Search

'EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE AUTHORITIES--and frankly I didn't have the authorities for anything--if you take charge people will follow.' So said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr., former [...]

'Youth is unfortunately not a permanent condition of life.' --F. Scott Fitzgerald Several years ago, my colleague and friend Matthew Bruccoli, an English professor and author of books about 20th-century [...]

Issues concerning the manner in which state taxing authorities relate to federal laws and the US Constitution are examined, focusing on the need for state taxing power to be brought under the US Constitution and the need to repeal the Tax Injunction Act, which prevents district courts from interfering with state taxation authority. Topics include the need for state taxpayers to receive hearings on the merits of the case, the tendency for most state judges to uphold state taxing power, how the Internet Tax moratorium relates to federalism, and efforts by the Multistate Tax Commission and Michigan Gov John Engler to resist federal limits on state taxing power.

'A CINDERELLA MOMENT,' gushed a gay-rights advocate when the Supreme Court announced its two landmark decisions in June. California's Proposition 8--an amendment to its constitution--went down (Hollingsworth v. Perry), as [...]

THE ROMANS TOOK CITIZENSHIP very seriously. Only citizens had the right to vote, marry, make legal contracts, and have a trial and appeal the decision of the lower court. Americans, [...]

Comments on the role of banks in the erosion of Western wealth. Success of the banking industry in giving out loans with high profitability through brokering away the wealth of industrialized countries; Background on the formula used by bankers to funnel the wealth of the U.S. and other rich countries into post-World War II Germany, enabling the nation to pay war reparations and rebuild its nation; Success of the German bonds and the development of bonds for other foreign countries to be sold to the American public in the following decades; Failure of debtor-nations in meeting their loan obligations resulting to the negative performance of their bonds; Refusal of bankers to accept the blame for the bad bonds; Details on the indebtedness of poor countries; Bankers' proposed solution which involved more lending; Position taken by the U.S. government on the proposed solution.

Focuses on the impact of major bank failures on the U.S. economy. Role of the banks in pressuring the U.S. Administration for the $400-million midnight bailout of the Polish grain loans; Statement made by presidential counselor Ed Meese explaining that exercise of the default clause in the contracts by the U.S. banks could plunge a number of banks into bankruptcy; Statement made by William Isaac, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., explaining that a combination of the recession and high interest rates are having an effect on the ability of borrowers to repay loans.

Focuses on the assistance provided by the U.S. to the Soviet Union's banks in the form of hard currency. Belief of the Russians that detente is an aid program designed to prop up their collapsing empire; Increase in the number and amount of loans provided to the Russians; Problems created by the Polish workers both for the bankers and the Russians.

Presents information on the hostage deal which led to the release of the U.S. hostages from Iran. Disclosure that a dozen major U.S. banks had been meeting secretly in New York with lawyers representing Iran; Role played by the U.S. government of a harassed middleman trying to oversee a deal between the Iranians and the banks; Announcement made by Iran 10 days after the hostages were taken that Iran would withdraw all its deposits in U.S. banks.

Cites several grounds, which clarify that gold can't be accepted as a standard medium of exchange in the modern world. Argument that a gold standard is an arbitrary, but completely effective, method of limiting the amount of currency in circulation; Gold policy of U.S. ex-President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Claim of the U.S. Congress that gold clauses in financial dealings were invalid as contrary to public policy and inconsistent with the new monetary system; Argument pertaining to the fixed supply of gold in the U.S.; Production of gold coins by several countries to tap the amateur market; Use of selling gold by the U.S. government as a way of narrowing the federal budget deficit.

Discusses detente in the Soviet Union, in which the Soviets would receive imports from Western countries after paying with loans extended by international banks. Vision of a modern Communist industrial state; Impact on American taxpayers if Soviets default on the loan; Example of mixed capitalism-socialism where corporate profits remain private and business losses go public; Loans at favorable interest rates for five to seven years; International bankers' confidence treating the Soviets as a triple-A credit risk.

'I DO BELIEVE that big money does organize itself somewhat like feral hogs. If they detect a weakness or a bad scent, they'll go after it,' said Richard Fisher, president [...]

Justice [Antonin] Scalia: [W]hen did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage? 1791? 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted? ... Has it always been unconstitutional? ... You [...]

There 'does not exist an engine so corruptive,' Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1821, 'of the government and so demoralizing of the nation as a public debt. It will bring on [...]

REPUBLICANS, after their comprehensive defeat on November 6, have been going through an identity crisis. Defeated Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown said, 'We need to be a larger tent party.' A [...]

WHAT WOULD THE COUNTRY be like if Congress added to every law it passed a section that said 'No court of the United States or any state shall have power [...]

Focuses on the economic policy of the U.S. Report on the tax benefit sale that quickly became a new growth industry; Report that the investment bankers, who make the deals which bring the hogs together with the feed, had made about $60 million by November 13; Report on the book "Tax Benefit Transfer" by First Boston; Focus on the pitch made by Ford Motor Co. saying it needed to make a large capital investment but that if it did it would get no benefit from the investment credit because of losses.