BackboneAmerica

Here comes the cavalry at last, I told a press conference at the State Capitol today. Too few powerful voices speak up (more…)

Hillary Clinton keeps advocating a “gas tax holiday” paid for by “big oil companies” out of their “record profits.” Excuse me, Senator, (more…)

We are Americans, and we want the best. Now! Instant gratification has become the American ethos. In roughly three generations, (more…)

“Tent cities on the edge of empty neighborhoods” are cited by Congressman Ron Paul as evidence (more…)

(Lyon, France, Jan.14) However off-target many polls might be, as the New Hampshire primary demonstrated, Rudy Giuliani’s freefall (more…)

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics,” the comment attributed to Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli, is typified by today’s government economic stats. (more…)

Even though the Federal Reserve will probably treat Americans to an interest rate cut on Halloween, the goblins of massive debt (more…)

As the prattle in France about consumers’ perceived loss of purchasing power reveals, discredited Keynesian and Marxist economic fallacies die hard in old Europe. (more…)

Newspapers have reported on a Justice Department celebration of the recent grievous injustice its prosecutors perpetrated (more…)

“Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (more…)

“Also I will make justice the measuring line,” we read in Isaiah after sadly reading the headlines, (more…)

Writing on Aug. 17, the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, I’d have to say the US equities bull market has left the building. (And see Aug. 20 update about Fed action, below.) (more…)

(Title: Proverbs 6:6)

How do ants build vast underground cities without a chief engineer? How do bees build a hive and make honey without a leader? How do swarms of migrating birds or schools of fish seem to move as one organism? An article in the current National Geographic, “Swarm Behavior”, offers insights into the question of how the simple actions of individuals add up to the complex behavior of a group — but this 2007 author reveals an economic blind spot about what Adam Smith understood as early as 1776. (more…)

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

I don’t like McMansions – those pretentious, overbuilt houses parked on a crust of a yard within spitting distance of the next near-identical house. I’m not into bland or beige or three-car Garage Mahals. I’m wary of McMansion neighborhoods where I feel like I’m on the set of the Stepford Wives, only super-sized. I imagine a homeowners’ association, in the dark lair of a fully finished basement, churning out smiling replica families complete with shiny-coated Weimaraners and wintergreen SUVs. Yikes! Get me out of here! Take me back to the days of my childhood when this blighted land was untilled prairie where red foxes hunted, prairie dogs barked and hawks circled on the warm summer air. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com)

At this time of year, Memorial Day and now D-Day, we reflect upon the sacrifices that soldiers have made for our country. It’s also good to look back at our economic history, review our successes and make sure we don’t repeat our mistakes. The Democrat-controlled Congress now appears bent on repeating the disastrous economic blunders of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Namely, believing that higher import tariffs and income tax rates will make our economy more robust and ‘protect’ American jobs and incomes from foreign competition. That’s like strangling the goose who lays the golden eggs. I’ll tell you which two senators are today’s Smoot and Hawley, and why this kind of misguided thinking is dangerous for America’s economy. (more…)