WASHINGTON — If you are like me, you regard the decline in book reading as another sign of the cultural rot that is eating away at the American character. Why read something as demanding as a book when you can spend all your time on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram? They’re easier and provide a quicker […]
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Main Street shopping competes with Internet
Wal-Mart is seeing the future, and the future isn’t more shoppers driving through stop-and-go traffic to big boxes at the edge of town. It’s online shopping. The giant retailer plans to plunk down a princely $3.3 billion for Jet.com, an e-commerce company. Using the same crystal ball, Macy’s says it will close at least 100 […]
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U.S. must resolve to ensure freedom
That the fourth anniversary of the terrorist assault on America’s Benghazi consulate coincides with the 15th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks is no accident. 9/11 is an iconic date for Americans. It’s also iconic for militant Islamists whose goals align with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror group. 9/11’s prominence guaranteed the Benghazi attack […]
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Eight lessons on talking to black people
Today’s column is presented as a public service. It is for serious politicians both Democratic and Republican — and also for Donald Trump. The urgent need for this service has been painfully obvious for many years and never more so than today. So, let’s get right to it. This is: How to Talk to Black […]
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Apple fighting European Union about taxes
Economics was not one of my favorite subjects in college, so I avoided economic courses. But I do know a few things about human nature. If you tax income at too high a rate, corporations will look elsewhere for relief. Take Ireland. In 1991, Apple Corporation cut a deal with the Irish government so that […]
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Phony populism doesn’t feed the family
WASHINGTON — You would have thought that Labor Day 2016 would bring us a serious conversation about lifting the incomes of American workers and expanding their opportunities for advancement. After all, we have spent the year talking incessantly about alienated blue-collar voters and a new populism rooted in the disaffection of those hammered by economic […]
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Workers regain lost bargaining power
WASHINGTON — Forget the “gig economy” — at least for now. On Labor Day 2016, we are in the midst of a historic transformation of the American job market. Popular attention focuses on Uber and similar internet-based networks that unite buyers and sellers. “TaskRabbit,” for example, creates a platform for people who need something done […]
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Trump simply putting America first
Donald Trump’s speech in Arizona has occasioned wailing and rending of garments among the commentariat and “respectable” people everywhere. At bottom, the cause of the freakout is simple: Trump believes in immigration laws, and the country’s elite really doesn’t. Minus a few trademark excesses that are too ingrained in the Trump shtick to abandon at […]
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Trump calls for an oath to America
Loyalty oaths have been tried in the past, but eventually were struck down by the courts as either too vague, or an unconstitutional violation of free speech. These applied, as far as I can tell from reading their history, only to American citizens. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has suggested something different. He wants to […]
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Barack Obama — the last man standing
As we are all consumed with the ups and downs on this bizarre campaign, President Barack Obama will make his last trip to Asia. The direct purpose of his trip to China is to attend a meeting of the G-20, but it is perhaps more importantly to breathe life into one of his big ideas […]