Opinion

Are we staring at a recession on the horizon? You have surely seen or heard reports, opinion, and speculation to that effect. Gloom has been a mini-rage lately. A few questions are in order. Are economists able to accurately predict recessions? No. If their accuracy percentages were batting averages, you would bench them. Why is […]

Each day, police officers put their lives on the line to protect our communities. From routine traffic stops to being the first to respond to an accident — their bravery protects us each day but their safety is not guaranteed. Accordingly, we should do all we can to protect officers from harm and harassment as

Democracy’s premise is that ordinary citizens can make solid decisions on complex issues. But this basic principle and the structure of laws and practices built over the centuries to safeguard it are being questioned as rarely before. It’s not just that political leaders in various western democracies seem to have little regard for the norms and

Perhaps the time has come for a bile holiday. Or a hatred holiday. Shortly after he was inaugurated, FDR declared a four-day bank holiday. This was after all the states declared bank holidays. The idea was to calm the turbulence caused by so many bank failures. I propose a bile holiday — to help clear

A basic element of well-crafted legislation is details. Well-written bills detail what parts of existing law will change, how the change will impact people, penalties if they apply, and include estimates of their fiscal impact. Such details, however, were nowhere to be found when New York’s so-called Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed the state

If there is one thing we’re good at in this country, it is expanding things. From our waistlines and hamburgers to the NBA season, we know how to make things bigger and longer. Please note I do not imply necessarily better. The Baseball Hall of Fame serves up a good example. In 1980, I went

The NY ABLE 529 Plan was created to help families find a better way to afford expenses related to disabilities. It is similar to the successful 529 College Savings Account program, and allows people to open a tax-advantaged savings account that individuals with disabilities and their families can use to pay for qualified expenses.  In order to

Our language police have their hands full. Lately, they have pushed the Berkeley (California) City Council to scrub supposedly sexist words like manpower and manholes — in favor of human-effort and maintenance holes. (Please imagine a worker saying “Hey Sam, pry open that maintenance hole, would ya?”) Berkeley also wants its employees to use they

I’ve been struck recently by news coverage of climate change and humans’ degradation of the planet. Two opposing themes keep appearing. One is the sense that, as individuals, there’s little we can do; the forces are too large. The other — and I think many Americans would agree with this — is that as citizens of the