August 12, 2003 -- A Minnesota court has just placed the interests of two species of birds and one of fish over considerations of shipping and flood control, which benefit human beings. Judge Paul Magnuson has ruled that to comply with the Endangered Species Act and to protect the habitats of those creatures the Army Corps of Engineers must lower the level of the Missouri River.
October 13, 2005 -- As many major public policy matters are being debated in Washington -- a Supreme Court nomination, runaway federal spending -- seemingly small erosions of our independence and, thus, our freedom continue with very little attention.
Sidebar article to The Credit Crisis and Moral Hazards Fall 2008 issue -- Starting with a mortgage, here is just one example of the shadow-banking system—a train of very widespread practices and credit derivatives. 1. Banks made loans to individuals who had no hope of repaying them from their own income. But it didn’t matter, because the loans were secured by mortgages on real-estate properties that were presumed to be increasing in value. The loans were made with affordable, low payments for a couple of years, after which the payments would reset to higher amounts. At that time, it was expected that the individual would refinance his mortgage based on higher property values and restart with another loan that had low payments. 2. Banks packaged these loans as assets, to secure bonds and similar financial instruments. The package included some good mortgage loans and some bad ones. Based on the percentage of expected defaults in the mix, the bonds could be rated AAA by private rating agencies, such as Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and Fitch, whose fees were paid by the same banks whose bonds they were rating.
November 26, 2003 -- Trying to promote freedom and reason in Washington, D.C. can be a bit depressing. Following the goings-on here in the capital through television, newspapers and the Internet can also be a downer. Thus we all have all the more reason to welcome the Thanksgiving holiday, which focuses our thoughts on the good things in life.
Sidebar article to "The Credit Crisis and Moral Hazards " Fall 2008 issue -- Here are some things that you can do to protect yourself and, incidentally, your business: See if you can learn whether your brokers and banks are in financial trouble. A number of sites on the internet identify and discuss troubled banks. Stay on top of the news about your brokers and banks. If you learn that one is in serious financial trouble, reduce your exposure to that bank right away. Understand that banks and brokers have different kinds of insurance to cover your accounts. Ask each of them about how your accounts are insured. Get their written material on the topic, and don’t rely upon verbal assurances. Be sure that you do not exceed FDIC / SIPC / NCUA and other insurance limits for your accounts. Many brokers carry additional insurance; learn about yours.
outburst that compared that facility to the Soviet gulag. In a diverse and open society there will be serious voices criticizing various government policies and there will be nutcases standing on the corner, ranting and raving that everyone is out to get them and to kill us all and so on incoherently. We engage in reasoned discussion with the former because we assume that our exchanges of words are attempts to discover the truth. We perhaps look with pity on the latter if we think their tirades come from mental illness or with undisguised contempt if they're neo-Nazis, human-hating environmental extremists, followers of Lyndon LaRouche or other such self-made deluded creeps.
May 19, 2004 -- One should wait to see a film before reviewing it but one certainly can comment on the director's stated motivations and the audience response without knowing every camera angle or line of dialogue. Indicative of the sorry state of Old Europe's ethical infrastructure is "The Edukators," directed by Austrian-born Hans Weingartner. It is reported that in this movie three "idealistic" youths break into the homes of the rich not to steal their property but to rearrange the furniture and leave notes saying, "You have too much money." We're used to the leftist Europeans and their American cousins peddling class conflict. But the reception received by this film underscores the nature of their moral meltdown.
June 3, 2003 -- In her novel Anthem, Ayn Rand portrays a primitive, degenerate collectivist society in which all forms of innovation are viewed with suspicion. It took 50 years for the masters of this world to approve that radical invention: the candle. The spiritual brothers of those tyrants have accomplished almost the same feat here in Washington.
January 17, 2004 -- Our reactions to President George W. Bush’s plan to return to the Moon and eventually go on to Mars might start with a reference to Ayn Rand ’s essay on “Apollo 11.” In it she related her thoughts about the launch and landing of the first manned mission to the lunar surface. She described the experience of visiting the Kennedy Space Center to witness the take-off of the huge Saturn V rocket, of seeing it ride a trail of flames into the sky and hearing and feeling the roar of its engines.
March 19, 2004 -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry hit a small bump in what he hopes will be his road to the White House. He recently said on the American Urban Radio Network that, "President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second." But rather than receiving praise from the people to whom he was pandering, he was criticized, with some black leaders demanding an apology.
January 26, 2006 -- BB&T, a major bank with branches through the Southeast, has taken a stand for private property and individual rights....
On August 25, 1609 Galileo first demonstrated the telescope to Venetian officials and then proceeded to point it at the night skies in order
October 19, 2009 -- Ask the Norwegians who pick the Nobel Peace Prize recipient this question: “Which part of Europe are you from? The part
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has staffed-up in anticipation of hundreds of bank failures. Major investment banks are on
August 28, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty seemed silent and secretive about acting in the self-interest of his own children. As
March 18, 2005 -- Last week Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman, expressed concern that the four men who gang raped her nearly three years ago
One would think that the invention of a new device that could keep patients with serious heart problems alive would be a cause for....
Understanding evolution has helped us satisfy that quintessential human longing expressed by Aristotle: “All men, by nature, desire to....
James Cameron’s new film Avatar is loaded with fresh, eye-popping special effects, all in a new, cutting-edge 3-D that sets the standard....
I first visited West Berlin in June 1981. I took the closed American military train through the 112-mile-long corridor through....
August 12, 2003 -- A Minnesota court has just placed the interests of two species of birds and one of fish over considerations of shipping and flood control, which benefit human beings. Judge Paul Magnuson has ruled that to comply with the Endangered Species Act and to protect the habitats of those creatures the Army Corps of Engineers must lower the level of the Missouri River.
October 13, 2005 -- As many major public policy matters are being debated in Washington -- a Supreme Court nomination, runaway federal spending -- seemingly small erosions of our independence and, thus, our freedom continue with very little attention.
Sidebar article to The Credit Crisis and Moral Hazards Fall 2008 issue -- Starting with a mortgage, here is just one example of the shadow-banking system—a train of very widespread practices and credit derivatives. 1. Banks made loans to individuals who had no hope of repaying them from their own income. But it didn’t matter, because the loans were secured by mortgages on real-estate properties that were presumed to be increasing in value. The loans were made with affordable, low payments for a couple of years, after which the payments would reset to higher amounts. At that time, it was expected that the individual would refinance his mortgage based on higher property values and restart with another loan that had low payments. 2. Banks packaged these loans as assets, to secure bonds and similar financial instruments. The package included some good mortgage loans and some bad ones. Based on the percentage of expected defaults in the mix, the bonds could be rated AAA by private rating agencies, such as Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and Fitch, whose fees were paid by the same banks whose bonds they were rating.
November 26, 2003 -- Trying to promote freedom and reason in Washington, D.C. can be a bit depressing. Following the goings-on here in the capital through television, newspapers and the Internet can also be a downer. Thus we all have all the more reason to welcome the Thanksgiving holiday, which focuses our thoughts on the good things in life.
Sidebar article to "The Credit Crisis and Moral Hazards " Fall 2008 issue -- Here are some things that you can do to protect yourself and, incidentally, your business: See if you can learn whether your brokers and banks are in financial trouble. A number of sites on the internet identify and discuss troubled banks. Stay on top of the news about your brokers and banks. If you learn that one is in serious financial trouble, reduce your exposure to that bank right away. Understand that banks and brokers have different kinds of insurance to cover your accounts. Ask each of them about how your accounts are insured. Get their written material on the topic, and don’t rely upon verbal assurances. Be sure that you do not exceed FDIC / SIPC / NCUA and other insurance limits for your accounts. Many brokers carry additional insurance; learn about yours.
outburst that compared that facility to the Soviet gulag. In a diverse and open society there will be serious voices criticizing various government policies and there will be nutcases standing on the corner, ranting and raving that everyone is out to get them and to kill us all and so on incoherently. We engage in reasoned discussion with the former because we assume that our exchanges of words are attempts to discover the truth. We perhaps look with pity on the latter if we think their tirades come from mental illness or with undisguised contempt if they're neo-Nazis, human-hating environmental extremists, followers of Lyndon LaRouche or other such self-made deluded creeps.
May 19, 2004 -- One should wait to see a film before reviewing it but one certainly can comment on the director's stated motivations and the audience response without knowing every camera angle or line of dialogue. Indicative of the sorry state of Old Europe's ethical infrastructure is "The Edukators," directed by Austrian-born Hans Weingartner. It is reported that in this movie three "idealistic" youths break into the homes of the rich not to steal their property but to rearrange the furniture and leave notes saying, "You have too much money." We're used to the leftist Europeans and their American cousins peddling class conflict. But the reception received by this film underscores the nature of their moral meltdown.
June 3, 2003 -- In her novel Anthem, Ayn Rand portrays a primitive, degenerate collectivist society in which all forms of innovation are viewed with suspicion. It took 50 years for the masters of this world to approve that radical invention: the candle. The spiritual brothers of those tyrants have accomplished almost the same feat here in Washington.
January 17, 2004 -- Our reactions to President George W. Bush’s plan to return to the Moon and eventually go on to Mars might start with a reference to Ayn Rand ’s essay on “Apollo 11.” In it she related her thoughts about the launch and landing of the first manned mission to the lunar surface. She described the experience of visiting the Kennedy Space Center to witness the take-off of the huge Saturn V rocket, of seeing it ride a trail of flames into the sky and hearing and feeling the roar of its engines.
March 19, 2004 -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry hit a small bump in what he hopes will be his road to the White House. He recently said on the American Urban Radio Network that, "President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second." But rather than receiving praise from the people to whom he was pandering, he was criticized, with some black leaders demanding an apology.
January 26, 2006 -- BB&T, a major bank with branches through the Southeast, has taken a stand for private property and individual rights....
On August 25, 1609 Galileo first demonstrated the telescope to Venetian officials and then proceeded to point it at the night skies in order
October 19, 2009 -- Ask the Norwegians who pick the Nobel Peace Prize recipient this question: “Which part of Europe are you from? The part
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has staffed-up in anticipation of hundreds of bank failures. Major investment banks are on
August 28, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty seemed silent and secretive about acting in the self-interest of his own children. As
March 18, 2005 -- Last week Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman, expressed concern that the four men who gang raped her nearly three years ago
One would think that the invention of a new device that could keep patients with serious heart problems alive would be a cause for....
Understanding evolution has helped us satisfy that quintessential human longing expressed by Aristotle: “All men, by nature, desire to....
James Cameron’s new film Avatar is loaded with fresh, eye-popping special effects, all in a new, cutting-edge 3-D that sets the standard....
I first visited West Berlin in June 1981. I took the closed American military train through the 112-mile-long corridor through....