Many thanks to the government’s (White House) recently released National Assessment for clarifying why Key West is so peculiar. According to National Assessment, it’s most likely from the ramifications of climate change in the U.S. The assessment assess that global warming will “increase mental illness” in our cities. As Cato’s Patrick J. Michaels points out, […]
Meet the Doctor Who Launched the VA Scandal
Dennis Wagner in The Republic (here) tells the story of Dr. Sam Foote—whistleblower of the Veteran Affairs debacle. Read how Dr. Sam Foote started suspecting that Arizona VA was shortchanging veterans on medical care. Arizona Republic investigative reporter Dennis Wagner began looking into mismanagement in the Phoenix VA Health Care System in early 2013 when […]
Fudging, Union Style
Not unlike the public schools scandals in which teachers and administrators fudged test scores in order to get more money for themselves and their schools, the VA scandal has much the same reek—only more putrid. The VA has been paying, with taxpayer funds, salaried employees who are not doing work related to administrating to vets, […]
Obama’s Weak Tea
President Obama’s West Point foreign policy speech earned the president few new friends. The effort was largely directionless and lacking in foundation. Given that unpleasant introduction, here is Cato Institute’s Director of Foreign Policy Studies Chris Preble’s abridged take. ‘It was pretty weak tea, but not objectionable. There was more good than bad. I knocked […]
The End of the GOP?
Conservatives are losing their lead on social and economic ideology. This trend does not favor the GOP. The war hawks are a major problem, but it’s also time to wake up on the social issues and actually reduce the size of government. Here are the recent Gallup numbers for you: More Americans continue to identify […]
Thomas Picketty Blockbuster
No, not Picketty’s new book, but a Financial Times blockbuster report covering the integrity of Picketty’s data. In general I think little of Picketty’s economics, but if the Times is on track here, an actual junk science foundation will drop the Picketty book into the wastebasket of irrelevance. The New York Times summarizes here: Simple […]
The 10 Largest Bond Funds
Investors are taking on more risk—and are doing it in a major way. Bond funds, which should be your anchor-to-windward money, are loading up on junk. The below investment grade waste piling up in the 10 largest bonds funds is shocking. We’re not talking small potatoes here. These are the big dogs. “Who wants an […]
“Our Freeloading Allies”
My friend, Cato Institute’s Chris Preble’s aptly titled post is both shocking and depressing. Americans are being played the sucker by our own government. You may have thought that your government was spending your tax dollars to subsidize the defense of wealthy nations around the world. But I bet you had no idea of the actual […]
The 10 Largest Bond Funds: Part II
Yesterday I wrote to you about how the 10 largest bond funds are increasing risk by loading up on junk bonds. The only fund company of the group not doing this is Vanguard. No surprise there. Vanguard always seems to do the right thing for investors. But there’s another narrative inside this grouping of behemoths […]
Shame on Us
On reading an article on Eric Shinseki, a retired four-star general and now secretary of Veteran Affairs, I was puzzled and saddened to learn of Mr. Shinseki’s history. Obviously, the guy is no slacker and certainly not immune to pain and suffering. From what was presented in the article, he appears to be a caring, […]
