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…

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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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By Robert Samuelson   We aren’t stagnating, after all. Unless you’ve been hibernating in the Himalayas, you must know of the recent surge in economic inequality. It’s not just that the…

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By Robert Samuelson   The United States-China trade war goes on … and on and on. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet later this week…

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By Kathleen Parker   As newly elected congresswomen are poised to color this city blue, one wonders what effect they’ll realistically have on the gridlock known as the House of…

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By Robert Samuelson   Here’s today’s economic quiz: Was the 2007-09 Great Recession more damaging than the Great Depression of the 1930s? Surely the answer is “no.” In the 1930s, unemployment…

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By Kathleen Parker   Strutting isn’t just for turkeys anymore. We’re reminded of this nearly every day, but Donald Trump outdid himself Thanksgiving Day when a reporter asked the president what…

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By Kathleen Parker   When polarity defines us, it’s easy to lose sight of our common humanity. But all is not political, as nature increasingly reminds us. The fires in…

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By Kathleen Parker   It wasn’t a blue trickle, but nor was it a tsunami. Rather, the midterm elections brought a gentle, purplish wave of mostly center-leaning Democrats whose profiles…

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By Robert Samuelson   President Trump and Congress face a mountain of unfinished business — and chances are that most of it will stay unfinished. Of course, no one knows what…

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By Kathleen Parker    The midterm elections are finally over, more or less, and we got what we got — Donald Trump is still president. Sorry, but someone had to…

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By Kathleen Parker    BEAUFORT, S.C. – As the famed author Pat Conroy began his journey from this earth two years ago, he might have dreamed of weekends like this.…

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By Robert Samuelson   We’ll know soon who won the fiercely contested midterm elections, but we already know who lost: We all did. This election has been a referendum on President…

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By Robert Samuelson   Perhaps it was naivete, ignorance or stupidity — or all three — but when I was growing up in the 1950s in a suburb of New York…

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By Kathleen Parker   Network announcer: We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this special message from the president of the United States. My fellow Americans. I want to speak…

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By Robert Samuelson   The story of American capitalism is a contradiction. It has succeeded brilliantly in creating widespread material well-being; and yet, it has not satisfied a popular yearning for…

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By Robert Samuelson   Globalization strikes again. The latest target is entrepreneurship. For decades, promoting startup firms through venture capital and other methods of business investment seemed a peculiarly American strength.…

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By Kathleen Parker     Slowly but inevitably, the two major political parties have become the party of women and the party of men — guess which is which —…

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By Robert Samuelson   Competition is dying. That’s the latest complaint against American business. We have too many super-sized firms, excessively large and unnaturally profitable. Dubious mergers, permitted by toothless antitrust…

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By Kathleen Parker   As a new-product junkie, it was foregone that I’d swap a C-note for something called CBD, a cannabis extract promising relief from pain and anxiety, the…

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