Over the weekend I read the following two news items: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is practically alone on the job, working night and day to cope with the worst economic downturn in decades. Barack Obama’s offhand approach to Gordon Brown’s Washington visit last week came abo...

The great conductor Bruno Walter once said that conductors should not be allowed to conduct Mozart until they were 50—they simply didn’t, in his view, have the depth of experience or understanding to appreciate the complexities of the music before then. Walter didn’t say this direc...

An ad by jetBlue provides welcome humor for our times: jetBlue’s ad continues: We understand it’s not easy being a high flyer these days. The CFO is picking apart your expense reports. Congress is mad about your bonus. And you can’t even hop on a private jet to the Cayman Islands w...

This is a story of three rich crooks—Bernard Madoff, Leon Panetta and Tom Daschle—and the taxpayers that involuntarily made them rich. It may be jarring to see a despised criminal, Madoff, mentioned in the same sentence with Panetta and Daschle—who have been lionized as great publi...

By now, many have begun to break their heartfelt New Year’s resolutions. They may believe that, if they are dieting, they are the unfortunate victim of bad genes. If they are trying a new exercise regime, they may attribute their failure to their busy schedule. If they are trying to improve th...

A Guest Post by John A. Wood Passing The Buck (Shifting the Burden of Responsibility) PREAMBLE A daydream of mine, destined to be unfulfilled, is to know how my grandfathers saw life - in a sense, what their philosophy for everyday living was. What follows, like the grab-bag of personal musings I...

With most pundits assuring us that the stock market has hit its bottom and with a new president about to take office, many have a great hope that the worst of the economic crisis is behind us. That the worst is behind us is almost certainly false. As the famous line goes, “It’s hard to m...

It is hard not to notice the contrast between the heroism of ordinary Indian citizens and the seemingly inept official governmental response to the terrorists in Mumbai. In the Mumbai train station for instance, over 60 policemen (admittedly, underarmed) were on duty; the gunmen were out in the open...

It’s hard not to be dismayed at the choice in front of us. I will not get into a discussion about who, Barack Obama or John McCain, will be marginally worse as president. Your guess is as good as mine. Both know little about economics, both will continue to expand policies that will deepen the...

Today, the Bush administration announced that it has had talks with GM, Ford, and Chrysler about providing additional taxpayer money to the automakers beyond the $25 billion already announced. Last week, Consumer Reports announced its annual automobile reliability rankings. The Chrysler Sebring was ...