What killed inflation?
April 10, 2019
By Robert Samuelson The Phillips Curve is dead; long live the Phillips Curve. One of today’s economic mysteries is: Why is inflation so low? The unemployment rate is a puny…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: op-ed
Whither the philosopher-president?
April 7, 2019
By Kathleen Parker In his most famous dialogue, “The Republic,” Plato, via Socrates, explored the idea that a just state would best function under the leadership of a perfectly…
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Can we fix the schools? (Maybe not.)
April 7, 2019
By Robert Samuelson You can count on one familiar refrain in the 2020 presidential campaign: Fix the schools. Faith in education is one of the nation’s bedrock values. Better schools…
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Vets’ charities are a good way to say ‘thanks.’ But be cautious
April 5, 2019
By Richard Eckstrom, S.C. Comptroller At first glance, they appear to be the noblest of causes. Their brochures feature images that tug at the heartstrings – perhaps a uniformed man…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: on-the-move, op-ed
Has the market gone mad?
April 3, 2019
By Robert Samuelson If you think you understand what’s going on with the global economy, you’re probably not paying attention. On the one hand, the stock market is powering ahead.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: op-ed
Kiss me, kiss me not
April 2, 2019
By Kathleen Parker CAMDEN, S.C. – At a recent brunch here preceding the Carolina Cup steeplechase race, the host gave me a gift of hometown recognition and, though we…
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Can I call ya Jo(k)e?
April 1, 2019
By Kathleen Parker It may be a truism-in-the-making that one’s political career is over when, as a candidate, you must first apologize for your sex and race, which can…
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Why Moore is less
March 29, 2019
By Robert Samuelson The real reason that Stephen Moore does not belong on the Federal Reserve Board is not that he is unqualified for the job, though he is. Nor…
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Has the next bubble arrived?
March 27, 2019
By Robert Samuelson There are still some economists who fear another crash. The latest is Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington. In a new…
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Requiem for an investigation
March 26, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Cathartic, it was not. The relentlessly plodding Mueller report finally ended after a 22-month whodunit that climaxed to the sound of pffft. There is no evidence…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: op-ed
Has America gone socialist?
March 22, 2019
By Robert Samuelson We Americans are all socialists now. That’s news. Since at least 1906, scholars have contended just the opposite. What happened in 1906 was that Werner Sombart, a…
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Too rich to run in 2020
March 20, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Donald Trump has given success a bad name. That is, the president’s much-boasted-about wealth has soured many Americans’ taste for even the Horatio Alger bootstrapping stories.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: op-ed
How to fix the college admissions scandal (warning: you may hate it)
March 19, 2019
By Robert Samuelson We all know that “getting into the right college” is as traumatic for parents — or more so — as it is for their children. But who…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: op-ed
Hasta luego, Beto
March 18, 2019
By Kathleen Parker It must be a grown-up thing, but every time I see Beto O’Rourke, I want to fix him a hamburger. He’s precious. And, if my eyes…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: op-ed
The fate of Brexit?
March 18, 2019
By Robert Samuelson Those of us who have always thought that Brexit — Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union — was a bad idea should be feeling self-satisfied and vindicated…
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Thank you, Bubba and Tuck
March 14, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Some days you wake up and think, “Nope, not getting up.” I call these column days. Then, there are those other times when you practically hurl…
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Trump’s fantasy budget
March 14, 2019
By Robert Samuelson The good news about President Trump’s proposed 2020 budget is that it vividly illustrates the basic causes of large, chronic deficits — a mismatch between the government’s…
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Prescribed Fire: The Prescription for a Healthy Forest
March 11, 2019
By Ryan Bean, Clemson Extension Governor Henry McMaster has proclaimed March 2019 Prescribed Fire Awareness Month in SC. Prescribed burning is a very important management tool in the Southeastern…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: advice, environmental, op-ed
Why the trade deficit is good news
March 8, 2019
By Robert Samuelson If nothing else, the latest U.S. trade deficit — $621 billion in 2018 for goods and services — should give President Trump a lesson in the economics…
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Don’t tell Martha McSally she can’t
March 8, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Last December, I asked a question related to Martha McSally as she was about to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the late John McCain:…
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The buyback battle: a primer
March 6, 2019
By Robert Samuelson The latest pitched battle between Corporate America and its critics involves stock buybacks: Large companies’ purchases of their own shares on the stock market. The aim is…
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Hallie Hill Animal Sanctuary seeking sponsors and players for Putting for Paws golf tournament
March 4, 2019
Hallie Hill’s Annual Golf Fundraiser Set for April 1 at Seabrook Island Club’s Crooked Oaks Golf Course Hallie Hill Animal Sanctuary is set to host their annual Putting for Paws…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc Category: on-the-move, op-ed
Who brought us this boom?
March 3, 2019
By Robert Samuelson Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Princeton economist Alan Blinder calls it “The Obama-Trump Economic Boom.” This may be the best bad label for what may soon…
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Drafting women to end all wars
February 27, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Last week, a district court judge ruled that it is unconstitutional for only men to have to register with the Selective Service, opening the possibility that…
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Understanding the Brexit crackup
February 27, 2019
By Robert Samuelson They promised complexity, confusion and uncertainty — and, by golly, they delivered. What we’re talking about is Brexit; that’s shorthand for Britain’s decision to leave the European…
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Foreign Aid Should Only Go to Friends
February 26, 2019
By Nikki Haley In December 2017, President Trump courageously announced that the United States would officially recognize the truth that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and that we…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: op-ed
Economic policies or pipedreams?
February 24, 2019
By Robert Samuelson As Democrats swing left, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine what their triumph in the next election would mean for America. The presidential candidates endorse a variety…
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The MAGA curse
February 24, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Humans do the strangest things. In two recent why-dunits, the curious have wondered why: (1) a successful TV star would allegedly orchestrate a fake, hate-inspired attack…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: op-ed
Will the Dreamers ever catch a break?
February 20, 2019
By Robert Samuelson The “Dreamers” lost again. As you will recall, the Dreamers are illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as young children. Most have grown up…
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Our political identity needs to be American first
February 19, 2019
By Kathleen Parker There’s identity — and then there’s identity politics. The difference between them may well be the crux of our next presidential election. Identity is, obviously, who…
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The three amigas
February 18, 2019
By Kathleen Parker By the Republican response to the three most-famous Democratic freshmen in Congress — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (or AOC) of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida…
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The Green New Deal is make-believe
February 18, 2019
By Robert Samuelson The “Green New Deal” is upon us, and the question is what to make of it. The Democratic proposal mandates that, within a decade, virtually all fossil…
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The Social Security fantasy
February 10, 2019
By Robert Samuelson One of the great challenges of our time is to prevent Social Security and other programs for the elderly from taking over the national government. It may…
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Yearbook politics
February 5, 2019
By Kathleen Parker In 1983, just before winning a third term as Louisiana’s governor, Edwin Edwards famously said the only way he could lose the race was “if I’m…
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The banality of evil, 2019
February 1, 2019
By Kathleen Parker C.S. Lewis was only partly right when he wrote: The greatest evil … is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed…
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Job creation is job one
February 1, 2019
By Robert Samuelson Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome (“Jay”) Powell didn’t waste much time getting to the point at last week’s press conference. “My colleagues and I have one overarching goal:…
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Spoiler alert — or not?
January 29, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Billionaire coffee magnate Howard Schultz has two problems: Ross Perot and Ralph Nader. Schultz, a lifelong Democrat, said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday that he’s seriously…
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The debt — still out of control
January 29, 2019
By Robert Samuelson At the start of every year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) publishes its annual “The Budget and Economic Outlook,” a tome full of statistics, tables and charts.…
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Let them eat cake
January 25, 2019
By Kathleen Parker When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me,” he inadvertently foreshadowed the government shutdown…
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The Covington controversy and the narrative fallacy
January 23, 2019
By Kathleen Parker When a white, Catholic-school boy wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap is shown staring down a Native American Vietnam War veteran, sending the media scrambling…
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Columbia must rethink exemption-friendly mindset
January 21, 2019
By Moe Baddourah Columbia City Council We all hope the Bull Street development lives up to its billing as a shopping and dining hub generating thousands of jobs and $20…
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Reality checks in with congressional fresh(wo)men
January 21, 2019
By Kathleen Parker As the new freshman class of congressional women bopped, hopped and doo-wopped into town, old sourpusses smirked — they’ll meet reality soon enough. Actually, ’twas I…
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Global warming forever?
January 18, 2019
By Robert Samuelson On global climate change, I’ve changed my mind — just slightly. I’ve written about this issue for more than two decades, and my theme has been monotonously…
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Will the global credit boom go bust?
January 16, 2019
By Robert Samuelson We are in the midst of a worldwide credit boom that may be without precedent. The debt explosion suggests that the global economy — all the national…
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What did they do with Lindsey Graham?
January 16, 2019
By Kathleen Parker If loyalty only goes so far, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s goes every which way — depending on the day, week, month — or proximity to Election Day.…
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That stupidity of the wall
January 14, 2019
By Kathleen Parker As The Wall dominated the week’s news, a pitiful juxtaposition of two realities — one the hard truth, the other a lie — emerged to clarify…
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Why China clings to state capitalism
January 9, 2019
By Robert Samuelson American officials traveled to China this week in an effort to end the bitter trade war between the two countries. The main obstacle to a settlement is…
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Dealing with identity theft during the shutdown
January 9, 2019
By Kathleen Parker I’m betraying no secrets by observing that the government shutdown provides a window of opportunity for identity and electronic theft. Trust me, the crooks already know…
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The euro — still vulnerable after all these years
January 7, 2019
By Robert Samuelson On its 20th birthday, the best that can be said of the euro — the European currency used by 19 countries — is that it has survived.…
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South Carolina against the tides
January 7, 2019
By Kathleen Parker Tom Mullikin is that guy — you know, the one who finishes Christmas dinner, then takes off to scale Mount Everest, conducting business by satellite phone to…
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