When an imperious bully like Fidel Castro starts to fear, his instinct is to try to sow fear among his enemies. Today, with his student and benefactor, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, dying of cancer, what the Cuban dictator fears most is that his bankrupt regime in Havana is about to lose billions in critical aid and oil.

In a just published piece, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) tax experts Alex Brill and Alan Viard assess President Obama's plan to triple dividend tax rate.

In a sharp break from that campaign stance and the Administration's first three budgets, President Obama is now calling for an all-in dividend tax rate of almost 45 percent, the highest rate in 27 years. The president's about-face bodes ill for the economy.

If Obama's defense cuts are realized, this modern day "hollow force" will be less capable of securing America's interests and preserving the international leadership role that rests upon military preeminence.

Until the legislative process takes into account the long-term consequences of short-term policy actions (and inactions), we have no assurance that Medicare can be saved.

Wisconsin's results do not mean conservatives should abandon entitlement reform, but they should expect an energized Democratic base that will fight with all its might. They will need to talk persuasively about what entitlement reform means, stressing that it is absolutely necessary to preserve the lifetime security that entitlements provide.

Should IMF-style austerity programmes result in anything like the collapse of the Latvian economy in Europe's periphery, it would render the continued servicing of the periphery's debt well nigh impossible.

Abstract:

This study assesses the trade-off between drug safety and price savings in online drug purchases. Focusing on five brand-name prescription drugs, we acquire 370 drug samples from 41 online pharmacies and test their authenticity. Of the 41 websites, 8 are clearly US-based and verified by the National Association of...