“At this moment, in this country, you have no substitute,” was Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s comment to Venezuelan proto-dictator Hugo Chavez last Sunday. When I read that news bit buried in a newspaper section bulging with stories about the U.S.…
Daily life delivers its share of risk, but any response involves trade-offs
Nothing is certain except death and taxes. That old adage may be true, but frequently the unsure, risky happenings in life bother us the most. Daily life does involve risk. Consider the risk of a tire failing catastrophically, as in…
Policy alternatives can help the environment and cost nation less
The environment is a campaign issue in at least one congressional race in Minnesota. Recently I saw a TV commercial that extolled the incumbent Democrat’s pro-environmental record and quoted his Republican challenger as saying that current environmental regulations are “cumbersome.”…
We need more teachers, nurses? We have to pay them more money
The U.S. economy is booming, and labor markets are as tight as they have ever been in the last four decades. This was manifest in a recent Newsweek magazine cover story. “Who will teach our kids?” was blazoned across the…