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Happy Birthday to a Great President
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
In short, the government was limited, unobtrusive, and benign.
Author Archive for Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Erasing Reagan? The Illiberal War on Truth
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Falsehood is the enemy of human progress.
Christmas Thoughts, 2012
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The gentle spirit of Christmas brings a sense of fresh promise and renewal every year. The remembrances and commemorations of the birth of an innocent baby have a softening effect. Christmas provides a respite, even surcease, from the stresses, bruises, frictions, and pressures of everyday life. Indeed, this annual event reminds us that children are [...]
The Five Best Christmas Movies: And the Gift of Grace and Renewal
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Let’s have a happy debate: What are the five best Christmas movies of all time? Obviously, tastes differ and change over time. Here are my five favorites, the ones I am willing to watch every Christmas season, starting with number five and ending with my absolute favorite: Number five: The Bishop’s Wife — In this [...]
Twinkie Killers, Part 2: Long Live the Twinkie!
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Can the Twinkie and other famous Hostess brands be saved? I hope so, and I’ll offer my own two cents’ on one possible way of doing so. First, though, I’d like to address two of the criticisms of my previous article—namely, that I confined my comments to the Bakery union and the allegation that I [...]
Blasted Twinkie Killers!
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Drat! I’m bummed—saddened by the news that the Hostess company, home of the Twinkie and other venerable sugary snacks, is shutting down. I’ll bet I haven’t eaten more than three or four Twinkies in the last 30 years, so the demise of Hostess doesn’t adversely impact my lifestyle. It’s just that, for baby boomers like [...]
Obama: The Second FDR Rather Than the Second Carter
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
I’ve thought a lot over the last few years about an axiom attributed to Mark Twain, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” The question to me was whether the presidency of Barack Obama would “rhyme” with that of Jimmy Carter or Franklin Roosevelt. Given the 2012 election results, FDR might be the more apt [...]
The Politically Incorrect Billionaire
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Two news items about “the rich” recently popped up online within a couple of hours of each other. Story No. 1: Pew Research Center found that non-rich Americans have ambivalent feelings toward the rich: On the positive side, there was admiration for those “who get rich by working hard” and a sense that rich Americans [...]
The Winners and Losers From QE3
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The only doubt about the Federal Reserve’s decision to embark on a third round of quantitative easing was about when it would begin. It was a foregone conclusion that Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Fed would resort to more quantitative easing. Under his leadership, the Federal Reserve has become a one-trick pony. Their solution for every economic [...]
Book Review: Eco-Tyranny
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson on Jul 31, 2012 in Featured, Government & Politics, Law & Justice, On Books, The Economy 
In Eco-Tyranny, author Brian Sussman sounds a timely and important warning: The radical “greens” are not in retreat. With the defeat of cap-and-trade legislation in 2010 and the increasingly discredited alarmist theory of anthropogenic global warming, the greens may have lowered their public profile; however, with the full cooperation of the Obama administration, they are [...]
The Election-Year Politics of Energy
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Realizing that his popularity may decline as the price of gasoline rises, President Obama is barnstorming the country, emphatically insisting that drilling for more oil isn’t the cure for high gas prices and that wind and solar energy represent our energy future. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently challenged Obama, claiming that gas prices would fall [...]
A Whiff of Privatization
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Three decades ago, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher implemented a policy called “privatization” to rejuvenate the moribund economy of the United Kingdom. Like the United States today, the cost of a too-large government was sapping the vitality of the U.K.’s economy. The private sector was staggering under the heavy tax burden needed to fund the public [...]
The State of the Union: An Inside Report
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
On Tuesday evening, I had the honor of attending the State of the Union address as the guest of Congressman Mike Kelly (PA-03). Here are my impressions in abbreviated form: The address seemed more like a rewrite of previous speeches than an original work. Sure, there were new anecdotes and fresh twists on old policy [...]
Sports, Concussions, and Contemporary American Culture
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
If you follow professional sports, and especially if you are a football or hockey fan, you undoubtedly are aware of the rash of concussions that have rendered players unfit to play. Now there’s a rash of lawsuits being filed against the National Football League, the latest of which includes a group of 106 retired football [...]
China’s “Superior” Economic Model?
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
In a recent piece for the Wall Street Journal, Andy Stern, an Obama insider and one of organized labor’s more aggressive personalities, praised what he called “China’s superior economic model.” Does China have a superior economic model? That depends: Superior to what? Mr. Stern, who headed the Service Employees International Union, cited Andy Grove, founder [...]
Green Fiascoes and Boondoggles
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
A barrage of news headlines on the Solyndra scandal continue to remind us that President Obama made green jobs one of his administration’s priorities. Those headlines also reveal this initiative to have been a costly mistake. The bankruptcy of Solyndra, the solar-panel manufacturer that has collapsed despite receiving half a billion dollars from the federal [...]
Veterans: What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
In economics, the first lesson I teach my pupils is the lesson of things that are seen and things that are not seen. Actions have some effects that are readily apparent and others are overlooked or not perceived. It’s the same with our military veterans. We see the obvious price they’ve paid—the time they spent [...]
Short-Lived Euphoria in Europe
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, was a giddy day for European politicians and global investors. European Union officials announced a plan for addressing the EU’s worst financial problems. There would be a partial write-down of Greek sovereign debt—a 50 percent haircut for private bondholders, but no haircut for governmental creditors (the political class looks after its [...]
We’ve Been ZIRPed
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
It isn’t easy to earn interest income these days. Interest rates on government T-bills, banks’ savings accounts, and certificates of deposit are microscopic. You can blame our government and central bank. They have “ZIRPed” millions of American savers. Here are the details: According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the average interest rate paid on federal [...]
Kaline, Colavito & Cash: The Boys of October
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.” —Terence Mann (played by James Earl Jones), Field of Dreams For over 100 years, baseball has been a cultural reference point for millions of Americans. Just as certain songs are associated with special times in our lives, so many of us remember our past [...]
Greece on the Brink
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The Greek government is in a gigantic financial hole and is teetering on the brink of defaulting on its debt. It has been able to limp along since last year only with bailouts from outside of Greece. According to the latest reports, the Greek government will run out of money in October unless it receives [...]
Greece, Germany and the Fate of the Euro
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
It has been over a year since I have written about the fragile condition of the European Union’s financial system. The financial crisis of a possible Greek default has been papered over since then, but now it is coming to a head again. Greece again is teetering on the brink of default. Last Friday, Greek [...]
President Obama’s Latest “Jobs” Gambit
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
If you watched President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress, you didn’t see anything new. He did what he does best—campaign for re-election and pay lip service to private enterprise and fiscal responsibility while proposing more top-down economic planning that (despite his claims to the contrary) will surely plunge the government more deeply [...]
Gold’s Meteoric Rise
by Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The price of gold has gone on a tear this summer, from slightly under $1500 per ounce to well over $1800 per ounce, and it looks like it wants to go higher. What gives? Well, if you bought gold last spring, you’re looking pretty smart. And if you bought gold a decade ago at $300 [...]
