The Arthur Andersen verdict is the first major act of retribution for the excesses of the 90s; one of the “Big 5” accounting firms appears to have been forced out of business. It, of course, raises the question: If the guillotine is to be applied to the perpetrators of the ’90s bubble, then whose heads […]

I thought it worth asking, in the adapted words of the old fairy tale, “Mirror, mirror on the wall; Where is the Blackest Bear of all?” after a week in which bearish news for the world’s economies has been around in considerable profusion.

“Greed is Good,” chortled Gordon Gekko, villain/hero of Oliver Stone’s 1987 morality play “Wall Street” — and thereby defined the 1980s the “Decade of Greed.” Yet on seeing the movie again, one is struck by how close Gekko’s credo is to the way capitalism should work, and how far it is from the reality of […]

The stock market has been somewhat weak since my second “Bear Food” article Dec. 24, down 6.3 percent to 1,075 on the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index, and has showed recent signs of deteriorating further.

The spate of anti-free market activity by the Bush administration since the beginning of March may have had limited immediate economic effect, but it will have a huge effect on Bush’s historical reputation. If there’s a deep recession going forward, it’s now clearly on his watch.

Of all the dangers and costs facing the Western economies in the 21st century — terrorism, global warming, overpopulation, social security bankruptcy — the most expensive over the course of the century is likely to be the spiraling cost of healthcare — not just a money pit, but a money chasm.

Free marketers voting for George W. Bush in 2000 did not, of course, imagine they would get Calvin Coolidge, or even Ronald Reagan, but they expected a president who would lean generally in the free market direction, and would obstruct congressional and Federal Reserve Board attempts to expand government spending, subsidize special interests, or prolong […]

The passage last week by the U.S. House of Representatives of a $180 billion farm subsidy program, the March 5 decision by the Bush administration to impose tariffs on steel, and the continuing discoveries by Congress of new needs for government programs raises an interesting question: Is there any political organization that a committed free […]

The first-quarter gross domestic product growth number, at a blistering 5.8 percent, accentuated the U.S. economy’s similarity to a roller coaster ride. In any roller coaster ride there is a time, as the huge drop yawns before you, when you let out a scream of terror, barely mixed with excitement. For the U.S. economy roller […]

There is a general assumption among commentators — the majority of whom are urban — that cities are where the future is germinated, while rural areas represent the backward, ignorant and politically naïve. As communications improve, this may become the reverse of the truth.