Columnists

FORTY years ago, the then-12-year-old Marianas Variety reported that “House of Reps closes, fires 82 employees.” The local economy would take off before the end of the decade, but in 1984 it was still struggling to generate enough revenue to meet the financial obligations of the six-year-old Common…

BC Cook FOUR young school teachers looked out the window to view the strange behavior of the sea.  A few moments later only one of them was alive.  This is her story. An earthquake occurred in the ocean near Alaska in 1946, and while the quake caused little damage, it unleashed a tsunami that sprea…

YOU will be vilified, ridiculed, denounced, unfairly criticized if not “defamed” by your political opponents and their supporters. And there is nothing new about that in the history of politics. It was much worse in the past. (Julius Caesar’s political opponents did not even try to debate him. They…

Arnold I. Palacios LAST week, the Commonwealth Casino Commission  finally moved to revoke the exclusive casino license of Imperial Pacific International. The hearing was pushed back no less than three times. IPI tried up to the very last minute to stop it from happening by filing for a temporary re…

THE USP? A political body, a nation-state to replace and supersede the various tiny, independent island countries and international bodies such as the Federated States of Micronesia. Is it possible? Is it desirable? What would be the advantages and disadvantages? What would it take to get there? Pa…

“Although a free market economic system is sometimes called a profit system, it is in reality a profit-and-loss system — and the losses are equally important for the efficiency of the economy, because losses tell producers what to stop doing — what to stop producing, where to stop putting resources…

BC Cook GENIE grew up on a small island, population less than 2,500.  Her village consisted mainly of 30 family members so her outlook on the world was very small.  Although everyone looked like her she knew the world was full of people who looked, spoke, and thought differently.  She wanted to tak…

Construction workers in Glenwood Landing, New York in May 2020. America’s construction industry has seen the largest relative increase in job postings since 2019 and relies on immigrant workers. “Foreign-born workers have been significant contributors to the U.S. economy for centuries.” — Southern …

BC Cook “EVEN after all these years it is clear in my mind, like it happened yesterday. It was the most important day of my life.” Most veterans have echoed these words. Sometimes that day becomes not only their most important, but the most important for many others, sometimes an entire nation. Can…

A banner on a tractor reads “You are feeding others and you want to chase us away” as German farmers protest against the cut of vehicle tax subsidies in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 8, 2024.  “His vast capacity for illusion, his powerful thirst for the not true….” — H.L. Mencken, describing the “common …