
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
April 22, 2013
US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer
April 19, 2013
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy
Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?
Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds
April 17, 2013
Shira Rubin: Too much of a good thing? 'Palestinians' realize downside of foreign aid boom
Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
April 15, 2013
Kristen Chick: Egyptian Christians respond with harsh words to attack -- rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire -- against main cathedral
Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA
Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators
April 12, 2013
Mark Clayton: New cybersecurity bill: Privacy threat or crucial band-aid?
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jackie Robinson's Friend, Hank Greenberg; CNN's Jake Tapper; Texas County in the News is named for 19thC. Jewish soldier and Congressman
The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: FRUITY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS: A flavorful, colorful and edible vessel of delicately fluffy, mildly nutty filling combined with chewy apricots, tangy cherries, and crunchy pistachios
April 10, 2013
Peter Grier: North Korean missiles: Could US shoot them down?
Morgan Housel: Warning: Don't waste your capital being fooled by profit prophets
Donald Hensrud, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Take vitamin supplements with caution --- even approved, they may actually do damage
Eryn Brown: 74 DNA discoveries move cure closer for three cancers
April 8, 2013
Jonathan Tobin: What Part of No Preconditions Do American Jews Not Get?
Fred Weir: Is Putin finally trading his own party for a new power base?
|
| |
Jewish World Review
August 22, 2006
/ 28 Menachem-Av, 5766
Don't practice legal terrorism
By
Paul Johnson
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Eager as he is to keep America's free-enterprise economy healthy, President Bush should take a close look at what's going on at the Department of Justice. Is an antibusiness culture developing there? In the aftermath of the Enron scandal has America's law enforcement machinery begun to display a systematic animus toward big business and corporate bosses?
Looking at this from the outside, I've certainly gotten the impression that government lawyers are becoming too enthusiastic in bringing dodgy businessmen to justice or at least in setting the legal process in motion. But the delays in bringing these cases to trial are in and of themselves becoming scandalous.
What's happened to the spirit of habeas corpus? Do big businessmen no longer enjoy its protection in the U.S.? Savvy legal friends in America tell me that these delays are not accidental. Government lawyers have a vested interest in exhausting the financial resources of defendants before they even get to trial.
Behind all this appears to be a suspicion, a hatred even, of the way big business operates and of the whole process of earning big profits and commanding large salaries. I get the feeling Justice officials think it is morally wrong to make a lot of money unless, of course, the person making the money is a lawyer.
This attitude is something new in the philosophy of American government. One of the reasons America has been able to create the world's most successful economy, with its spectacular expansion for more than two centuries, is that its government state and federal has created a sympathetic climate for business.
Next to Alexander Hamilton's work in giving the U.S. a sound currency, the man who contributed most to making the country prosperous was Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. The judgments he made and inspired during his long tenure [1801 35] formed a firm legal basis on which entrepreneurial capitalism could flourish mightily. There has been nothing to rival Marshall's creative work in the entire world history of jurisprudence countless millions of ordinary Americans enjoy affluence today because Marshall gave capitalism the legal green light.
Because of this grounding Americans have never been made to feel ashamed of making vast sums of money through their enterprise and industry. And that in turn has led to a philanthropic generosity unique in the world, which has given America galleries and libraries, universities, parks and cultural institutions that have no parallel in number and quality elsewhere. Andrew Carnegie summed it up when he said that there was nothing wrong in becoming rich but that a "man who dies rich dies disgraced." Carnegie became one of the richest men of his time and he gave the bulk of it away.
But philanthropy requires there to be accumulation in the first place. As Margaret Thatcher never tired of explaining, the Good Samaritan was able to look after the distressed traveler precisely because he was well-to-do. Pontius Pilate's Justice Department hadn't harassed him out of his wealth.
Modern business is infinitely complicated and becoming more so by the hour. The opportunities for putting one's hand in the till and defrauding the public and shareholders remain ample, despite continual attempts to tighten the laws. Law enforcement must remain vigilant in scrutinizing the whole business of moneymaking and must bring the occasional villains to justice. But it mustn't develop attitudes of suspicion that imply that business itself is a fundamentally unethical activity and that the typical businessman is a person who operates close to illegality.
In fact, the complexities of modern business especially the speed at which difficult financial decisions must be made often create gray areas in which the law is unclear, and any legal advice may turn out to be wrong. In the end it is often a matter of opinion as to whether the law has been broken or not. That, of course, is precisely what a jury has to decide. But in complicated cases jury verdicts can be swayed by the aggressive tactics of law enforcement and by the weakening of the defense through long delays before the case is brought to trial.
Businessmen, of course, can always play it safe. But that is contrary to the spirit of capitalism, which, in the pursuit of success, depends on taking risks often huge ones.
The future of free-market enterprise depends on the continued willingness of rank-and-file entrepreneurs and executives to take risks to launch and expand businesses, as well as to retain their businesses' competitiveness in increasingly crowded world markets.
If businessmen and -women become scared of breaking laws they imperfectly understand, or if they fear becoming victims of the Department of Justice's legal terrorism, they'll cease making the kinds of decisions that keep the U.S. economy energetic and pushing forward.
That would be tragic for the U.S. and the world. So let's keep the legal bloodhounds active but on a sensible leash.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE BOOK |
|
Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
Eminent British historian and author Paul Johnson's latest book is "American Presidents Eminent Lives Boxed Set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant". Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
08/08/06: A summer rhapsody for a pedal-bike
08/03/06: Why is there no workable philosophy of music?
07/11/06: Historically speaking, energy crisis is America's opportunity
07/06/06: The misleading dimensions of persons and lives
06/06/06: First editions are not gold
05/23/06: A downright ugly man need never despair of attracting women, even pretty
ones
04/25/06: Was Washington right about political parties?
04/12/06: Let's Have More Babies!
04/05/06: For the love of trains
03/29/06: Lincoln and the Compensation Culture
03/22/06: Bottle-beauties and the globalised blond beast
03/15/06: Europe's utopian hangover
03/08/06: Kindly write on only one side of the paper
02/28/06: Creators versus critics
02/21/06: The Rhino Principle
© 2006, Paul Johnson
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|