Jul 07
Analyst Sam Wilkin, who studies the habits of the super-rich, was interviewed for an interesting piece in THE TELEGRAPH. Read it here. Having studied the habits of billionaires and “one percenters” for years, Walkin offers a list of seven general principles for becoming super-wealthy. The most interesting tip–6th among the 7 appearing near the end …
Jun 19
Greece, like the United States (and most other countries) has a government that has been spending beyond its means for decades. As Greece’s government has promoted an extravagant welfare state, fewer Greeks have started businesses, or worked industriously. Now Greece is nearing (another, more severe) defaulting on its promises to the central banks of Europe. …
Jun 16
Gallup has been polling Americans since 1979 regarding how much out of every dollar they think the government wastes. Answers have always varied widely, but when the question was first asked in 1979, the average American said the federal government wastes about 40 cents of every dollar. Over the years, this assessment of waste has …
May 09
Here’s some big news. A review by Harvard and Dartmouth researchers has found that the Social Security Administration’s actuarial forecasts have been consistently overstating the financial health of the program’s trust funds since 2000. Specifically, the agency has been ignoring evidence that Americans’ life expectancy has risen more than the agency has projected. A more …
May 09
Baltimore has recently been in the news for riots, systemic police brutality and entrenched poverty. Trusters of state interference have sought to blame these tragedies on the private sector, or even on the “1 percent.” Economist John C. Goodman asks: “Did Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, cause the breakdown of civil order in Baltimore? …
Apr 09
Columnist and radio talk show host Victor Davis Hanson has authored an intriguing piece. Hanson writes that historically, colleges and universities were thought to further four (4) primary social goals: (1) they supposedly taught students how to reason inductively and “imparted an aesthetic sense through acquiring knowledge of Michelangelo, the Battle of Gettysburg, “Medea” and …
Apr 06
The Easter weekend 2015 New York Times published a daring opinion piece by law professor Paul Campos, “The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much.” In the essay, Professor Campos demolishes the official conventional wisdom regarding government funding for higher education: ONCE upon a time in America, baby boomers paid for college with the money …
Apr 06
Why are taxpayers forced to OWN universities? Upon what logic do governments claim that owning colleges and universities is necessary? Especially when there are thousands of private-sector colleges and universities? The only plausible answer is that government-owned or supported colleges meet the needs of the poor in ways that private-sector colleges do not. But Professor …
Apr 03
Washington (AFP) – Most Americans’ incomes have fallen for two straight years, but the richest 20 percent saw theirs rise, a new Labor Department report showed Thursday. A combination of government policies, especially government licensing laws that keep as many as 30 percent of adult males from working in rewarding professions, along with rising government-imposed …
Apr 01
When politicians vote to impose or raise minimum wages, they put poor people out of work and INCREASE poverty. No one has ever calculated how many economic studies establish the correlation between minimum-wage laws and unemployment rates. But the number is in the many dozens and probably in the hundreds. Minimum wage laws have done …
