Sydney Williams - Page 2

I thought about a graveyard At the bottom of the sea Of unmarked graves in Arlington. No, freedom is not free. Kelly Strong, 1981 (Written when in high school; later attended USCG Academy) Freedom is not free. Freedom is the

Obstreperous unions, an embedded welfare, system and incompetent civil servants have been obvious impediments to austerity in Europe, but the real problem with austerity is that it is a dumb idea.  Economic growth is necessary to get deficits down and

According to Ronald Ehrenberg, economist and professor of labor and industrial relations at Cornell, tuition at selective private colleges and universities has grown at two to three percentage points over the rate of inflation for over a century.  However, “it

A libertarian friend, when asked about term limits, replied that if he had to make a choice he would opt against them, regardless of how many years one candidate had been in office. People should have the right, it was

From the island of Cyprus came Pygmalion and Aphrodite, symbols of love and beauty. That was long ago. Now we have an agreement by its President to concede to a request from Brussels that might have equally far-reaching consequences, but of a less

“I am for economy. After that I am for more economy.” Generations of Americans have been taught that it was a frugal, laissez-faire, “Silent Cal” who served as our 30th President. “Weaned on a pickle,” was the way Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Niall Ferguson subtitles his most recent book The Great Degeneration, “How Institutions Decay and Economies Die.” It is a short treatise on the way in which well-intentioned political leaders can cause the failure of that which they have been charged with

A crisis seems to be the only thing that gets the attention of those in Washington. And certainly Democrats have proved better than Republicans in passing legislation during such periods of acute pressure. In fact, it would seem that they

It wasn’t just Republicans that got rolled on New Year’s Eve; it was common sense and fiscal responsibility, all in pursuit of an ideology that specifically avoids a hard look at spending. President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “power of

Winter came early to Washington, as “Plan B” failed in the House. Stubborn Republicans, along with equally obtuse Democrats, refused to grant tax increases even on those earning a million dollars. While Mr. Obama will celebrate the disjointedness of Republicans,

It is not often that I find myself in agreement with the editorial page of the New York Times, but I did on Wednesday. The Times criticized the $1.92 billion settlement agreed to by HSBC as “a dark day for

In the long term, as John Maynard Keynes once wrote, we are dead. But it is also true that over the long term economic growth depends upon on an expanding population. Historically, the United States has been unique among developed

“Politics is the art of the possible.” The quote is attributed to Otto von Bismarck, a man not known for warm and fuzzy relations with political opponents. First as a Prussian general and later as Germany’s first Chancellor, he dominated

The twelve members of Congress who constituted the Deficit Committee have failed. The stock market, on Monday, certainly voted with its feet, fleeing equities as though the New York Stock Exchange were infested with Scarlet Fever. (An estimated trillion dollars

Since entering conservatorship in September 2008, $188 billion in taxpayer funds have been used to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Granted, the two companies have repaid $45 billion in dividends to the Treasury, but most of the funds

The President will meet this morning with Congressional leaders to discuss the nation’s head-long dash toward a date that will cause tax rates to rise and sequestration for government programs, primarily Defense. In preparation, on Tuesday the President met with

Before anyone says anything, I know that Pocahontas was Algonquian, while Elizabeth Warren claims to being Cherokee. Nevertheless, of all the elections on Tuesday, the one that most astonished me was the decision to send Ms. Warren to the Senate,

The electorate has spoken. Mr. Obama has been re-elected, but in winning his campaign has set back any hope of civility ever returning to Presidential politics. No matter one’s political views, no one can deny that Mr. Romney is a

Tomorrow evening we should know who the next President will be. It is possible of course that we won’t know until the early hours of Wednesday. While half of Americans will be disappointed, almost all of us will be relieved.

A wag once said, with no disrespect meant to the beast, that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. That characterization almost perfectly describes most government prescriptions. Too often government committees combine corruption with inefficiency. Incompetence is thy

Paul Volcker may be right when he said on Monday at the New York Athletic Club, regarding the Federal Reserve’s latest bond-buying program, that “…it’s not going to have any effect on inflation in the short run…The basic situation is

The process for electing a President is undergoing a sea change. The cause is early and absentee voting. Absentee voting has been here since colonial times. Early voting began more than a quarter century ago, but has recently been gaining

First a caveat: As will be of no surprise to anyone, I prefer Mitt Romney to Barack Obama. While I have a prejudice about giving money to any politician – I feel about gifts to politicians as P.J. O’Rourke once

The law of unintended consequences is immutable. It happens most often when the desire to achieve a particular end is so focused it ignores the consequences of the means employed to reach that goal. In contrast, there are times when

With less than three months to go before the election (Tuesday, November 6), the rhetoric has already heated up. Once the conventions are behind us – Republicans will convene in Tampa the week of August 27th and the Democrats in

Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, recently responded to a question as to whether he supports “traditional” marriage. His answer, “We are very much supportive of the family, the biblical definition of the family unit.” Now I understand that Leviticus,

In response to a question Wednesday morning in Europe, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that Congress should be taking advantage of low interest rates and increase investment (spending) to bolster growth. He said that the low rates on U.S. debt

In 1978, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in National Review: “It is almost universally recognized that the West shows all the world a way to successful economic development.” He then added a cautionary note: “Many people living in the West are dissatisfied

The Games have begun, in more ways than one. The opening ceremonies were broadcast on Friday evening. They began with forty-minutes of a British extravaganza that included dancing, fireworks and Mary Poppins (along with the Queen) dropping from the sky.

Words do matter. They can be used to praise or hurt. They can be used to lie or to tell the truth. They can be used eloquently, or they can be mumbled. In our youth, we were taught to think

Any untimely death is tragic. “The world,” as Ernest Hemingway wrote in A Farewell to Arms, “kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.” Most of the 2.5 million Americans who die each year succumb

The headline in Saturday’s New York Times said it all: “New York Fed Knew of False Barclay’s Reports on Rates.” The article quotes a Barclay’s employee telling a New York Federal Reserve official in April 2008 that “we know we’re

Patronizing blather in the newspaper noted for reporting only the news they find fit to print is not uncommon, even when it is presented in what the authors would term a fair-minded, light-hearted fashion. These referenced authors, Eric Liu, a

Of course, it doesn’t have to be. Evening in America that is. But that seems to be the direction we are headed. Pessimism abounds. Our high school students lag behind their counterparts around the world in almost every field. Federal

The summit that began this morning in Brussels for the 27 members of the European Union is the 19th since the Greek crisis began two and a half years ago. While the meeting is for the entire EU, the focus

Despite pledging to send special interests to the woodshed, President Obama has practiced his own form of crony capitalism, laying out taxpayer funds on businesses that have helped him politically – green energy (Solyndra) being of particular note, but also,