November 18, 2022

What the heck is going on in Arizona?

What is going on in the governor's race in Arizona?  The media have called it for Katie Hobbs, after the Nov. 14 Monday night "drop," supposedly raising the total counted to 99% of the expected final total.  Accordin...

May 26, 2022

Is the COVID Pandemic about to Get Ugly?

For a pandemic to be brought under control, a sufficient part of the population needs to acquire sterilizing immunity so that transmission among individuals can be minimized and herd immunity of the whole population can be achieved.  COVID ...

May 24, 2017

Let’s admit: Manchester is the 'new normal'

Could a TV scriptwriter make up a more obvious jihadist than the Manchester bomber, Salman Abedi?  According to my reading of a Daily Mail article, this guy was so off the charts and stereotypically bad that it probably took more effort to keep ...

January 19, 2017

Praise of Trump from an emerging market

With all the negative headlines about Donald Trump in international news outlets, especially owing to reports of a pending "Muslim ban," it is noteworthy that a high-ranking member of the Indonesian cabinet has just written favorably of Tru...

November 28, 2016

The Monster Who Tried to Destroy Melissa Francis

Melissa Francis of Fox Business grew up a free-market conservative in Los Angeles.  As told in her 2012 book Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter, her engineer father tucked her into bed the night the family gathered to watch her first appeara...

September 15, 2016

Questions for Hillary's doctor

Having followed Hillary Clinton's career, and now having read the September 14 statement of Lisa Bardack, M.D. about Ms. Clinton's condition, I have questions for the doctor. What is the cause of Ms. Clinton's coughing fits? What me...

September 12, 2016

Hillary Didn’t Stumble -- She Could Not Stand (updated -new video)

A careful viewing of the 9/11 ceremony video shows that Hillary did not stumble, as media reports claim. In the first few seconds, Hillary is being propped up in a standing position. She could not stand on her own. An aide is standing to the candi...

May 31, 2016

Eighties America Through the Eyes of KGB Deep Cover Agents: The Americans

Joe Weisberg, creator of the TV series “The Americans,” (Wednesdays, 10 PM on the FX Network – current and previous seasons available on Amazon and iTunes Store) worked at one time for the CIA.  He became interested in the subj...

April 26, 2016

The System Is Not Rigged

For the past month, a media narrative has taken hold that something must be done to reform, simplify, streamline, and democratize the delegate selection system of the Republican presidential nomination process. Is our GOP presidential primary syst...

February 28, 2016

Let’s Make Trump Great Again

Trump says he admires America, but if you listen closely, you realize he admires Trump. He will build a big, beautiful wall only he can build, and with a big beautiful door through which immigrants can enter -- after he deports them. That way, the...

April 13, 2015

15 years of lousy GDP growth

Since 2000, our GDP has averaged 1.9% growth.  By contrast, the similar period starting in 1930 and ending in 1944 had a 5.6% rate of growth, and the 15-year period starting in 1970 achieved 3.0% average growth. The U.S. is in a prolonged eco...

June 26, 2014

Since 2000, Too Weak to Sustain 4% Growth

Over the past three generations, the average annual GDP growth rate has been about 3.4%.  That includes the Great Depression, recessions, and recoveries.  When our economy has been in a recovery mode, we have seen growth of at least 4.0% le...

May 24, 2012

Corruption Charges Leveled at Dartmouth College Trustees

The Trustees of Dartmouth College have been accused of corruption by a whistle-blower group of college insiders.  The charge is a failure to supervise themselves and the endowment investment committee while they have taken close to $100 million ...

March 20, 2012

The President's Great Gas Price Spike Media Blitz

The high price of gasoline is a tax on the economy, and higher prices this summer could very likely damage the President's re-election chances.  But the portrayal we have seen over the past week of an embattled President besieged by Republicans ...

March 13, 2012

Worse than the Depression

You hear it said that this is the worst US economy since the Great Depression.  I went back to the history books to look up the numbers.  It turns out that the current doldrums are actually worse in an important sense: sustainable 3.5% GDP ...

March 12, 2012

A Closer Look at Today's Polling Results on Gas Prices

The Washington Post and ABC have published the results of a new Presidential approval poll, as part of a long-term tracking study.  The headlines in the WaPo, ABC News and Fox News alike announce that high gas prices are the reason for the weakn...

January 30, 2012

Is the National Electorate to the Right of Republicans on National Security?

The pollsters Pat Caddell and John McLaughlin unveiled some startling national poll numbers recently, at David Horowitz's November 2011 Restoration Weekend (video presentation here). The gist of the research is that Obama is very vulnerable on foreig...

September 24, 2011

Taking Stock of Our GDP Performance

Stock market declines are one thing, but economic growth is fundamental to our society.  Gross domestic product, the most widely used measurement, is the basic underlying factor governing employment, housing, consumption, private pension plans, ...

August 22, 2011

Princeton's Unobservable Assets

As an amateur investor, I follow with amazement the major university endowments, and how many of our ancient institutions jumped on the "Yale model" bandwagon about 10 years ago.  This model calls for an emphasis on "alternative investments," me...

April 17, 2011

Questions for Candidate Trump

James Travis's recent AT article about Donald Trump captures perfectly the appeal of the star of The Apprentice.  I agree that brains, judgment, experience, tact, compassion and the sense of how to convey authority are all genuinely on display S...