In the latest of a series of new government interventions into the economy, President Bush announced a new plan to bail the financial industry out of hundreds of billions of dollars of bad assets. This follows an $85 billion bailout and effective takeover of the
Free countries, when faced with the incapacitation or even death of a leader, do not fold like a house of cards. But news of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il's apparent incapacitation from stroke is threatening to drive North Korean affairs into chaotic uncertainty. US and Chinese
This past summer, The Economist published an article ("Out of the Wilderness") pointing to a decade long trend of declining outdoorsmanship in America. According to the article, national park attendance peaked in the mid-80s and has been in a steady decline since. Despite tremendous population
In July, rioters laid siege to several Pakistani stock exchanges to protest declining prices in the stock market. At the Karachi Stock Exchange, a mob of small investors destroyed equipment and files, smashed windows, and burned tires in a rage over falling prices. In a similarly-themed
Today's economy faces a long list of problems. We hear daily about high gas prices and inflation, of a battered stock market, of a growing number of people unable to afford their mortgages, even of banks failing and huge companies facing bankruptcy. What explains this
Part 1: Enemy Imagine that tomorrow the government confirmed with certainty the deaths of Bin Laden, his generals, and every single Al Qaeda foot soldier. Would that mean that the war on terror was over? Would that be enough to declare the US safe from the
Originally published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged, one of the most controversial novels in American fiction, recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Annual sales have been growing for years and may grow even faster when the film adaptation is released. Atlas Shrugged is routinely included on “favorite books”