Almost everyone has heard of consumer confidence indexes. They move stock markets, influence corporate decisions and alter governments’ economic outlooks. There is only one small problem with them. According to a study on two closely watched studies, consumer confidence studies are basically worthless as a predictor of future spending patterns. When you think of it, [...]

If you have been reading about hockey and the polarized arguments, charges & counter charges, and name calling, you might not be reading about the NHL strike. The real hostility has been the debate regarding the global warming “hockey stick,” a graphic that has become the poster child for the environmental movement. Published by Michael [...]

Armed with a study that the inability of felons to vote tipped the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush and helped Republicans gain control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats are moving to restore the voting rights of criminals (or as Hillary calls them “ex-offenders” or as we at Independent Sources like to think of [...]

First a plug. If you pay taxes then the best $50 you can spend is to join Tax Payers for Common Sense. The pork spending that they identify and fight allows more taxpayer money to be spent on sensible programs and/or be left in the private sector where it belongs.
Speaking of pork, farm supports are [...]

Interesting observation from Benjamin Powell, a professor of economics at San Jose State University, about what really happened to the American Pilgrims and why. Many people believe that after suffering through a severe winter, the Pilgrim’s food shortages were resolved the following spring when the Native Americans taught them to plant corn and a Thanksgiving [...]

Over the past 30 years, taxpayers have pumped over $30 billion into subsidizing Amtrak–a system that was supposed to be self-sustaining by the early 70s.
Reagan and the first President Bush tried to make Amtrak a private concern. This makes so much sense that it’s hard to believe that it even requires debate. There is no [...]

As accurately noted in the Wall Street Journal in a recent editorial, liability today has become what taxes were 20 or 30 years ago–an enormous drag on the U.S. economy and a political tool for redistributing wealth unrelated to any genuine injustice. An optimal fix would involve movement toward a British-style loser-pays system. Of course, [...]

On the heels of our last post about how things are generally getting better, a reminder from Business 2.0 magazine that there are a lot of mistakes along the way. It’s their 2005 edition of “101 Dumbest Moments in Business”

The following interesting comments in “Reason” from Neal Stephenson, author of the recently completed “Baroque Cycle:”
“The success of the U.S. has not come from one consistent cause, as far as I can make out. Instead the U.S. will find a way to succeed for a few decades based on one thing, then, when that peters [...]