Because our country is in pain like many of us have never felt, I’m going to spend the next five of these broadcasts talking about what I would do today to assure a stronger, safer and more prosperous America 20 years from now. I am going to start with taxes. We should never go like sheep to the slaughter when it comes to paying taxes but all too often we do. Quick, what percentage of...
The market has been dropping like a stone, incinerating trillions of dollars worth of wealth in the process. To begin to understand why, let’s go to the grocery store. I love the grocery store. The grocery business is so intensely competitive and the margins are so razor thin that you have to be very, very good at what you’re doing to succeed in grocery retailing in America. As a consequence, our grocery stores are just...
I hate talking numbers. If you’re not careful, talking numbers in a forum such as this can become a crashing bore. But the times dictate a conversation on numbers and I’m going to do my best to keep everyone engaged. Let’s talk money. We’re going to play a little time and money game. Imagine that you are spending money at the rate of one dollar a minute. But instead of moving forward in time with...
The U.S. economy has entered a stall. Some would say it has entered a spin. But just like a Cessna 152, the U.S. economy is designed to fly. The best thing our policymakers can do is let it.
On the White House website (www.whitehouse.gov) you can read, listen to or watch President Obama’s inaugural address. In the slug to the post, it says, “President Obama delivered his Inaugural Address, calling for a new era of responsibility.” (Click here to listen to the excerpt.) I’m a big believer in personal responsibility. Personal responsibility is the ultimate expression of freedom. In the 18th century, when large numbers of ordinary citizens were first given freehold tenure...
As we speak this morning (Fri, Jan 16, 2008, 7:53 a.m.), in just 4,987 minutes we will have a new president. And not just any new president. As we have been reminded almost constantly since late in the evening of Nov. 4, we will have the first African-American president. It is a signal moment in American history. On Nov. 6, just after the election, I spoke in this space on one very significant aspect of...
Miss Campbell was a sweet old lady. She was among the last of a large cohort of American women. The Miss Campbells of the mid-20th century had three things in common. They never married. They unapologetically retained the title ‘Miss’. And they taught school. These women once constituted a sizable plurality of American school teachers. By the late 1960s, they were nearing the end of their careers and were being replaced by younger, married, fertile...
Click here to listen to the broadcast of You Tell Me on Newstalk 600 KTBB, Friday, December 19, 2008. With all of the news of the past weeks if I could I would wave a wand and the federal government would take a giant step backward. I mean a giant step. The two biggest stories of 2008 are the home mortgage meltdown and the auto industry collapse. The federal government is neck deep in both....
The so-called auto bailout bill, a $14 billion bridge loan intended to give automakers sufficient cash to continue operating in the first quarter of 2009, failed last night in the Senate. As far as getting government cash into the hands of the automakers this year, it’s over. Not gonna happen. That is a very big problem for GM and Chrysler. Less so for Ford except for the fact that if GM in particular fails, it...
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” – C. S. Lewis Here’s a simple civics lesson. Take a piece of paper and draw a horizontal line. Mark the ends of the line and label one end “No Government” and on the other end, label it “Maximum Government.” Above the Minimum Government label write the words, “chaos” and “freedom” and above the Maximum Government label...
The first presidential election of which I have any recollection was the 1960 Kennedy election. I was six going on seven years old. In those days I was living in Amarillo, Texas and my dad and I used to go watch minor league baseball. In Kennedy’s first year in office, the 1961 Amarillo Gold Sox were affiliated with the New York Yankees and played in Potter County Stadium. That 1961 team featured future Yankees pitcher...
I was at a gathering on Saturday in Dallas in the brand new home of a couple that is somewhat close to me. When I describe the home, don’t draw any conclusions about me. Though they are close for reasons I won’t disclose, I am a visitor in their home no more often than two times a year. The home sits on about an acre in Highland Park, the wealthy enclave just north of Downtown...
You Tell Me Texas can be heard on
every Friday morning at 7:53.
When I was a young man trying to break in to the radio business, one of the biggest radio stations in the country was Dallas's KLIF 1190 AM.
The station was owned by broadcasting pioneer Gordon McLendon. McLendon was known for his sharply-written editorials. Those editorials were, however, a one-way street. There was no practical way for the listener to respond.
But that is no longer the case. With the the advent of the Internet, lectures have turned into dialogues.
That's my hope for this website. I say what's on my mind. You respond by saying what's on yours.
That's why we call it You Tell Me.
I hear Mamdani say he will refuse to cooperate with Trump and the Supreme Court on such and such, and…
I believe I’ve posted this before but again I say it because it’s true. Capitalism is the uneven distribution of…
You just described Bernie Sanders
To Mr. Paschall comments regarding my post. I didn't say Texas was a third world country in my comments. I…
To Mr. Gleiser's reply to my comments. More than one thing can be true at the same time. I will…