TCS Daily : July 2009 Archives
It's a New Bull Market
Let's call this what it is: A new bull market in stocks has emerged from the ashes of the financial meltdown and the deep recession that followed. And it's signaling the onset of economic recovery. Free-market capitalism is more durable,...
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Unsafe at Any Price
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is on a quixotic quest to allow foreign drugs into our pharmacies and clinics. However, anyone familiar with the issue is well aware that so-called "Canadian" drugs allowed under the "Vitter Amendment" can come from almost...
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The Return of the Tax-Shelter President
Investors aren't sheep; they're more like cheetahs. And there may be no species of investor more cheetah-like than the American investor. The latest case in point: municipal bonds. Munies are securities issued by state and local governments (and related entities)..
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The Return of the Tax-Shelter President
Investors aren't sheep; they're more like cheetahs. And there may be no species of investor more cheetah-like than the American investor. The latest case in point: municipal bonds. Munies are securities issued by state and local governments (and related entities)..
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ObamaCare: It's Not About Money
People have always quarreled about money, and sometimes these conflicts conceal a deep animosity. President Obama has made Health Care Reform a priority for his first year in office. His website promises that his program will "Reduce costs, guarantee choice,...
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Is Bernanke Wise Enough to Exit?
Fed head Ben Bernanke went before Congress this week with his midyear update on monetary policy and the economy. In so many words, the former Princeton economics professor is taking credit for averting the collapse of our financial system; is...
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The Consequences of Government Intrusion into Prices
Prices are set by billions of people constantly making trillions of decisions about what they need, what they can afford, and what is important to them, i.e. their values. But that's only how prices work in some pure, laissez-faire, free enterprise...
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Death Penalty Questions for Sotomayor
NOTE: Numbers in parentheses are pages and footnotes in the detailed paper downloadable here. The death penalty has received little attention in the Sotomayor debate. However, when a massive 707,000 homicides in 36 years (one every 27 minutes) result in...
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Banks Winning at Expense of Taxpayers
Banks surged and stocks followed yesterday, mostly on the heels of high expectations for trading firm Goldman Sachs, which really is more of a hedge fund than a real bank. Last Thursday, I said banks are my favorite stock market...
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Taiwan's Educational Gender Gap
A major problem facing Taiwan is that boys there do not perform nearly as well as girls in reading. As an educational researcher, I have been trying to understand why.Taiwanese students earn scores among the highest in the world in...
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Washington Needs to Help Businesses for a Change
Are the stock market and economy taking turns for the worse? Do we really need a new stimulus plan from Washington? Let's begin by rolling back the clock to last Thursday's June jobs report. It was not a good report....
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Avoiding Bad Drug-Trips
It's no secret that medicines can enhance the quality or length of life but may cause problems -- even life-threatening ones -- if they are misused. This was evident from the recommendations made last month by a group of medical experts that...
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Why Isn't America Hiring?
On July 1st we saw the release of two piece of important employment data: the Challenger, Gray & Christmas monthly survey of lay-offs and the Monster Employment Index which measures on-line want ads. The latter is an improvement over traditional...
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Financial Sunset in the West
Late last year, Joel Kotkin a fellow at Chapman University, warned about a political and economic sundown in California. With a failed vote on the state's budget, sunset seems to be quickly approaching. The state passed a budget in February...
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