Back in 1972, when I was a 10-year-old technology and news geek in Chicagoland, a particular story grabbed my attention. Someone had planted time bombs in safe deposit boxes across the country. Their timing systems could be set up to seven months in advance — an impressive feat in 1971 — using common wireless electric …
Mohandas Gandhi, the greatest pacifist of the 20th century, is widely quoted as having said, “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look back upon the Act depriving the whole nation of arms as the blackest.” Some have struggled to reconcile his pacifism with an opposition to disarmament. But there …
Like it or not, the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare, for short — is coming. Enrollment in state exchanges, online marketplaces for purchasing health coverage or applying for government-run programs, opens Oct. 1. Between now and then, governments across the land will blow millions of dollars in public relations campaigns to reach target audiences and …
The first round of negotiations over a new trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union is scheduled to start this week, but it may be doomed before it even begins. EU officials are demanding answers and threatening to call off the negotiations in light of the latest NSA revelations released last week showing …
When volatility prevails in the gold market, I love seeing so many different opinions because it promotes critical thinking and healthy markets. But because gold is unlike any other commodity, many perspectives can be extreme, such as “goldenfreudes” who take pleasure in gold bugs’ pain. I continue to persuade readers to take a balanced and …
Years ago, it was virtually unheard-of for someone to give up his/her U.S. citizenship. Then, one by one, a handful of famous cases surfaced… like Sir John Templeton, who renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1964 and moved to the Bahamas. At the time, Templeton was able to save $100 million that he would have otherwise …
A new meme is spreading in financial markets: The Fed is about to turn off the monetary spigot. U.S. Printmaster General Ben Bernanke announced that he might start reducing the monthly debt monetization program called “quantitative easing” (QE) as early as autumn 2013, and maybe stop it entirely by the middle of next year. He …
Many opponents of gun control support the war on drugs, and many critics and reformers of America’s drug laws tend to believe in gun control. Conservatives tend to fall into the first category and liberals into the second. In reality, these two issues are more similar than many people might think. In both cases — …
Perhaps the question is no longer if Obamacare will wreak havoc on the American economy. Instead, the query seems to have morphed into something far more dire and prophetic: Just how much chaos will the law inflict upon the American people, businesses, and the economy? Many wonder, too, if the law will actually improve the …
I was in Paris one time, in a park near the Louvre museum, enjoying a lazy summer day. I wasn’t the only one with such a great idea. There were probably a few hundred others enjoying the sunshine — children playing soccer, kissing lovers entwined on the grass, businessmen on a lunch break… You can …