike the past two business cycles, the current one involves rising...
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No Longer Choosing Choice
In a new City Journal essay, prominent school voucher advocate Sol Stern declares that competition and choice "may not be a panacea," and recommends that choice supporters shift emphasis to standardizing the curriculum.He's not alone.Conservatives have long champio
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Kosovo's Independence Daze
Kosovo's leaders -- along with their European andAmerican supporters -- should not forget the lesson behind the tragedy thatled to the Serbian province's declaration of independence this week. Thatlesson has much more to do with the horrors of nationalism as...
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Private Equity: An Unlikely Resource for Public Companies in Slow Economies
Economists are hotly debating the extent to which the U.S. economy is headed toward recession, as the data are currently mixed. What is indisputable, however, is that the global economy has entered a period of considerable challenge. Slowed by...
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Time for Mugabe to Go
Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. Then he was widely recognized as a champion of a new independent Africa. Now he rightly is seen as a repressive old man desperate to hold...
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Advice for Consent
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly decided ten days ago to extend the Department of Justice consent decree of 2002 for another 18 months. The judge was responding to a group of states led by California and New York which...
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Consumed by Myths
Stimulus. Every politician and every pundit has a plan to "stimulate" the economy. Yet very few seem to understand that consumption is not the driver of economic growth. Rather this notion is a relic of old Keynesian thinking and...
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Myths of Oil Independence
A friend recently passed on a chain letter urging independence from Middle Eastern oil. It's a seductive idea. Here's the gist: "Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia.Just...
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Adrift on the Right
The 2008 American presidential campaign has brought into the open a dramatic soul-searching among conservatives desperate to find a leader and, more importantly, an ideological identity.A movement that pins its hopes on three different leaders successively in the c
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Free Lunch Money
"Stimulus: something that incites or rouses to action; an incentive." Last week Congress approved a $168 billion economic stimulus package to help our slowing economy. One hundred and sixty-eight BILLION dollars -- a staggering amount to most of us, but...
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That's the Ticket
It has become quite apparent the Sen. John McCain will be the Republican candidate for President in 2008. I came to know McCain in 2000 while touring New Hampshire with him for several days on the "Straight Talk Express"...
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Conventional Wisdom Wrong Again... and Again and Again
If the 2008 primary season has taught us anything, it's that the conventional wisdom is not to be trusted. Take, for example, the adage that money is the lifeblood of politics. Not this year. Just look at the Republican...
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Defining Developed
SANTIAGO, Chile -- It might be argued that a country ceases to be underdeveloped when its citizens shift their anger from other people's wealth to the quality of the services their own wealth is paying for. Chile is perhaps the...
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Mandates for Change
"The way most goods and services become excellent -- I mean really excellent -- is through competition...How do you think we got from subsistence agriculture to super-cheap food? By mandates?" --Tyler Cowen In November, the United States may take its...
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Polar Opposites
Have you ever wondered how polar bears survived the ice ages? Yes, ice ages! The question arises because scientists have found that when spring conditions are more than usually icy, fewer ringed seal pups—the bears' favorite food—are born. With...
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When Peer Review Fails, Where Do We Turn?
Those of us who regularly seek out information about scientific and medical subjects have learned that there's a hierarchy of reliability: the "facts" in a random blog or a New York Times' news article are on average less trustworthy than,...
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The Humility Factor
One of my former students is in Egypt on an archaeology project, and we have kept in touch by email. After I gave him my rundown on the political situation, he wrote back saying that it sounded as though I...
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Stimulating Thoughts
Congress and the White House, Democrats and Republicans finally agree on something. We need a stimulus package, they intone. The economy is stagnating, unemployment is climbing, families can't pay their bills. We have to prime the pump, reduce interest rates,...
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China Syndrome
Two recent books strongly advise the U.S. investor to bet part of his/her portfolio on the continuing development of China. Co-author of From Wall Street to the Great Wall: How Investors Can Profit from China's Booming Economy, is Burton...
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Third World's Realities
Will Tata Motors' Nano be the Third World's Model T Ford? Sixteen million Ts were produced during its 20-year lifespan from 1908 through 1927. It initially sold for $850, about $15,000 in today's dollars. By 1915, due to the advantages...
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The Joys of Winter
This January I've had the luxury of previewing retirement. It was not, however, what I hoped for, no skiing or even driving off our place. Being allergic to TV, I spent time reading, writing, and listening to more NPR than...
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Who Gets Stuck with North Korea?
Is the regime in North Korea about to collapse? Betting on the demise of Kim Jong-Il's reign is a wager frequently made, but yet to pay off. A recent country report from Jane's Information Group speculates on a collapse...
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The Benefits of Hegemony
"He carried a golden paiza just as his father and uncle had done on their journeys on behalf of the Mongol empire. This object was a foot long and three inches across...Possessing it meant that Marco was designated as a...
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Everything Old Is New Again (So Let's Get It Right This Time)
Arguments over net neutrality and other issues of access to telecom facilities roil the FCC and the press; the European Union is after Microsoft (again) and other U.S. companies; railroads and shippers are at their usual loggerheads; several firms...
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Our Pakistan Problem
Speaking recently at the University of North Florida, former CENTCOM commander General John Abizaid offered an interesting insight about the dangers faced by the United States, saying that what kept him up at night during his tenure as the...
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No Free Market, No Free market Results
In a new City Journal essay, prominent school voucher advocate Sol Stern declares that competition and choice "may not be a panacea," and recommends that choice supporters shift emphasis to standardizing the curriculum. He's not alone.Conservatives have long champi
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Bernanke Also to Blame
As the United States' worst housing market bust since the Great Depression raises the specter of a nasty recession, a serious reappraisal of Alan Greenspan's 17-year chairmanship of the Federal Reserve is underway. Justified as this reappraisal might be, it...
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Reform Lessons for the United States
The old expression "all politics is local" may be quite true for the American political debate, except for the fears of terrorism and of losing jobs to China and India. But there would be very good reason for US policymakers...
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