David Friedman

Few Californians seem aware of the state's disturbing economic circumstances. The economy is losing well-paying blue-collar and middle-class jobs at an astounding rate, especially in the Bay Area. Meanwhile, growth is increasingly concentrated in a handful of outlying counties. As a result, California's economy is fragmenting as never before between slow-growth, politically powerful population centers and pro-growth, politically marginal counties that surround urban cores. And California's leaders seem indifferent.

Since January 2001, the state has officially lost a… more

Just a few days ago, Ichiro Suzuki, hailed by the Seattle Mariners' media guide as "the best Japanese import to come along since the VCR," meekly grounded out to give the Oakland Athletics a division title. Soon after that, the Mariners traveled to Anaheim where they ended the season with two losses to the Angels, a playoff-bound team for the first time since 1986.

The Mariners were supposed to be the best team in baseball. They won 116 games last year, but failed to make the… more

As midterm elections approach, a volatile stock market and sluggish recovery have made many a politician long for the Clinton administration's economic policies. In 1993, the federal government imposed stiff tax increases to reduce budget deficits so interest rates would fall. Soon afterward, there was a boom. Today, the red ink is flowing again in the public sector, and there's talk of aborting the next phases of the Bush administration's tax cut to lighten government debt burdens, keep interest rates… more

If the U.S. economy is growing at anything like the 5.6% annual clip reported last quarter, why are U.S. stock markets sagging and economic confidence still shaky? Corporate accounting skulduggery and fear of terrorist attacks are commonly cited reasons. But the real problem is more fundamental: Nobody seems to know how the economy will generate new and sustained wealth. Currently, the most bureaucratic and least productive sectors--government, health-care, social and education services--are driving the economy, while entrepreneurial industries and manufacturing… more

It's been a tough time for those of us who think that honest debate still plays an important role in our public life. We've witnessed, it's said, "the end of ideology," the death of the unthinking passions that forever tarnished the 20th century. Yet, the daily news is replete with breathtakingly incomprehensible public policies that belie claims that ours is an age of sober reason.

Greg Miller is an American soldier who suffered a massive facial wound while serving in our… more

We are inundated with warnings, advice and studies that deeply affect how we live. Yet, many are poorly understood, if not misleading.

It's commonplace to note, for instance, that two-pack-a-day smokers face 20 times the lung cancer risk of non-smokers. What does that really mean to someone contemplating taking up the habit?

On average, around 10 nonsmokers per 100,000 are expected to get lung cancer. At 20 times the risk for heavy smokers, about 200 per 100,000 people will contract… more

After all the rhapsody about the digital age, it was skyrocketing home prices and sales that finally shook the U.S. economy out of its doldrums this year. While stock markets languished, mortgage refinancing pumped more than $1 trillion into consumers' pockets. Nationally, average home prices rose above the $200,000 mark for the first time ever. But rather than signal prosperity, the housing boom may be largely driven by the financial maneuvers of wealthier Americans. Housing, in fact, has become part… more

Over the past several weeks, we have been treated to a festival of selective reporting. In the Middle East, Israel was hammered with headlines claiming a massacre of hundreds, if not thousands in Jenin. The charges proved false. In a revealing example, Israeli surveillance cameras captured a mock funeral, replete with a walking "corpse," that had been staged in the battered city to manipulate world opinion.

Yet, the global media remained oddly unmoved by such facts. "Sometimes," a Palestinian lectured the… more

It came as a shock last week when I returned from a trip and found almost no one in Southern California knew about the sobering California employment data scooped by the Bay Area media. Periodic revisions to the official statistics now suggest that 180,000 more people than previously estimated lost their jobs in the recession. If so, such data would change our understanding of the state's setback from a mere economic blip into something far more serious.

Then the UCLA… more

Orthodox free traders were stunned by the Bush administration's recent decision to impose tariffs of 8% to 30% on some steel imports to protect U.S. producers. But if they read the law the administration used to justify its action, they would learn that the industry clearly qualifies for relief under long-standing rules of international commerce. Still, the Bush administration isn't off the hook. While correctly acknowledging U.S. steel's plight, it cynically manipulated the relief package in ways that will neither… more