The war against ExxonMobil

  November 15, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   If you care about free speech, you should pay attention to the campaign now being waged against ExxonMobil. More than 50 environmental and civil rights…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Dr. Carson, I presume?

  November 15, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   In the annals of presidential politics, it’s hard to recall anyone who has tried so hard to be so ordinary. The fascinating story of Dr. Ben…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

Bushes unleashed

  November 15, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   If the truth sets us free, then Bush family members should be warbling from rooftops. At least one Bush, patriarch George H.W. Bush, has been singing…

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The coming middle-class tax increase

  November 8, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   There is no tooth fairy. Republicans and Democrats take note. Taxes will surely continue to play a big role in the presidential campaign. The Republicans…

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Channeling Cassandra

  November 8, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   As Republican presidential candidates debate the debates, roiling and railing against the unfairness of it all, campaigns have been busy rebooting candidates and crafting fresh slogans.…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

Clash of the Floridians

  November 8, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   Soon after Wednesday night’s Republican debate, the phone rang: “Did the fat lady sing?” asked the voice on the other end. “Probably,” I said. Meaning, it…

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Grading the budget deal

  November 4, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   Give it a B-minus. The budget deal reached by congressional leaders has much to recommend it. Its biggest virtue, assuming it’s passed by Congress and…

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Dump the debt ceiling

  October 31, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   By now, it must be obvious to almost everyone that the federal debt ceiling has outlived whatever usefulness it once had. It does not discipline…

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Jeb’s fight club

  October 31, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   When all else is failing, reinvent yourself. This is the new strategy of Jeb Bush’s campaign. He’s not going to be so nice anymore. Emerging from…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

Paging Sidney Blumenthal

  October 31, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   Who the blast is Sidney Blumenthal? Doubtless many watching Thursday’s House select committee hearing on Benghazi must have wondered the same. This obviously important person’s name…

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Are we No. 1? It depends

  October 25, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   Americans have long been fascinated with global rankings. Where do we stand? How do we compare with other nations? We like to imagine ourselves as…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

The flight from reality

  October 25, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   We have all manner of policy proposals from the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, but there’s a sobering disconnect between what they’re advocating and the…

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Jeb, Jeb, Jeb

  October 25, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   It might be time for Katie Couric to ask Jeb Bush what he reads. Not this column, obviously, where last May I sagely, if humbly, urged…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

A woman in full

  October 25, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   With the latest poll numbers tallied and political pundits having spoken, a consensus has emerged: Hillary Clinton won the first Democratic debate and, barring a Benghazi…

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The coming cyber wars?

  October 19, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   We journalists often have mixed feelings about what we report and write. Naturally, we like to see our reporting vindicated by events or other reporting.…

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The Bernanke file

  October 19, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   Reading former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s new memoir of the financial crisis — “The Courage to Act” — you are reminded how lucky we…

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The mysterious investment bust

  October 19, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   In a fascinating talk recently, Jason Furman — the White House’s chief economist — took a crack at solving a great puzzle of the lackluster…

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The Sanders-Trump magical mystery tour

  October 19, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   Barrels of ink and galaxies of pixels have been sacrificed to solving the mystery of the spectacular rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. People are…

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Don’t do it, Paul Ryan

  October 19, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   The worst job in the world, it turns out, isn’t the U.S. presidency but speaker of the House of Representatives. “It’s where you go to die,”…

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Economic magicians wanted

  October 11, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   It’s no secret that although the U.S. economy is near “full employment” (September’s jobless rate: 5.1 percent), its rate of growth of about 2 percent…

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A Rose for racial reconciliation

  October 11, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   OXFORD, Md. — Long before there was a “Black Lives Matter” movement, there was Ruth Starr Rose — an activist artist whose paintings nearly a century…

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The GOP (New) McCarthyism

  October 11, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   The lede to this column is a deep, guttural groan that originates in the throat and expands into the lungs before collapsing in the pit of…

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A global recession?

  October 4, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   It’s beginning to look like the economic game of 2016 will be a tug of war, defined by a simple question. Will the plodding but…

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A safety net — not a gravy train

  October 4, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   And now comes the life-expectancy gap. It may change the national conversation over Social Security and an aging society — for the worse. We all…

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The GOP brat pack

  October 4, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   The Republican Party’s “Freedom Caucus,” which has several less-charitable nicknames on Capitol Hill, is the dog that caught the car. Now what? Having (sort of) unseated…

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With charity toward some

  October 4, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   In the spirit of charity prompted by Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S., let’s not call them bigots. Let’s just call them the clueless, the incurious,…

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The weakened Fed

  September 27, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   These are worrying days for the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank. Surrounded by critics on the left and right, it can hardly do anything without…

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Money quotes from GOP contenders

  September 27, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   Sometimes what seems the least consequential detail tells the most about a person’s character — or at least his or her intentions. Such was the case…

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A scarcity of economic growth

  September 21, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   Amid all the new government programs and tax cuts that have been proposed by the various presidential candidates — or will be as the campaign…

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Fairy tales in paradise

  September 21, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   Once upon a time in a twinkling city on a hill, little boys and girls were taught that anyone could grow up to become president. The…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

Cretins and squirrel heads

  September 21, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   Some in the media were quick to dismiss Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s speech attacking Donald Trump as the opportunistic rant of a 1 percenter. That is,…

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Will China crash?

  September 14, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   The questions that now face China are whether it can maintain its own internal stability and contribute to the vitality of the wider global economy.…

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Is the wage-price spiral dead?

  September 14, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   The wage-price spiral is dead — or at least dormant. As the Federal Reserve debates when to raise short-term interest rates, this is good news.…

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Ode to joy

  September 14, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   It’s no longer enough to be a happy warrior; now our candidates must be joyful! Oh, joie. Jeb Bush started the joy bender last week when…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

Trump’s tower of babble

  September 14, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   Donald Trump has a point when he talks about the need for immigrants to learn English. “That’s how we assimilate,” he says. Which is true, as…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Globalization at warp speed

  September 7, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   A fascinating but little-noted aspect of the recent financial turmoil is how much it’s been an international event. It started with doubts about China’s economy,…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Globalization at warp speed

  September 7, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   A fascinating but little-noted aspect of the recent financial turmoil is how much it’s been an international event. It started with doubts about China’s economy,…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Don-Don and the Trumpettes

  September 7, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   The Trump riddle continues to compel: How has he managed to successfully execute such a mass deception? He’s by no definition a conservative, and yet he…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Don-Don and the Trumpettes

  September 7, 2015

By Kathleen Parker   The Trump riddle continues to compel: How has he managed to successfully execute such a mass deception? He’s by no definition a conservative, and yet he…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Affirming a right to die

  August 30, 2015

By George F. Will   SAN DIEGO — Brittany Maynard was soon to die. The question was whether she could do so on her own terms, as a last act…

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Behind the crash — the commodities bubble

  August 30, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   First was the dot-com bubble, then the housing bubble. Now comes the commodities bubble. We don’t fully understand the stock market’s current turmoil, but we…

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The havoc that Trump wreaks

  August 26, 2015

By George F. Will   Every sulfurous belch from the molten interior of the volcanic Trump phenomenon injures the chances of a Republican presidency. After Donald Trump finishes plastering a…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

The havoc that Trump wreaks

  August 26, 2015

By George F. Will   Every sulfurous belch from the molten interior of the volcanic Trump phenomenon injures the chances of a Republican presidency. After Donald Trump finishes plastering a…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Trump defines down the GOP

  August 24, 2015

By George F. Will   It has come to this: The GOP, formerly the party of Lincoln and ostensibly the party of liberty and limited government, is being defined by…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Trump defines down the GOP

  August 24, 2015

By George F. Will   It has come to this: The GOP, formerly the party of Lincoln and ostensibly the party of liberty and limited government, is being defined by…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Internet roulette

  August 24, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   Are we ready for the “Internet of Things”? Probably not. The phrase — coined in 1999 by researcher Kevin Ashton while working for Procter &…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Internet roulette

  August 24, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   Are we ready for the “Internet of Things”? Probably not. The phrase — coined in 1999 by researcher Kevin Ashton while working for Procter &…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: headlines, op-ed

Europe’s sobering warning on jobs

  August 24, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   We can learn from Europe about job creation, but many Americans may reject the underlying lesson. It is: If you price labor too high —…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

Europe’s sobering warning on jobs

  August 24, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   We can learn from Europe about job creation, but many Americans may reject the underlying lesson. It is: If you price labor too high —…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed

China’s risky money game

  August 17, 2015

By Robert J. Samuelson   To understand China’s surprise currency devaluation, you need context. China is engineering a major economic transformation — or, at least, trying. For years, it relied…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: op-ed