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

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…

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

Too rich to run in 2020

  March 20, 2019
Kathleen Parker

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.…

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Posted 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…

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

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

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

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…

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

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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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc   Category: op-ed

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

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

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

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…

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our unhappy new year

  January 2, 2019

By Robert Samuelson   As we enter 2019, the question that looms over America is simple: Can we govern? The answer is no. Unless this changes — truly a long shot…

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

Good luck to the Fed

  December 17, 2018

By Robert Samuelson   The nine-year economic recovery is dead. Long live the recovery. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) — the Federal Reserve’s main policymaking body — meets this week…

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

A vote for animals is a vote for humanity

  December 12, 2018

By Kathleen Parker   For people who support the humane treatment of animals, including those that end up on America’s dinner plates, passage this week of the farm bill would…

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

Epstein accusers deserve due process

  December 9, 2018

By Kathleen Parker   Recent revelations about billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s sweetheart deal with government prosecutors — thanks to a cadre of all-star defense attorneys who basically treated underage…

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

More data exposing the income stagnation myth

  December 9, 2018

By Robert Samuelson   We in the media have a problem. Actually, it’s a big problem for all of us. We have become addicted to the notion that, except for the…

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

The stock market decline means … what?

  December 5, 2018

By Robert Samuelson   The stock market giveth; the stock market taketh away. With Wednesday a federal holiday to honor former President George H.W. Bush, the U.S. stock market will be…

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

Trump vs. the Fed

  December 3, 2018

By Robert Samuelson   President Trump, do yourself a favor. Stop attacking the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell (yes, the same Powell you nominated). The result would be better…

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

Lies, lies — and dadgum lies

  December 3, 2018

By Kathleen Parker   Michael Cohen’s guilty plea Thursday that he lied to Congress about Donald Trump’s interests in building a Moscow tower comes as little surprise — everyone attached…

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