Year: 2012

Thankfully, the United Nations negotiations on Internet regulation collapsed yesterday in Dubai when the U.S. and Canada announced they would refuse to support or sign any treaty that gave the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) the power to regulate the Internet. They specifically rejected the efforts of Vladimir Putin’s Russia to control the Internet through […]

Who exactly were the rich who, as the president said, were not “paying their fair share”? The rapper Jay-Z (net worth: nearly $500 million)? The actor Johnny Depp (2011 income: $50 million)? Neither seems to have heard the president’s earlier warning that, “at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” Could both zillionaires simply have […]

SINGAPORE — While the U.S. unemployment rate “dropped” to 7.7 percent last month — a figure even The Washington Post acknowledged was due “…in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000…” — here in this modern and prosperous city-state of slightly more than 5 million people, unemployment is practically nonexistent. A taxi driver […]

When you think about it, it’s amazing that the high-minded swells at the University of California didn’t unveil a new logo sooner. The old logo, which will continue to appear on diplomas and official letters, features the school motto, “Let there be light.” Ancient. An English translation of a Latin phrase. And a book. Dead-tree […]

Is Barack Obama bluffing when he threatens to go over the fiscal cliff if Republicans refuse to agree to higher tax rates on high earners? Some analysts think so. Keith Hennessey, a former top staffer for the Bush White House and Senate Republicans and a veteran of budget negotiations, argues that Obama’s whole second term […]

“Come on sweetheart, I’m due for my appointment.” She was putting together her outfit while waiting for her husband. It was hard to keep everything where it should be now that she was visibly pregnant. He walked to the front door slowly, looking vaguely ill. She watched him for a moment before inquiring, “Are you […]

Not so many moons ago, President Obama urged us all to “make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.” He Who Heals advocated “a more civil and honest public discourse” in the wake of the January 2011 Tucson massacre. As usual, though, the White […]

PARIS — Is “killed by a drone strike” the new “alive and well”? If you pay close enough attention, it makes you wonder what’s really going on. Here’s how this charade usually goes: One or more major news organizations runs a story about some Middle Eastern terrorist being killed in a drone strike, usually in […]

With all the talk about taxing the rich, we hear very little talk about taxing the poor. Yet the marginal tax rate on someone living in poverty can sometimes be higher than the marginal tax rate on millionaires. While it is true that nearly half the households in the country pay no income tax at […]

Politicians claim they make our lives better by passing laws. But laws rarely improve life. They go wrong. Unintended consequences are inevitable. Most voters don’t pay enough attention to notice. They read headlines. They watch the Rose Garden signing ceremonies and hear the pundits declare that progress was made. Bipartisanship! Something got done. We assume […]

Suppose you saw a building on fire. Would you seek counsel from the arsonist who set it ablaze for advice on how to put it out? You say, “Williams, you’d have to be a lunatic to do that!” But that’s precisely what we’ve done: turned to the people who created our fiscal crisis to fix […]