Year: 2014

Ten years ago this month, U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun disappeared from Camp Fallujah in Iraq. After a five-month military investigation, he was charged with desertion and theft, brought back to Virginia’s Quantico Marine base and then transferred to North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune for trial. Yet, a full decade later, Hassoun is as free as […]

There he goes again. At a press conference in Brussels Thursday, President Obama was asked if he was surprised by the controversy over his decision to trade Bowe Bergdahl for five high-ranking Taliban leaders. His response was vintage Obama: “I’m never surprised by controversies that are whipped up in Washington.” Thus establishing from the start […]

Though President Barack Obama’s first term was characterized by anemic economic growth, decreasing household income, prolonged joblessness, an unpopular health law, foreign policy blunders and bitter partisanship, the electorate seemed stubbornly unwilling to lay any of it at his feet. As late as July 2013, 35 percent of Americans assigned George W. Bush a “high […]

Everything about this horrendous Bowe Bergdahl affair reminds us just how out of touch President Obama is with ordinary Americans and American sensibilities. Just look at what we’ve learned. Obama reportedly expected that the American people would meet his egregiously lopsided deal exchanging five Osama bin Ladens for one Benedict Arnold with a “euphoric” response? […]

Why did President Obama release five of the most dangerous prisoners he had in Guantanamo in exchange for a man who is, at best, a deserter and, at worst, a traitor? Why did he take the risk of bypassing Congress? Didn’t he realize the fallout that would hit him? I believe the answer is that […]

A recent study estimated that getting a college degree is worth about a half-million dollars over the course of a graduate’s lifetime. On the surface, that presents an open-and-shut case that college is worth the time and money involved. That’s the conclusion reached in a New York Times column by Dave Leonhardt, who wrote, “Yes, […]

Even investors who typically eschew precious metals have been hard-pressed to ignore the platinum industry this year. The longest strike in South African history paired with surging Asian demand is set to push the metal back into a physical deficit in 2014 – and could have repercussions for years to come. While gold remains the […]