Business at New York bars and restaurants has plummeted by as much as 50 percent in the wake of the smoking ban — and the drop has already sparked layoffs and left some establishments on the brink of shutting their doors, a Post survey has found.
The web and print publications overflow with ideas on what kind of country Iraq ought to be and what the U.S. should do to bring it about. But let us not forget that self-government is a first principle of freedom. That cannot be achieved so long as the U.S. military is there. The U.S. has done enough damage to this poor country. The proper U.S. plan for Iraq consists of one priority: get out!
Stephen Downs was arrested wearing a “Peace on Earth, Give Peace a Chance” T-shirt while walking with his son at Crossgates Mall near Albany, New York. Security guards approached the two men and instructed them to remove their shirts, which were made at the mall. The 31-year-old son complied with the order but the 61-year-old father did not. The guards returned with a police officer who removed the father in handcuffs.
There are clues and warnings, beyond mere contrarian instincts, that inflation will once again have her day. Inflation is a process that forcefully re-distributes wealth from one group to another. Prices do not change uniformly in this process, and those that get the new dollars before their costs have risen gain at the expense of those whose costs rise first.
The popular notion that an increase in the stock of money is socially and economically beneficial is one of the great fallacies of our time. It has lived on throughout the centuries, embraced by kings and presidents, politicians and businessmen. It has shattered numerous currencies, inflicted incalculable harm, and caused social and political upheavals.
In the election of 2000, John Ashcroft managed to lose his Missouri seat in the U.S. Senate by losing to a dead man. However, in the last few weeks, we have seen the U.S. dollar do one better, as it has lost ground to what was supposed to be a dead currency, the Iraqi dinar, better known as the Saddam dinar, which portrayed the face of the allegedly-deceased Iraqi president. In both cases, the loser was thought to be invulnerable only to be bitten by reality.
