TCS Daily : May 2007 Archives
'In What Way Am I a Criminal?'
Hardly a week goes by that I don't come into contact with an illegal immigrant somewhere in Washington, D.C. And this is by no means the area with the largest concentration of such immigrants in the United States. The...
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A Classical Liberal View of the Iraq War
Citing public opinion polls and Congress's vote to require a timetable for the United States to leave Iraq, conservative stalwart commentator William F. Buckley recently suggested that the very existence of the Republican Party is at state. This...
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Putting the Stain in Sustainable Development
In yet another act designed to engender outrage and disbelief among observers of the United Nations, the U.N. has allowed Zimbabwe to head the Commission on Sustainable Development. The U.N.'s acquiescence to Zimbabwe's bid shows just how dysfunctional the...
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How to Help Those Harmed by Trade
The dramatic expansion of trade over the last quarter of a century has raised America's standard of living. This doesn't mean everyone is better off, however. In the short run, some American workers have lost jobs. Media pundits like...
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The Dangerous Allure of Currency Unions
On observing the renewed interest in the supposed advantages of regional currency unions in both Asia and Latin America, one has to be reminded of Sir Dennis Robertson's view of fashion in economic ideas. He thought that fashion in...
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How Economists Lost Hayek, and Then Found Him
"It seems to me that this failure of the economists to guide policy more successfully is closely connected with their propensity to imitate as closely as possible the procedures of the brilliantly successful physical sciences - an attempt which...
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Kiwi Fruit for America
Once upon a time, in a country way, way down under, the government dismantled its system of agricultural subsidies and supports. Initially, cries of outrage and disbelief were heard from farmers all across the land. For more than 20...
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The Little Act That Could
"Give me Steam" -- Peter Gabriel "Medicaid waivers." Like "Deficit Reduction Act," it's a phrase that goes right near the top of the doze-o-meter. Combine the two and you've got the equivalent of literary Lunesta. But push the pillow...
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From Peer Review to Fear Review
For years, self-appointed "environmental advocates" have generated press releases claiming that "chemicals" in our air, water, food, and consumer products such as cosmetics pose a risk of cancer. Nearly twenty years ago, the Natural Resources Defense Council cause
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The Myth of Muslim Silence; The Persistence of MSM Silence
"Muslim silence" in the face of terrorism has become a predictable cliché in Western discourse. It is now widely believed by non-Muslims throughout the West that no representative of the faith of Muhammad will denounce violence against Jews, Christians,...
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Do No Harm to Ourselves
The February 26 edition of the Washington Post carried an editorial calling for punitive tariffs on Chinese goods. On February 27, the Chinese stock market fell 8.8% and other Asian markets followed suit. European markets also succumbed and then...
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Armed Diplomats? When State and Stability Operations Collide
Army Lieutenant General Douglas E. Lute has been nominated by President Bush to serve as "war tsar" with the unenviable task of coordinating "often disjointed military and civilian operations" for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Aside from the...
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It's OK If Ron Paul Is Right
Quixotic presidential candidate Ron Paul landed himself in a bit of hot water - make that a boiling cauldron - for remarks he made in last week's GOP debate suggesting that America's containment of Saddam Hussein led to 9/11....
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Trading the Devil We Know...
There has been lots of noise recently about a new agreement reached last Thursday between the White House and Congress over the substance of future trade legislation. The new agreement guarantees that the White House will attach conditions to...
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Fairly Caffeinated
"Kids need Fair Trade," ran the slogan of this month's World Fair Trade Day. And as you belly up to the coffee bar, images of whimsical and woeful waifs and thoughts of your own dear mother may lead you...
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The Irony of Barack Obama's Non-Energy Solution
In a speech last week before the Detroit Economics Club, Senator Barack Obama made the excellent point that, "Every single president since Richard Nixon has spoken in soaring rhetoric about the need to reduce America's energy dependence." Rather than...
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The Cruelty of Cowards
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty. -- Montaigne "The beheadings are still happening, but we have an order not to broadcast them. Everything is videotaped but we can't broadcast them. We do seek to capture and imprison American soldiers,...
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The Case for the World Bank
In the wake of the recent "scandal," existential questions are being asked about the World Bank. Desmond Lachman, in these pages, questions "the World Bank's continued relevance in today's global economy." Lachman ultimately thinks "the world still very much...
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Mr. Murdoch, Don't Buy It—Build It
Mr. Murdoch, the Bancroft family did a big favor for you last week. They refused to sell the Dow Jones Company to you for more than it's worth. Here's my advice: thank God, go home and then build the...
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A Colonel's War Against the Generals
The tagline on Lt. Col. Paul Yingling's important article at Armed Force Journal states: "ARMY LT. COL. PAUL YINGLING is deputy commander, 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment. He has served two tours in Iraq, another in Bosnia and a fourth...
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Prostitution Insurance
Once upon a time in America, an employer came up with an idea for saving on payroll expenses. He noticed that many of his employees seemed uncomfortable with the idea of paying for sex, even though they wanted it....
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Has France Bottomed Out? Probably Not
The problem is not Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president-elect. The problem is the country that elected him. Sarkozy knows what needs to be done to rescue France from the socialist illusion in which it has been living for far too...
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The Increasing Irrelevance of the World Bank
All the sound and fury concerning Paul Wolfowitz' troubled World Bank presidency is distracting attention from the deeper questions about the World Bank's continued relevance in today's global economy. What sense does it make for the World Bank to...
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Damned if They Do...
Wake me up the next time a journalist manages to churn out an interesting and/or fair article about Wal-Mart. The New Yorker's Jeffrey Goldberg tries—but fails badly—in his latest offering. Like much of the mainstream media (the New York...
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Futures Shock
Under the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates from 1947 to 1971, the free world was on a dollar standard where central banks were obligated to buy and sell dollars in the foreign exchange market to maintain the...
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The Coercion Herring
"What is really at stake in the argument over the moral foundations of the market, and therefore minimum wage laws, is what rights people have, how much weight they have, and what the proper aims of government are. It...
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Apocalypse Not
Four years ago the folks at NewsMax sent me a request to interview Robert Prechter, the author of Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression. I had just written a book called The Bush...
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The Euro's Day of Reckoning
The recent crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market has raised questions anew as to whether the US dollar's day of reckoning might not now be upon us. How will the US be able to finance its record external...
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Confessions of a Drug Killer
I'll just come out and say it. I'm a drug killer. I persuade companies to stop developing uneconomical new medicines. This is part of what my consulting company, Objective Insights, does to help pharmaceutical and biotech companies make good decisions...
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Debating the Meaning of the Debate
CARDIFF-BY-THE-SEA, CALIF. - It's hard to imagine a better setting to watch the first GOP presidential debate than here—other than, perhaps, the Reagan Library itself. Out the window, the ocean laps gently against the shore underneath a typically gorgeous...
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Who Likes Corruption?
Amidst all the salacious material emerging from the debate over whether World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz should stay or go, there is one curious and nagging point. Most of the coverage describes how Wolfowitz and his confidants have engaged...
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Barack Lieberman? Democratic Neocons
President John Kennedy once praised Winston Churchill's gift for rhetoric as the ability to "mobilize the English language and send it into battle" -- an ability that he too mastered to great effect. In a speech to the Chicago Council...
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What Healthcare and Higher Education Have in Common
Healthcare is notorious for runaway prices, which are due, in part, to this financing scheme: multiple payers. And these multiple payers have assured streams of revenue, which include: Employer-provided health insurance Health insurance purchased by the individual
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The Real Solution to Poverty
"In this report, our Task Force on Poverty calls for a national goal of cutting poverty in half in the next 10 years and proposes a strategy to reach the goal." -- Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty...
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Where Are the Anti-Communist Movies?
The new movie The Wind That Shakes the Barley, about the Irish struggle for independence in the early 1920s, has beautiful Irish cinematography and effectively shows us the poverty of Ireland, the commitment of the rebels, the conflicts inevitable...
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Another Supply-Side Revolution Is Needed
With health expenditures rising relative to GDP, most pundits and health economists believe that the U.S. health care system needs to be reformed. Those who favor reform can be separated into two groups. The first group believes that due to...
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The Political Economy of Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will soon release its 4th Assessment Report. This report will again warn that atmospheric temperatures are due to rise this century with harmful consequences for the planet's ecosystems. The IPCC will recommend t
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After Europe
Last August, Nicholas Sarkozy, the then-expected and now current French UMP presidential candidate, laid out his European Union policy on the commentary pages of the London-based Sunday Telegraph. As had been expected, Sarkozy fell short of backing the EU...
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