From the St. Louis Post Dispatch Before the war in Iraq began, there were two divergent views on how it would go. The optimistic view, predicted a cakewalk. The pessimistic view predicted a quagmire. In the first week of the war, the quagmire view seemed to be vindicated. In Basra…
Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch What if there really were a toy shop at the North Pole where elves made toys and gave them away? And suppose you were dictator for a day. It’s up to you to decide whether to let those free toys into America. You’re a…
Read MoreFrom Ideas on Liberty What does Adam Smith have to do with basketball? You will not find the word in either The Theory of Moral Sentiments or The Wealth of Nations. Yet Smith has much to say about the game played with the round ball on a hardwood court. Consider…
Read MoreFrom Ideas on Liberty What does Adam Smith have to do with basketball? You will not find the word in either The Theory of Moral Sentiments or The Wealth of Nations. Yet Smith has much to say about the game played with the round ball on a hardwood court. Consider…
Read MoreText from National Public Radio, Morning Edition Audio A lot of people seem to think that the Bush stimulus plan is just a way for the President to pay off some of his fat cat friends. Could be. But for those who always assume the worst about this President, I…
Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch If arsenic is unhealthy, then you’d think that the less arsenic the better. Same with radiation, mercury, dioxin and a whole host of environmental toxins. But zero tolerance is expensive. There’s no free lunch. Getting rid of the last molecule of dioxin in the…
Read MoreFrom Ideas on Liberty I really shouldn’t tell you this, but Cape Cod is a very beautiful place. I shouldn’t mention its beaches with their towering sand dunes. I shouldn’t mention the golden eagle I saw soaring over the marsh near our cottage where we stayed on vacation. I shouldn’t…
Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch The New York Times has conceded that the all-male Augusta National Golf Club has a constitutional right to bar women from membership. Still, women have called on Tiger Woods to use his constitutional right to boycott this year’s Masters golf tournament as a way…
Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch Should the Bush income tax cuts be made permanent? Answering this question is likely to be one of the first orders of business for the new Congress. Opponents complain that the tax cut is a giveaway to the rich. Fat cats are going to…
Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch Take a look at your pay stub and you’ll see separate amounts withheld for income taxes and the payroll tax called FICA. Listing them separately makes people think that the FICA tax must be something different from the income tax. And it is—in the…
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Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch I love the phrase ‘urban sprawl.’ Can you think of another phrase for a social issue that reminds you of someone lounging around the house? Vaguely judgmental, it also conjures up an image of haphazardness, a lack of control, an attitude of let-things-fall-where-they-may. The…
Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch (The original ran under a different title.) What proportion of the U.S. labor force earns the minimum wage or less? It’s a good question for Labor Day and one measure of how you think the U.S. economy treats people. Some people see the glass…
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Read MoreFrom the St. Louis Post Dispatch (The title has been changed to protect the author.) When the prizes get bigger, people run a little faster, jump a little higher, try a little harder, rest a little less often and do all the things competitors do to get an edge. They…
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