On Sept. 28, the Trump administration said it would temporarily waive the Jones Act, a century-old shipping law, to help get emergency supplies to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico officials had urged the administration to waive [...]
I have learned a lot about the role of Great Britain and the United States during the Civil War from a Book, A World On Fire. In discussing the United States, we must recognize the [...]
Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve officially announced it will begin reducing its balance sheet. The $50 billion-per-month decrease would cut its holdings below $3 trillion by 2020. But even that figure is almost four [...]
The September 16th edition of the Economist highlighted major issues involving cancer Cancer claimed 8.8 million lives world wide in 2015 40% of Americans will have cancer during their lifetime Cancer kills more people [...]
Over the years I have thoroughly enjoyed Great Courses. In the past few days, I have listened to a series of lectures on the Constitution. In brief, this agreement between the original thirteen states was [...]
The twenty-first century promises breakthrough opportunities for American women, who have led the recovery of our workforce participation rate.Women, especially those in their late 20s and early 30s, have been responsible for 40 percent of [...]
By James Giblin I enjoyed this book thoroughly. This book focuses on the Red Scare and the role by Senator Joseph McCarthy in creating it. Although McCarthy pursued his anti-Communist crusade with a zeal, he [...]
William Cohan, one of America’s most respected financial journalists, has written an excellent, well-balanced book about Wall Street. Cohan argues that, despite the flagrant misbehavior by some Wall Street firms that led to the [...]
Federal Income Receipts $3.66 Trillion Social Security, Medicare Taxes 29% $1.070 Trillion Personal Income Taxes 42% $1.549 Trillion Corporate Income Taxes 9% $332 Billion Excise, Estate, Gift Taxes 8% $295 Billion Borrowing to Cover [...]
The weaker dollar is helping corporate earnings, which is good for U.S. investors. Multinationals’ earnings will rise because they have substantial overseas sales, which are paid for in foreign currencies. Converting these foreign currencies [...]
Exchange traded funds have grown to hold more than $4.1 trillion for the first time, according to HFR, a publisher of information on ETFs and hedge funds. These financial products strive to match the [...]
Introduction John XXIII introduced a turning point in history and initiated important reforms for the Church. He was a conservative that sought to cure the Church because it needed radical surgery. Under his leadership, the [...]
Today’s New York Times highlighted the obstacles that Asian-Americans face in getting admitted to the finest academic institutions in our country. In my judgment, the discrimination against Asian Americans is totally unwarranted and reveals [...]
Today’s New York Times the article highlighted the fate of books stolen by the Nazis. Tens of millions of books were taken from the Rothschilds, other prominent Jewish families, and Jewish Academic organizations Strangely [...]
On Wednesday, Volvo became the first mainstream automaker to say that all models it introduces in 2019 will be either electric-gas hybrids or powered solely by batteries. It is a bold move to lead [...]
In response to major progress on their balance sheets, the Federal Reserve has given the nation’s big banks a green light to take capital risks that appear to dull the teeth of the Dodd-Frank [...]
President Trump wants to make the U.S. coal industry “great again.” The president has repeatedly said, “We are going to get those coal miners back to work.” He derides the Obama administration’s “job-killing Environmental [...]
Miracle Cure: The Creation of Antibiotics and the Birth of Modern Medicine By William Rosen My cousin, Howard Plotkin, encouraged me to read this book because streptomycin saved my life in late 1945. My [...]
No Ordinary Time Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by Doris Kearns Goodwin I recently reread Goodwin’s book in which she recounted the war years, 1940 through 1945, from the perspective of the American Presidency. Both Franklin [...]
‘Give me a one-handed economist. All my economists say ‘On one hand, then but on the other .’” — Harry Truman On Friday, the Labor Department reported seemingly good news: Unemployment fell to 4.3 [...]
Amazon last week celebrated its 20th anniversary of going public. Today, according to several reports, half of U.S. households subscribe to the company’s Prime service offering free shipping and other perks for $99 a [...]
In America, does More Education Equal Less Religion? Overall, U.S. adults with college degrees are less religious than others, but this pattern does not hold among Christians Pew Research Center Survey showed the relationship [...]
Over the past few months, the investment community has begun focusing on the steps the Federal Reserve might take to reduce its current balance sheet, which now amounts to some $4.3 trillion. Because the [...]
I would love for everyone to read quality books that provide in-depth analysis of the factors leading to the Great Recession, the clumsy efforts of key participants to address the crisis, and the ad hoc [...]
Last week I wrote about the proposed 2018 Trump Budget. The Trump 2018 budget did not focus on Entitlement Programs, which represent about two-thirds of government expenditures. Since then I thought about the impact [...]
The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates Wednesday by 25 basis points, to 1 percent, and the U.S. central bank has indicated it plans to raise rates aggressively. Most economists expect the [...]
Last week, the Standard & Poor’s stock index increased to a record high market capitalization above $20 trillion. This compares with $5.9 trillion when the market hit a low on March 9, 2009. It [...]
“Henry Ford influenced more lives than any man alive. It will take a hundred years to tell whether you have helped us or hurt us, but you certainly did not leave us like you found [...]
During his campaign, Donald Trump said his policies would grow the economy by 4 percent per year and increase employment by 25 million over the next decade. While these are laudable goals, they also [...]
“Pursuing protection is just like locking oneself in a dark room. While wind and rain may be kept outside, so are light and air.” — Xi Jinping, Chinese president During his campaign, President Donald [...]
I recently returned from Portugal where I met with two important people in the Portuguese Jewish Community. (Jose Carp who headed the Portuguese Jewish Community for 14 years and Hugo Vaz, a Portuguese Jewish historian. IntroductionAlthough [...]
“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” —Warren Buffett American consumers are more confident about the economy and their financial future than they have been in years. As 2016 [...]
Until reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses Grant, I had a totally different perspective of Reconstruction (1867-1877). In brief, I learned at my Southern Institutions, that the North always wanted to inflict military rule on [...]
Frontline: Abacus, Small Enough to Jail I highly recommend this documentary On Tuesday, September 12 at 10 p.m. Public Broadcasting is going to broadcast a documentary about the only U.S. bank prosecuted after the financial [...]
Introduction We hear repeatedly that America is unlike European nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and Portugal in terms of our desire for colonial expansion. Whether right or wrong, America almost [...]
“Suffrage once given can never be taken away, and all the remains for us now is to make good that gift by protecting those who have yet received it” Ulysses Grant Ulysses Grant: An extraordinary [...]
