Robert Samuelson

I used to argue that Bill Clinton's great legacy would be the overhaul of the American welfare state. By that, I meant the scaling back of benefits for retirees--the true...

There are two pivotal and, for the moment, unanswerable questions about the stock market's latest nervousness: 1) Will stocks continue to decline? and 2) How would that affect consumer and...

Few subjects inspire more intellectual conformity than "campaign-finance reform." All "right-thinking" people "know" that election spending is "out of control" and that the present system of campaign finance is corrupt....

The Social Security debate is about to take a big step backward. Starting Oct. 1, the Social Security Administration launches what it calls "the largest customized mailing ever undertaken by...

Sewell Avery is a footnote to history. In 1945, he headed Montgomery Ward, then the leading rival to Sears, Roebuck as America's major retail chain. A smart and crusty student...

Once upon a time, personal bankruptcy was a rare and shameful event. No more. Despite a booming economy, we're also experiencing a bankruptcy boom. In 1998, a record 1.4 million...

The latest threat to America's economic boom is a weaker dollar. A weaker what? By and large, Americans don't pay attention to exchange rates. Why should they? At any moment,...

President Clinton will be right to veto the massive tax cuts embraced by the Republican Congress. The wonder is that the Republicans are so wedded to a program that is...

A paradox of the 1990s is that it isn't called a decade of greed. Only the 1980s have acquired that stigma, even though the advance of individual wealth, the explosion...

Nearly a decade after its creation, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a case study in the limits of social engineering. Last week, the Supreme Court either gutted...