Riches in the Treasure State
I recently reviewed a list on the Web that tallies all the federal spending that goes to my state, Montana. (The point was to examine …
Taking Responsibility
About 15 years ago, I liked to do research at the Montana State University library, but I was unable to take my son, a toddler, …
How Smart Must Voters Be?
James Surowiecki, who writes a column on finance for the New Yorker, has put together an engaging, well-documented book revealing the fact that decisions made …
Imperishable Bliss
The headline was: “Issuing Rebuke, Judge Rejects Teaching of Intelligent Design.” When New York Times readers saw it on Dec. 21, most of them probably …
Beggars Can be Choosers
California environmental groups and their allies in state government have imposed so many planning regulations that it is virtually impossible to build electric power plants …
The First Stage of Discovery
It’s been a grim fall, with floods, earthquakes, war, and scandal. But there was one satisfying moment: the 2005 Nobel Prize in medicine. The story …
Fair-Weather Insurance
The moral hazards that contributed to the destruction of New Orleans and other parts of the Southeast were even greater than we thought. We all …
What’s Wrong With Capitalism
Like any other system of human relationships, capitalism is imperfect. Its flaws stem from human nature (“bad apples”) and from people trying, often by trial …
A Day That Will Live in Infamy
The Sept. 11 attacks naturally remind us of Pearl Harbor, and on Dec. 3 Robert Bartley, former editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, …
How the West Won
One of my avocations is collecting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle consists of figuring out why the West changed so that during the …