Opinion

“It’s not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works.”— President Barack Obama on funding education: On the weekend before this past Christmas, while Americans eagerly anticipated Santa Claus’s arrival, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its latest report on its Head Start research. Head Start is a federal […]

To the Publisher: Hi Norm, I thoroughly enjoyed your recent article (Jan. 4 issue, Norm Poltenson editorial, entitled “Uncle Sam’s Ponzi finance”) on the federal government’s Ponzi scheme. It got me thinking about what has happened to us as a nation. As we listened to the pleas from the New York and New Jersey politicians

The great divide among the sexes is one of the biggest enigmas in business. No, I am not referring to the disproportionately high number of males in the executive ranks. I am speaking of the higher number of successful female entrepreneurs versus male entrepreneurs. Successful companies have 7.1 percent female executives versus 3.1 percent at

There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation … One is by sword … The other is by debt. — John Adams   Blame it on Otto von Bismarck, the first German Chancellor. In 1889, he introduced the concept of social insurance by creating a retirement program. No dummy he, the “Iron Chancellor,”

Everyone is focused on how many jobs America creates. Every month, we wait breathlessly for the U.S. and state labor bureaus to release the latest data on the economy’s employment status. An army of statisticians labors to analyze every facet: how many new jobs were created, the rate of unemployment, participation of workers in the

Growing up, I was taught that two things were sacrosanct — motherhood and apple pie. Education has added a third item: ever expanding, K-12 public-school staffing. In 1950, I was in the seventh grade when the clamor began to increase the number of teachers and reduce the ratio of pupils to teachers. The teaching “professionals”

Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman, reminds us frequently why he has chosen to continue low interest rates and easy money — to boost the economy and encourage investing. He notes the advantage to those paying mortgages and the incentive it provides to stimulate the rebound of the “home industry.” Exporters applaud Quantitative Easing (an

A democracy … can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that point on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy … The American Republic

In the last state legislative session, we passed a property-tax cap. Largely, municipalities and school districts have stuck to the tax cap. According to a report from the governor’s office that was issued in September, 81 percent of local governments that reported a proposed levy stayed within the cap and 92 percent of schools kept

This election campaign brings to mind a haberdasher. A guy going broke selling men’s clothing. It brings to mind aristocrats. And, army generals, an engineer, and farmers. And, don’t forget professors.  If you think about our presidents as young men, these occupations must come up. They performed this work — before they took on the job