Viewpoints

It is official: Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is dead. Mueller, nonetheless, is not ready to retire yet. Like a soap opera character who has exhausted the plot, Mueller has jumped the shark. In order to save his sagging narrative, Mueller has taken up the causes of two women who claimed to have had […]

As clinicians, we’re bound by professionalism and our ethical responsibilities to do no harm and to do what we can to address the pain and suffering of our patients. When powerful pain-relieving opioid medications were introduced a few decades ago, they seemed to be a way to do both. We now know that the marketing […]

One of the surprising results of Italy’s election in March was a huge jump in support for the League–formerly known as the Northern League–up to nearly 18 percent, from around only 4 percent in 2013. In October 2017, the party’s leader, Matteo Salvini, said that the time had come for the League to progress from […]

What happens when a business becomes an ideological movement? Blockchain entrepreneurs and early adopters of cryptocurrencies are after financial success, but many also believe they are changing the world. This belief can be very potent in creating a vision and sense of common purpose, but it can also lead to unrealistic expectations, disregard for contrarian […]

No matter the state of the market or the world economy, some people are making money and others are losing. Not everybody wins at the same time and neither does everybody lose at the same time. Certainly, it is more reassuring to imagine that “we are all in this together” or “everybody is in the […]

No. That’s about all there is to say in response to the official Women’s March Twitter page, which decried the federal government’s move to seize and shut down Backpage.com, a multibillion-dollar internet human trafficking platform. Except that there is so much more to say, because there is so much wrong with an entity that purports to […]

America’s culture of violence continually manifests itself through horrific active shooter tragedies. Leadership is critical from law enforcement, private security professionals, government officials, property managers, and all who are responsible for safeguarding individuals entrusted to their care. Each and every person privileged to call America home must also be vigilant, and always aware of their […]

Over one and a half billion Muslims—Sufis, Sunnis, and Shias, and their offshoots, the Ahmadiyyas, Alawites, Bahais, and Ismailis—live peacefully as good neighbors and valued global citizens. Unfortunately, a sect, Wahhabism, has long encouraged virulently anti-Western ideas and became what The Economist terms “a petri dish for jihadism.” Wahhabi clerics have been close to the […]

For decades, the Saudis have been economic giants and political dwarfs. Throughout most of the post-World War II period, Saudi Arabia, with its apparently endless oil reserves, has been vital to the West as a (reasonably) safe and secure source of energy. As such, the United States committed to Saudi defense, provided the country with […]

As all American students learn, the First Amendment to the Constitution protects freedom of expression. So precious was this idea to the founding fathers that they assigned it first place in the Bill of Rights. This freedom—the right to unfettered speech, and the right to communicate one’s thoughts and opinions—has enabled America to thrive as […]

Automation is not going away. Neither is the idea of a guaranteed basic income (GBI) paid by the government to mitigate the effects on jobs. Billionaire and Microsoft founder Bill Gates suggested the introduction of an income tax on robots, like that on employee wages. Proceeds of this tax would be used to provide a […]

Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis, the world economy has recovered but the world’s balance sheet has not. Gigantic debt bubbles in stocks, bonds, commodities, and real estate could burst as deflation causes debtors’ income to fall. Throughout history, deflation in the context of high debt—around 300 percent of world GDP as of 2017—has […]

Watching the continuing trials of the debt-laden Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co., we are reminded that the side effect of years of central bank largesse will be debt deflation of epic proportions. The massive liabilities accumulated by the likes of HNA, Anbang Insurance Group, and even Japanese firm SoftBank Group Corp. will eventually come back […]

Although vigilance is always the order of every day, the month of April is unique due to anniversaries of horrendous attacks at Virginia Tech and Columbine. On April 16, we reverently pause to remember the 33 lives lost in 2007 at Virginia Tech. On April 20, we solemnly remember the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine […]

China’s communist regime is lending and investing heavily throughout Latin America, and not for charity. Slowly but surely, the strategy is eating away at U.S. foreign-policy dominance in the region. Foreign investment from the People’s Republic of China is never an act of mere capitalist enterprise or altruism. Rather, the totalitarian regime is picking up […]

Dear Special Counsel Robert Mueller: On May 17, 2017, you were appointed special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice by Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Your job was supposedly to investigate “any links and/or coordination” between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election cycle. Your probe was an immediate […]

European integration post-World War II was based on common economic interests, a desire for exchange, and seeking the huge advantages of a free market unconstrained by national borders. The integration confirmed again the historic wisdom that the free movement of goods and people is a binding element that promotes peace. This “internal market” provides the economic […]

The mandate of Janet Yellen in the Federal Reserve can be considered the “lost opportunity.” Yellen and the Fed delayed urgent and justified rate increases because they feared a bad market reaction, and they didn’t want to rock the boat ahead of the presidential elections in 2016. However, the first press conference by Jerome Powell as chairman of the Fed was a positive surprise. […]

The risk of a trade war between China and the United States has been simmering below the surface ever since Donald Trump became president in 2016. In early 2018, the word “risk” is gone, and the trade war has become a reality. As usual, the mainstream media blames Trump for wreaking havoc on the stock […]

Any activity that leads to a person’s exploitation, enslavement, or manipulation is a reprehensible violation of human dignity. Whenever selfishness, criminal enterprises, or an ideology leads to the buying, selling, or bartering of a person, there must be outrage. In simple terms, human trafficking is a scourge against human dignity that demands unequivocal denouncement, collaborative […]