Press of Atlantic City

Published: Dec 01, 2008

Apologize and do it now, Barack Obama, John McCain and all you members of Congress who ranted about Big Oil's price-gouging and the way futures-market speculators were abusing the wallets of consumers at the gas pump.

Those prices have come down to the lowest level in almost four years, something like $2 a gallon on the average, and you know why - slackening demand caused chiefly by a worldwide economic downturn.

By the same token, you know or should have known why prices were recently as high as $4 a gallon - a vastly increasing demand caused by the phenomenal growth in China and India on top of the then-bustling economies of the United States and Europe and the fact that supply could not easily keep up with all of that.

But, President-elect Obama, that simple piece of everyday economic analysis didn't stop you as a candidate from blaming speculators and U.S. oil companies for the prices and even pledging a windfall-profits tax to finance $1,000 giveaway checks to working families. More

Dec 01, 2008

• Post-9/11 controls on immigration are hurting U.S. We used to attract and welcome immigrants who innovate, create jobs and boost our economy

The day after the presidential election, I was chatting with a young immigrant from Sudan as I waited to do a radio interview. He was gushing over the election results. "Can you imagine when he puts his hand on the Bible and says, 'I, Barack Hussein Obama?'" he said, putting the emphasis on the middle name. "It is amazing."

Dec 01, 2008

• The last thing the U.S. economy needs is a new New Deal

Early in what became the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes was asked if anything similar had ever happened. "Yes," he replied, "it was called the Dark Ages and it lasted 400 years." It did take 25 years, until November 1954, for the Dow to return to the peak it reached in September 1929. So caution is sensible concerning calls for a new New Deal.

Nov 30, 2008

• Prices drop, but food crisis simmers

With all eyes focused on the global financial crisis, it's not surprising that many of us have forgotten all about another calamity that preoccupied world capitals just a few months ago. Remember the world food crisis?

Nov 30, 2008

• 'Free choice act' good for unions, bad for economy

Labor laws are intended to balance power between employers and employees - actually unions who represent employees. Changes to labor laws that tilt the balance too far in either direction impose serious costs on workers and our economy.

Nov 30, 2008

• Market economy? This is a politics-driven economy

In the old days - from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue - if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance sheets. Today you learn to read political tea leaves. You don't anticipate Intel's third-quarter earnings; instead, you guess what side of the bed Henry Paulson will wake up on tomorrow.

Nov 28, 2008

• Torture probe isn't in U.S. interests

There has been much speculation about how the Obama administration will deal with what many view as the Bush administration's harsh, abusive and illegal interrogation program. Some have called for an investigation by Congress or the Justice Department, possibly leading to criminal sanctions. Others think such investigations are infeasible or would smack of political retribution, proposing instead that a bipartisan commission look into the matter.

Nov 28, 2008

• Put Bill Clinton in his wife's Senate seat

Amid the blizzard of resumes blanketing Washington as the Barack Obama era dawns, there is a superbly qualified candidate for full employment whose name has been overlooked. We refer, of course, to William Jefferson Clinton, America's 42nd chief executive and commander in chief. Yet now, by a wonderful combination of circumstances, comes an opportunity to harness his unquestioned political talents to benefit his country, the Democratic Party, New York state and his spouse. If, as is expected, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state, New York Gov. David Paterson could send her husband to the U.S. Senate.

Nov 27, 2008

• Sexual-harassment training? It's nonsense. I'm not going

Four years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law requiring all California employers with more than 50 people to provide sexual-harassment training for each of their employees. The University of California raised no objection and submitted to its authority.

Nov 27, 2008

• A rough flight, a talk with God and a lesson in gratitude

I was crammed into a middle seat. The guy in front was practically in my lap and I had my arms drawn in tightly as I pecked furiously on the keyboard. God glanced over. "What are you working on?" He asked.

Nov 27, 2008

• Obama and the Clintons were never really that far apart

The unsurprising moderation of Barack Obama has caught many people by surprise. At this point, he seems intent on restoring a version of the old Clinton presidency - Hillary Clinton running foreign policy, Robert Rubin's ensemble running the economy, Bill Richardson at Commerce and nary a certified cut 'n' runner on Iraq anywhere in sight. The "change" candidate seems intent on vindicating that old French expression: The more things change, the more they remain the same. Oui.

Nov 26, 2008

• Obama has Osama reeling

Having a last name that sounds like al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's first name has never been a political plus for Barack Obama. Could it now be a burden for al-Qaida, too?

Nov 26, 2008

• Picking Holder as attorney general could raise questions

Barack Obama's apparent decision to ask Eric Holder to be his attorney general is not without peril for a young president-elect who has repeatedly promised to clean up the scandal-polluted, partisan atmosphere of Washington.

Nov 26, 2008

• World's navies must join the fight against Somali pirates

When piracy threatens global commerce, great powers need to fight back - collectively.

Nov 25, 2008

• Poor George. We don't appreciate him

We should be ashamed of how poorly we have treated President Bush.

Nov 25, 2008

• D.C. hearings made this clear: Big 3 don't get it

What are we to think of the Big Three automakers plea to Congress (and each of us) for a $25 billion bailout, euphemistically known as a bridge loan or rescue package?

Nov 25, 2008

• Radio Free Europe still a force of freedom

The word is powerful.

Nov 24, 2008

• Sit for a moment to honor the toilet

Last Wednesday was World Toilet Day. You might chuckle or blush, but it's worth taking a moment to acknowledge what the humble loo has done for us.

Nov 24, 2008

• Guns and abortion trigger a dilemma for conservatives

Of conservatives' few victories this year, the most cherished came when the Supreme Court, in District of Columbia v. Heller, held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. Now, however, a distinguished conservative jurist argues that the court's ruling was mistaken and had the principal flaws of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 abortion ruling that conservatives execrate as judicial overreaching. Both rulings, says J. Harvie Wilkinson, suddenly recognized a judicially enforceable right grounded in "an ambiguous constitutional text."

Nov 24, 2008

• Despite the obvious short-term pain, a recession will be good for the U.S.

Virtually all of America's financial and political artillery has been dragooned into the great task of heading off a recession. This is exactly the wrong way to go. As painful as it will be in the short run, a recession is just what we need.

Nov 23, 2008

• Our miserly treatment of veterans has long, shameful history

There seems to be little energy these days for anything but anxiety and finger-pointing about the economy. Still, it's sobering - even shocking - that Monday's final report by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses failed to find a place on the front page of a single major newspaper.

Nov 23, 2008

• A company that doesn't need or want a bailout: Wal-Mart

While America's auto manufacturers and other companies are begging Washington for bailouts, the liberal-derided Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is making money hand over fist, providing the nation with more jobs than any other employer and doing something else very, very positive: serving the poor.

Nov 21, 2008

• More troops, new strategy needed to win in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - American troops in Afghanistan are fighting what will soon become Barack Obama's war - not just because he will inherit it, but also because he has claimed it. This is "the right battlefield," Obama has said. The war in Afghanistan "has to be won."

Nov 21, 2008

• A great secretary of state is born that way, not made

Having worked for six secretaries of state over 20 years, I have a pretty clear sense of what makes a good one - and with the economic and financial crisis overshadowing foreign policy these days, the selection of an effective secretary of state is now more imperative than ever.

Nov 21, 2008

• U.S. needs Obama to emulate FDR's jaunty optimism

Enough Lincoln. More FDR. This is my shorthand advice to Barack Obama, who in several interviews has talked about how he wants to emulate Abraham Lincoln. He said that along with the Bible, the other book he would take with him to a desert island is Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals." It's a useful book - but not if that desert island has high unemployment, a housing crisis, a frozen financial system and no consumer confidence. In that case, a book about Franklin D. Roosevelt would do better.

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