The twin developments of the death of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio may offer a turning point for Latin America.

Chavez had established an eight-country empire of minions willing to do his bidding including Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Cuba. In addition, the Dominican Republic and Brazil are under his influence. Read More»

Now that all the data is in, the fundamental reason for Mitt Romney’s defeat is apparent, if largely unreported. It is not just that blacks, Latinos and single women showed up in record numbers at the polls. It’s that whites didn’t.

The final numbers suggest that 91.6 million votes were cast by whites — 7 million less than the 98.6 million cast in 2008! Meanwhile, 16.6 million blacks voted, 300,000 more than in 2008 and 11 million Latinos voted, 1.7 million more votes than were cast by Hispanics in 2008. Read More»

All along, the Tea Party voters have yet to get behind a single candidate. They still aren’t united, but in Iowa, there is evidence that Rick Santorum may be surging ahead.
In the Tea Party Patriots (TPP) telephone poll of 23,000 supporters nationally, Newt Gingrich led with 31 percent of the vote, followed by Michele Bachmann at 28 percent, Mitt Romney at 20 percent and Santorum with a surprising 16 percent. Read More»

On Tuesday last week, President Obama went to a small town in Kansas to lay out his basic campaign theme for the coming election: a commitment to “fairness.”

In Obama’s America, we all are dependent on the government, closely regulated, heavily taxed ... and poor. He boldly proclaims that rugged individualism doesn’t work and neither do tax cuts.

Instead, government management of the economy, heavy subsidies and universal welfare is the key to economic health. Read More»

To understand the Republican presidential race, grasp first that the party is one of ideas. One is born into the Democratic Party. If you are black or Latino or poor or gay or become a single mother, your partisan identity is often spoken for. But you become a member of the Republican Party by agreeing with certain ideas. Read More»

I used to like the flat tax. In fact, I used to propose exactly what Rick Perry is now pushing: an optional flat tax allowing taxpayers to either make their way through the labyrinth of IRS fine print in search of deductions or simply pay a flat percent of their income in taxes and be done with it. Read More»

Note to Readers: Economist Barry Elias provided invaluable aid in researching this column.

If the same methodology that was used in 1980 to chronicle the double-digit inflation of that era were in use today, we would have an inflation rate of 10 percent right now, according to ShadowGovernmentStatistics.com.

We are entering a massive era of stagflation, which recalls to us our writing in “Catastrophe,” published two years ago, that “inflaton may well be the enduring legacy of the Obama presidency.”

How does the federal government understate the inflation rate? Let us count the ways: Read More»

In our book “Revolt!,” we warn that inflation may well be the dominant legacy of the Obama presidency. While he had George W. Bush’s help in creating high unemployment, he has driven us into inflation all on his own. Read More»

While the federal Environmental Protection Administration is about to impose regulations and taxes on carbon emissions by executive fiat — in the name of stopping global climate change — the United States has already dramatically cut its emissions and probably has already complied with the Kyoto/Copenhagen goals for reduced emissions.

And this has been done without taxes, without regulations and without government intervention. Read More»

Is Barack Obama a socialist? A Muslim? Anti-American? Pro-Palestinian? Or just a man who is right sometimes and wrong most of the time? Bill O’Reilly opts for the second option in his new book, “Pinheads and Patriots.”

Bill rigorously focuses on what President Obama does, not on who he is. He refuses to speculate about motivation, preferring instead the more solid ground of observing and frequently condemning his policies. The whole is never larger than the sum of its parts in O’Reilly’s book. In fact, they’re not really added up at all. Read More»