Op-Eds
The Late Jack Dreyfus Really Roared
Jack Dreyfus, the mutual fund pioneer who died March 27at 95, was known as "the Lion of Wall Street." And for decades, the…
Op-Eds
Speak out against ‘fishing expedition’
Sir, Kudos to former ambassador Faith Whittlesey for her valid points about the Obama administration exerting “raw Goliath power” and breaching a bilateral tax agreement…
Op-Eds
Don’t Punish the Shareholders, Too
In justifying a change of policy on negotiating corporate penalties, the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Schapiro, stressed the…
Op-Eds
The SEC’s new chief-to-be
President-elect Barack Obama‘s choice of Mary Schapiro to head the embattled Securities…
Op-Eds
Geithner is spelled P-a-u-l-s-o-n
President-Elect Barack Obama has received surprising praise from some conservatives for his economic team. After running a successful populist campaign against Wall Street…
Op-Eds
Which Way Is Wise?
If there is one phrase to describe the events in the subprime meltdown, it is “collective stupidity.” Looking back on the poor underwriting…
Op-Eds
Obama’s Clinton Problem
Republicans had many things going against them this election, but the financial market implosion in September proved to be the final blow that…
Op-Eds
Dealing with the Threat of Global Recession
Fred L. Smith Jr. and John Berlau on the upcoming Global Economic Summit: Governments should agree to a timetable to end the bailouts.
Op-Eds
Obama vs. Clinton
Ever since the economy emerged as the top campaign issue, Barack Obama has developed two basic messages. One is that the deregulation John McCain…
Op-Eds
The Joe-the-Plumber vote is bigger than you think
Joe the Plumber did more than add some levity to the last presidential debate. Joe, aka Joe Wurzelbacher of Ohio, just may have…
Op-Eds
The End of American Capitalism? 5 Short Takes on Where the Financial Crisis Might Be Headed
Five prominent economists share their thoughts on what’s happening and how bad the situation really is. The past week has seen the US economy…
Op-Eds
Accounting rules exacerbate crisis
In the year since the credit crunch began, reading the financial pages has become a bit like perusing a medical journal. Market…
Op-Eds
Doing Something
"The government has to do something to keep markets from falling and the economy from getting worse." How many times have you heard…
Op-Eds
Doing Something?
“The government has to do something to keep markets from falling and the economy from getting worse.” How many times have you heard…
Op-Eds
Fannie, Freddie Critic Ridiculed In 2000
It is now consensus that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at the heart of the systemic meltdown we are seeing in the…
Op-Eds
It’s Paulson’s Own Mess
They said it was "too big to fail." This multi-billion dollar firm was now on the brink of bankruptcy. Although not a bank,…
Op-Eds
Maybe the Banks Are Just Counting Wrong
In the year since the credit crunch began, reading the financial pages has become a bit like perusing a medical journal. Market…
Op-Eds
Lehman bankruptcy: In capitalism, failure is not a dirty word
My reaction to Lehman Brothers’ declaring of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the refusal of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and…
Op-Eds
Minot Line
Over the past decade, the Internet has given new life to one of the oldest forms of media: the urban legend. Sometimes an…
Op-Eds
Oil Speculators ‘R’ Us
Those dastardly speculators! As well as oil company CEOs, traders in commodity futures have become convenient whipping boys for politicians of both…
Op-Eds
Sarbanes-Oxley Challenge Is Rooted in Law’s Flaw
Re: Jane Bryant Quinn’s column, “Accounting Cleanup Board Is Facing a Gutting’’ (July 16): In her attack on our constitutional challenge to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act…
Op-Eds
Bailing Out Kelo
Of all the unintended consequences of the housing bill that passed the House on Wednesday, the most ironic and far-reaching may be this:…
Op-Eds
Trust-Funding Fannie and Freddie
Almost every time Congress creates a "trust fund" for a certain policy issue, the money flowing into this "trust fund" is diverted to…
Op-Eds
ACLU is a principled defender of civil liberties
ACLU is a principled defender of civil liberties Re: “ACLU failing in defense of civil liberties at a vital time,”…
Op-Eds
Congress’s Fingerprint Fine Print
Senate passes a bill mandating the fingerprinting of real estate brokers and the creation of a national fingerprint database…
Op-Eds
Distrust Fund
It’s almost a D.C. truism that anytime Congress creates a "trust fund" for a certain policy issue, the money flowing into the…
Op-Eds
The Value of Hedge Funds
Re “The Great Seduction” (column, June 10): While David Brooks makes some good points about debt and thrift, he paints with…
Op-Eds
Fingerprint Registry in Housing Bill!!!
Earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice.
Op-Eds
Bear Fire Sale Leaves Owners Without A Say
Bear Stearns shareholders, the true owners, are being denied a voice in the fate of the firm.
Op-Eds
Freedom and its Digital Discontents
Read John Berlau's closing statement in the Economist.com debate "Proposition: By intervening to regulate business and financial risks, governments have made things worse."…
Op-Eds
Freedom and its Digital Discontents
John Berlau, director of CEI's Center for Entrepreneurship, debates Sarbanes-Oxley in the Economist…
Op-Eds
The Empower Eliot Spitzer Bill
Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation yesterday because of his alleged involvement in a prostitution ring. But this is far from his real scandal.
Op-Eds
Keep Virginia market free
Perhaps more than any other state, Virginia has been a cradle for the ideas of economic liberty. From the writings of Founding Fathers such as…
Op-Eds
Romney Had a Hammer
Mitt Romney’s surprisingly decisive victory in Michigan kept him in the race for the Republican nomination, but he wasn’t the only one Tuesday night…
Op-Eds
Follies of the FHA: Another subprime idea
“How could they have been so stupid?” That's the million-dollar question being asked as mortgage defaults have increased on loans that carried much more…
Op-Eds
Bailout Blues
Op-Eds
Opposing view: Plan Hurts Future Borrowers
The government sure has a funny prescription for restoring confidence in America's credit markets. It purports to solve the nation's credit crunch — a…
Op-Eds
The Subprime FHA
After two months of economic jitters over bad lending decisions, it looks as if the credit markets may have turned a corner. The stock…
Op-Eds
Al Gore and the Mission of the Nobel Prizes
In just a few hours following publication of this article, at approximately 9AM Eastern time this morning, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce its selection…
Op-Eds
The Long Petard: The New York Times and Sarbox
Having dug itself into a hole with inept handling of the MoveOn.org ad and its aftermath, the New York Times Company may…
Op-Eds
Tax hike ahead
USA TODAY's debate on private equity taxation raised important points but overlooked a key fact (“Decoy on tax fairness,” Our view; “…
Op-Eds
Bush’s Credit Issues
In the midst of what’s called the subprime mortgage “contagion,” President Bush seems to have caught a virus of his own: Potomac paternalism syndrome.
Op-Eds
CEOs, Like Athletes, Compensated For Their Successful Performances
I am by no means a sports fanatic, but there are times I wish that typical business stories would be more like sports…
Op-Eds
Beckham bends it like a CEO
I don't get it. Where is the outrage? Politicians and pundits love to “bend it” when it comes to stoking resentment about…
Op-Eds
Al Gore’s Whine: What Really Happened on the Mall
Now it's official. Global warming alarmism has indeed “jumped the shark“, as revealed by the dismal failure of the Live Earth concerts to galvanize…
Op-Eds
Chuck Schumer Thinks You’re Stupid
In his new book, entitled “Positively American,” Chuck Schumer wants you to know that he has a vision. Yes, in between leading efforts…
Op-Eds
Rush Limbaugh for the Nobel Peace Prize
Op-Eds
Democrats: There Is Such a Thing as Too Much Regulation
As Democrats take power in Congress, speculation has swirled around the question of why Republicans lost. But there is a factor – a…
Op-Eds
The Case of the DDT Deniers
Op-Eds
Is Fairness Doctrine on Its Way Back?
This election season, much of the GOP’s difficulties stem from the disaffection of conservative talk radio. For the past two years, while supporting…
Op-Eds
A Nobel Prize For Pinpointing U.S. Greatness
America is now five for five in the Nobel Prizes this year. And the announcement of Edmund Phelps as the economics recipient is…
Op-Eds
Credit card ricochet
“Partners in plunder.” That's how an intriguing new book describes the hidden relationship between big government and big business. <?xml:namespace prefix = o…
Op-Eds
Data Mismanagement
Members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, now say that Sarbanes-Oxley can be unduly burdensome on business. The law that, in…
Op-Eds
Tracey Ross: TV’s Outspoken Individualist
How many Objectivists are there among television actresses? Well, there is one for sure: Tracey Ross of NBC’s popular soap opera “Passions.” As you…
Op-Eds
Making a Meth of the PATRIOT Act
If you thought al Qaeda or Iraqi insurgents were the major threats facing America, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) says you’re wrong. According to Dent,…
Op-Eds
Sarbanes-Oxley vs. the Free Press
Back in June, when New York Times reporter Judith Miller was about to go to jail on contempt charges for refusing to testify…
Op-Eds
Who Is Watching the Watchdog?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Today in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, outspoken hedge fund manager…
Op-Eds
Is U.S. Embracing a Global Tax Scheme?
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Melbourne, Australia—This week, a good number of liberal activists—when not engaged in trying to stop the…
Op-Eds
Puts and Calls: Sarbanes-Oxley ‘reform’ harming economy
The Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance act is one of the biggest expansions of government regulation in 70 years—and businesses say it’s more costly and complicated than…
Op-Eds
Greens vs. Levees: Destructive river-management philosophy.
With all that has happened in the state, it’s understandable that the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Louisiana chapter of the…
Op-Eds
On a Different Coast, New Orleans Jazz Plays On
“Well I had to come out and work, because there was housing.” That's what <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />New Orleans…
Op-Eds
Suffocating Small Companies
The Washington Times is on target in pointing out the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s strangulation of small public companies in even more layers of red tape (“Relief…
Op-Eds
A Law Unto Themselves
It’s always an ambitious task to argue that a seemingly technical abuse of the Constitution is responsible for much of what is wrong with American…
Op-Eds
Reagan’s Ghost: Liberal pundits miss the boat when talking tax reform.
In their attempt to strangle President Bush's tax-reform plan before it even reaches the cradle, liberal journalist-strategists have conjured up a strange political…
Op-Eds
Give Nestlé a Break
Generally, the European left has no love for big American financial firms. But some Swiss shareholder activists have embraced the U.S.’s largest proxy-advisory service in…
Op-Eds
A Tremendously Costly Law
Early this year, an unusual full-page ad appeared in the Wall Street Journal and other financial newspapers. The ad attempted to refute claims from businessmen…
Op-Eds
Ponzi’s Scheme Still Works
Many have heard of Charles Ponzi, the 1920s flimflam — man whose name is now synonymous with con artistry The Oxford English Dictionary defines a…
Op-Eds
Erin Bode: Quite a Cover Girl
As I listen to the light and bouncy voice of Erin Bode, the young singer being positioned by the boutique jazz label MaxJazz…
Op-Eds
Not Your Father’s Republican
As governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich fought off trial lawyers, teachers’ unions, and a Kennedy – and signed a bill legalizing medical marijuana. What will…
Op-Eds
Stunting Corporate Growth
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Robert J. Samuelson [op-ed, Dec. 22] dismissed legitimate concerns about the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act…
Op-Eds
Reid May Lead on Stock Options
In the discussion of winners and losers from Election 2004, one organization that may have suffered a big blow has been overlooked. This…
Op-Eds
Citizen Snoops Forever: The intelligence reform bill will turn car dealers into spooks, permanently
Op-Eds
Will Reid Lead On Stock Option?
In the discussion of winner sand losers from Election 2004, one organization that may have suffered a big blow has been…
Op-Eds
What’s Wrong With Combat Pay?
American soldiers are risking their lives in Fallujah. No one would say that they don't deserve a special bonus for wearing <?xml:namespace prefix…
Op-Eds
Stock Option Expense Jousting
After hearing constant tirades about <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />U.S. foreign policy offending “the world,” a majority of American voters…