A ‘No Change’ Promise We Can’t Believe In
August 31, 2009As a candidate, President Obama promised “change.” But, when it comes to health care, it turns out plenty of people like the status quo. So now the president has a new promise: No change. “I keep on saying this but somehow folks aren’t listening: If you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan. Nobody is going to force you to leave your health care plan,” Obama …
Sharing The Joy
August 28, 2009My daughters don’t get much news at their summer camp jobs in the Poconos. Their mother and I bring them up to date on wars, disasters, celebrity deaths and other headlines when they come home. This year the wedding of two strangers, Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz, was the top story on the Mom and Dad News Hour. The ceremony became an Internet sensation last month after the groom posted …
Redemption For Kennedy And Nixon
August 27, 2009On the morning of July 19, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon had to have been the happiest man in America. As the Apollo 11 mission entered lunar orbit in preparation for the next day’s historic landing, a diver recovered the body of Mary Jo Kopechne from a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. Kopechne, 28, drowned when Sen. Edward Kennedy drove his car off a tiny bridge at around …
Homesteaders For Modern America
August 26, 2009When President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, enterprising individuals and families with a sense of adventure set off to settle the American West. The law promised that if you worked to improve a piece of unclaimed land, if you built a house or started a farm, then that land could be yours. Though it had sad consequences for the Plains and Intermountain Indian tribes, the legislation codified the …
Crackdown On ‘Pay To Play’
August 25, 2009Kickbacks can come in many forms: campaign contributions, “fees” paid to sham intermediaries and even investments in low-budget films that feature Mexican prostitutes and a dachshund named Kiwi Limone. Former New York State comptroller Alan G. Hevesi and his associates have been accused of soliciting all of these forms of indirect payment. (The film, Chooch, was a project Hevesi’s chief investment officer, David Loglisci, was working on with his brother.) …
A Clunker Of A Program
August 24, 2009The Cash for Clunkers program, which is scheduled to expire today, is widely seen as one of the best efforts this year to stimulate the lagging economy. I disagree. While the clunkers program may have been a boon for those who sell new cars and those who can afford to buy them, it was disastrous for people who need cheap, reliable transportation. Until now, low-wage earners and young people who …
Legislation by Intimidation
August 21, 2009Proponents of government-run health insurance are having a hard time finding friends. With even President Obama now expressing doubts about the idea, its advocates apparently have decided to look for enemies instead. On Wednesday, 52 insurance companies received a letter from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Representative Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who chairs the Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations. The lawmakers asked for the names …
Will Estate Taxes Really Disappear?
August 20, 2009Congress will have a lot on its plate when lawmakers reconvene in September. Besides health care, which has dominated the headlines this summer, the administration wants action on climate change and financial regulation. Notice that I did not mention taxes. Apart from the question of how to pay for expanded health coverage, tax legislation has been out of the news for months. This is very odd, because, unless Congress acts …
A Corporate Tuna Team Scores Big
August 19, 2009On a recent visit to Costco I noticed they were selling tuna in 7-ounce cans. It may not sound like much to you, but this is big news to me and other lovers of canned pelagic fish. Family elders tell me that, once upon a time, all tuna came in 7-ounce cans. By the time I finished college, amid the 1970s spate of inflation, tuna was sold in 6.5-ounce cans. …
Holding the Innocent Accountable
August 18, 2009“You know, I’m not trying to make a ton of money. I just want to play it safe,” a customer told a retail broker at Charles Schwab & Co. The broker suggested auction-rate securities. Investors at numerous brokerage firms across the country bought auction-rate securities in the middle part of this decade, believing that they were safe, liquid investments. Auctions would be held periodically, they were told, and, whenever they …
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