WHAT IS THE TRUTH? IN POLITICS, FACTS MAY BE HARD TO UNCOVER

A Little Goes a Long Way

A little disrespect is not a bad thing. Skepticism is essential to chasten what Walt Whitman called "the never-ending audacity of elected persons." But, carried too far, ridicule of the people we choose to govern us may undermine self-government itself.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Life

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The outcome of the elections this year will hinge on what people believe is the truth. Too many have learned well how to package the half truth or too simplified version of an event or action. The public hopefully will not become frustrated ... but rather mad, and seek out the truth by relying on more than one source of media.

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"Keep some perspective on Washington's role in the economy ... what the President and the Congress can and can not do to pump it up.

Presidents have less economic clout than Congress or the Fed. Can only propose laws, marshal votes and veto what they don't like ... especially when different parties control the White House and Congress.

But a larger reality is often obscured in the finger-pointing ... Democrats blaming Bush for recession. Republicans pinning it on Congress.

Washington doesn't "run" our economy. Can't "jump start" it, like a car with a drained battery. Recovery never was easy to manage, but it's even trickier today in a very interdependent world economy.

The U.S. economy is run by millions of private decision makers, not only here but all over the world ... businesses, consumers, investors. Their plans and actions, not gov't strategy, really call the shots.

What's more, this isn't a typical economic slowdown we're in. Not just a standard trough in the business cycle after years of growth. Even when the slump is over, the U.S. won't go back to business as usual.

Historic transformation is taking place in the world economy ... far-reaching productivity revolution with many facets, including these:

Lessening of gov't economic control ... the collapse of communism, grudging progress against protectionism. Pragmatism replacing ideology.

The spread of technology and production to once-backward nations.

Downsizing by giant corporations in all countries, not just U.S., to meet the competition of lower-cost, nimble, innovative small firms.

Soaring world trade despite the seductive song of protectionism ..."

Private Newsletter

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The most valuable result of all education is to make you do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

Thomas Huxley

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"I can make the ultimate argument for free trade between the U.S. and Mexico with just two numbers. Here they are: 1986 - $12 billion; 1991 - $33 billion. That's how much Mexican purchases of U.S. goods and services increased after Mexico began opening its economy to foreign competition and slashed tariffs."

Forbes Editor,

James Michael

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The secret of dealing successfully with a child is not be its parent.

Matt Lazarus

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Southern-Fried Socialism

Remember what happened to France when socialist Francois Mitterrand won the presidency in 1981 and actually tried to implement his far-out leftist platform? The economy tanked. Stocks crashed. Interest rates soared. The currency collapsed. Only a 180-degree turn two years later revived France and saved Mitterrand from perishing politically.

We have a similar situation with the Democratic ticket of Clinton and Gore. Clinton plans a Mitterrand-style spending binge, which he bills as "a bold investment agenda." His high taxes will dry up private sector capital spending the way hot sun on a New York sidewalk dries a puddle. Gore naively buys into apocalyptic environmentalism, the kind that believes "saving: the earth requires powerful, Soviet-style bureaucratic controls. It's Marxism with a green face.

Watch the polls. If this callow couple look as though they will win, stocks and bonds will falter. Next year the economy would do the same, with a speed and a depth that would make this recession look like a boom.

Malcolm Forbes

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Double Standards

Presidents Reagan and Bush were angrily denounced by much of the media and numerous constitutional scholars for making Roe v. Wade an important criterion for nominating Supreme Court justices. Picking judges on the basis of their views on this contentious issue was declared improper and unseemly.

The other day Bill Clinton casually declared that his nominees must be pro-choice. Reaction? Hardly a peep. No petitions from professors, few angry editorials.

Perot was pummeled for his penchant for employing private investigators. Yet the Democratic Party acknowledges that it's spending tens of thousands of dollars on private investigators to dig up dirt on George Bush and his children. Again, no outcry from the Fourth Estate.

Malcolm Forbes Jr.