The war on cash is a sign that central banks may see a dangerously deteriorating situation, one that has led to a feeling of desperation by governments and a wish to control the wealth of citizens.
Asia
Balance of Trade: China Is Not “Killing Us” with Foreign Trade
American job losses are not the result of freer trade and an excess of imports over exports, but of government policies that prevent capital accumulation in the United States, among them policies that limit imports.
Rule of Law Trumps Majority Rule in Singapore: The Legacy of Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015)
At a time when other Third World countries were setting up government-controlled economies and blaming their poverty on “exploitation” by more advanced industrial nations, Lee Kuan Yew promoted a market economy, welcomed foreign investments, and made Singapore’s children learn English, to maximize the benefits from Singapore’s position as a major port for international commerce.
The Ambassador and the Post Office: A Lesson on Freedom from India
You can always keep anything old, clunky and inefficient still in business, if you are willing to pour unlimited amounts of the taxpayers’ money down a bottomless pit.
BRICS Summit: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa
Last week, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa met in New Delhi for their fourth annual "BRICS" summit. The meeting brought together five countries that together represent 43 percent of the world's population and 18 percent of the world's...
Reflections on the Disaster in Japan
Someone wrote and asked me the following: ”I've been thinking about the following. Is it acceptable to sacrifice one man to save 100,000 or any large arbitrary number? I know this question has shown up in many stories and films and I am sure philosophy classes....
Excused Horrors: Not Nazi, But Stalinist and Maoist
Between 1917 and 1983, Stalin and his successors murdered, or were otherwise responsible for the deaths of, 62 million of their own people. Between 1949 and 1987, Mao Tsetung and his successors were responsible for the deaths of 76 million Chinese.
The Legacy of 1968: Vietnam, Martin Luther King, and Campus Riots
This 40th anniversary of the turbulent year 1968 is already starting to spawn nostalgic accounts of that year. We can look for more during this year in articles, books, and TV specials, featuring aging 1960s radicals seeking to relive their youth.
China’s Once “Thriving Socialist Economy”
How “foolish” of China to abandon its “thriving socialist economy” of perpetual mass starvation for a rapidly progressing market economy of soaring skyscrapers and rising living standards for hundreds of millions.
Debunking a Reported Defiance of Economic Law in South Korea
It’s sign of the corruption of our culture that today, businessmen feel the need to hide behind the mantle of corrupt ideology and pretend that what springs from their fundamentally life-giving self-interest comes instead from the government, the agency that can give only destruction and death.
Not Strictly Business: China’s Bid to Buy Unocal
It's a heck of an offer. In an 11th hour bid to buy Unocal, China's state-run CNOOC Ltd. offered $19.6 billion, cash, for America's ninth largest oil company. That's a lot of yuan in anybody's book. For CNOOC, it's downright staggering. If accepted, the deal would put...
Operation Bao Chuan: Say No to China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s Bid for Unocal
China National Offshore Oil Corporation presumably chose the codename "Operation Bao Chuan" for its Unocal offer to conjure up national pride in its bid to buy America's ninth largest oil company. For bao chuan were the huge treasure ships that traveled across the...
Betraying the Real Freedom Fighters in Taiwan
Failing to endorse Taiwan’s legitimate claim to independence means consigning its people to the predations of a totalitarian regime.
China Threatens U.S. Alliances
While the Bush administration continues to push and celebrate significant successes for democracy in the Middle East, China is on an opposing mission in Asia, where it continues to block the spread of freedom. The most recent target of Chinese diplomatic pressure is...
Soccer Moms Could Teach Indian Ocean Nations Something About Communication
It has been said that lack of communication lies at the bottom of most human problems. This is certainly true of what will likely become [one of] the largest human tragedies in recorded history, the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The U.S. Geological Survey and its 120...
John Kerry in Vietnam: A Charlatan?
Men who have been in combat together often form a bond that lasts long after the war is over. It is hard to think of a single example of men who faced enemy fire side by side and who later publicly denounced each other. The glaring exceptions are the men who served...
The Power Struggle in China: Military Strongman Jiang Zemin vs. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao
The power struggle in Beijing between China's military strongman, Jiang Zemin, and the country's two reformist government leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, is of momentous importance to the United States and East Asia. As the Chinese Communist Party...
Veterans vs. Kerry on Vietnam: Part 3
A President of the United States should know all sides of an issue. But he cannot be on all sides of an issue. He cannot keep flip-flopping like John Kerry. Despite attempts to depict criticisms of John Kerry by the Vietnam Veterans for Truth as something whose sudden...
Veterans vs. Kerry on Vietnam: Part 2 of 3
In addition to two key books about John Kerry -- Douglas Brinkley's pro-Kerry book "Tour of Duty" and John O'Neill's anti-Kerry book "Unfit for Command" -- there is another book that would be well worth reading -- if you can find a copy. It is John Kerry's own book,...
Veterans vs. Kerry on Vietnam: Part 1 of 3
Senator John Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards, has said melodramatically: "Ask the men who served with him in Vietnam!" But now that men who served with Kerry in Vietnam are coming forward and contradicting Kerry's version of what happened there, Senator...
Two Versions of Vietnam
It is a painful reflection on the political atmosphere today that, in an era when nuclear devastation may strike American soil within our lifetime, courtesy of terrorists supplied with nuclear weapons by North Korea or Iran, we are arguing about what did or didn't...
Thoughts on Internment of Japanese Americans During World War II
According to its publisher, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin's controversial new book In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror in support of the WWII incarceration of Americans of Japanese descent argues that...
Trade Deficits with China: An Economic Analysis
The rapidly rising U.S. trade deficit with China is quickly becoming a political issue. Many members of Congress are warning that China needs to take action, such as raising its exchange rate, to deal with this problem before it leads to protectionist legislation. A...
China War on Space-Based Weapons
August 11, 2003 | | What is China's position on space-based weapons? Considering the gap between what officials in Beijing say and what they do on the issue, it's hard to get a straight answer. But let's look at the facts. For some time now, China has spearheaded an...