Kids, Don’t Go to College

“Kids, don’t go to college.”

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?  But the question “Is college for everybody?” keeps popping up for a variety of reasons.  I hear it a lot lately due to the wacky left-wing politicization of your average … Read More

Debt Limit Fight, Back to First Principles

My friend Neil Cavuto of Fox News had me as a guest on his show recently to talk about the fight over the government ‘shutdown’. I decided that at times of crisis, it’s essential to go back to first principles, … Read More

Is There a Biblical Fed Policy?

My friend Crane Durham, host of the nationally syndicated radio show Nothing but Truth, surprised me with a question recently. “Is there a Biblical approach to Fed, that is monetary, policy?” Here’s how I answered:

Crane: “This may sound … Read More

The Most Important Character Trait You Need in a Fed Chairman

We now know that Obama has nominated Janet Yellen, Fed Vice Chair, to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Fed. A recent radio discussion I had on American Family Radio about the recent decision of the Fed not … Read More

The Bubble vs. the Baby: How the Student Debt Bubble is Crushing Fertility

Debates over whether or not there is an “education bubble” — including  whether or not student debt is, at this point, a net good or a net bad — have become almost commonplace. We also see a lot of … Read More

Cavuto and Bowyer on Syria and Markets

Earlier this week, my friend Neil Cavuto had me as a guest on his show, the aptly named Cavuto on Fox Business News.  At the time the US was still considering an airstrike against Syria. I’m grateful that I … Read More

Syria Strike and Stability: Why Global Markets Are Right to Be Concerned

Yes, there’s lots of domestic angles, from debt ceiling to the new Fed chairman. Yes, Obama would spend political capital in striking Syria which would leave him less able to resolve the debt ceiling issue legislatively. Yes, a Syria strike … Read More

Australian Election Pops the Green Bubble

As the media tries its best to deny the signals which have come through the channel of the Australian election, it will increasingly emphasize the degree to which the liberals were torn apart by personality differences. But ultimately the intra-party … Read More

Lessons from Israel on How to Bring Back the Vital Few and the US Middle Class

Picking up where we left in my previous article: The U.S. does have options. One is to offer a package of taxes and benefits sufficiently exceeding what’s offered elsewhere in order to bring more talent and capital to its shores. … Read More

Is There a PIIG in Germany’s Parlor?

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single country in possession of a current account surplus must be in need of an export market.” With apologies to Jane Austen, of course: the sentiment thus expressed actually is anything but … Read More

NASDAQ and ADD: Shutdown Reveals Just How Short-Term We Think

Recently I was a guest on American Family Radio’s nationally syndicated show hosted by my friend, Crane Durham. Topic one was Friday afternoon’s temporary interruption in data streaming and the enormous amount of attention paid to it then, and since, … Read More

Wither Gold

The inflation outlook is the key to gold’s prospects. Everyone looks to central-bank policy, whether for interest rates or direct liquidity expansion via quantitative easing. But if that were the determining factor, we’d have had rampant inflation for quite some … Read More

Waiting For Goldot: Why Inflation isn’t Showing Up

In the news for August 15th, comes this interesting tidbit from the Wall Street Journal: hedge-fund billionaire investor John Paulson, of the gold bulls, in the second quarter cut $2 billion from his hedge fund’s investment in the SPDR … Read More

Can Wal-Mart Re-Educate Its Enemies? Perhaps, But Not Likely

Call this a mustard seed, perhaps, but when a politician also happens to own property he needs to develop and lease, he can do the right thing about Wal-Mart. Bloomberg reports:

“Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale says he will be celebrating … Read More

How Intelligence Bureaucracy is a Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone

Conscientious officers (there are some) often thus describe the eighty billion dollar per annum US intelligence community in which they work. The secrecy that is essential to intelligence always made it too easy for the executives of the 16 agencies … Read More

Fast Food Workers Strike for One Day

Some strikes are better than others.

People in dangerous or difficult professions get lots of sympathy. When a coal miner goes on strike, they make movies about it.

When movie stars go on strike, it’s silly. Seeing an actor who … Read More

How to Leave a Legacy that Lasts for Centuries: Leadership Lesson of Johann Sebastian Bach

Music standards vary from person to person, but hardly anyone denies that some of the best music written is that by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). It is difficult not to be moved emotionally when you hear the … Read More

Our Ruling Class Cannot Hold the Eurozone Together Indefinitely

We live in a house of cards balanced by the shoddy magic of sorcerers’ apprentices. Contemporary Euro-America elites know not what they do. “Stabilization” seems to be their paramount objective. But all of us — investors like everyone else … Read More

11 Million Missing Jobs and Counting

President Obama and others that tout how far the U.S. economy has come since 2008-2009 miss the big point. We’re nowhere near where we should be after more than four years of a so-called recovery.

Are we in a better … Read More

Million Dollar Baby: Golf Tournament vs. Wife In Labor

Some things are more important than finances. That’s easier said than fully applied.

So what would you do if you were on the verge of a million dollar payday but your wife went into labor? You walk out of the … Read More

Ruling Class Cosa Nostra

Mafia dons typically shut off questions about their dirty dealings by calling them ‘cosa nostra,’ Italian for ‘our thing’. None of your business. That in sum is the Obama Administration’s answer to Americans who probe the various ways in … Read More

Is Obama America’s Lax Parent Who Wants Us Comfortable in the Basement?

When babies are born, parents protect them from everything. As children grow up, parents are supposed to help them by lessening their protection and increasingly exposing them to challenges.

Awhile back, I pointed to a phenomenon (mostly in Japan) of … Read More

The Coming Age of Energy Abundance

The idea that human beings are a mortal threat to a sacred and fragile natural world have led people to believe all kinds of things that are simply not true. One particularly unfortunate and related assumption is that we … Read More

As Opposed to So-Called Experts, the American People See the Failure of Keynes

When crisis was fully unleashed on the U.S. economy in 2008, the ideas of John Maynard Keynes were given a jolt of life. Massive government spending was going to “stimulate” and save the U.S. economy.

Despite the gross and … Read More