Robert Samuelson

We Americans are addicted to anxiety (a k a "stress"). We deplore it and claim to resist it, but we actually crave it and pursue it aggressively. We overschedule ourselves...

The Federal Communications Commission is not a social-services agency, but you'd never know it from Chairman Reed Hundt. He's an evangelist who's turned a drab subject--deregulation--into a religion. So Hundt...

We are now completing a 40-year political and intellectual journey whose termination seems symbolized by two events last week: The announcement of a bipartisan agreement to balance the budget by...

Everyone involved in "welfare reform" could usefully read "What Money Can't Buy," a study by sociologist Susan Mayer of the University of Chicago. Its message is somber: As a society,...

The U.S. stock market is now enjoying one of its greatest booms ever. The Dow Jones industrial average raced past 6000 last week, less than a year after it reached...

Why aren't modern presidents more popular? One reason is Franklin Roosevelt. We are now observing Roosevelt History Month, and FDR is being celebrated as the father of contemporary liberalism. This...

The larger truth is that--for good or ill--Bill Clinton has had little effect on the economy. It would have behaved the same if Clinton's cat `Socks' had been president. The...

The debate we need about government isn't happening, and the fault lies largely with Bob Dole. President Clinton is running a campaign of insults and not ideas (ugly commercials mixed...

Compassion is society's reigning emotion of choice. It's the sanctioned sentiment of politics, journalism and academia. Everyone is supposed to comfort the suffering, uplift the disadvantaged and "feel your pain."...

Elections ought to engage the issues that shape our future. By that standard, the campaign of 1996 already looks like a bust. Hardly anyone mentions spending for older Americans--which is...