Thou Shalt Make Money

It is a rule of free enterprise that even disaster is a commercial opportunity. Analyzed unemotionally, an earthquake is a natural phenomenon that, among other things, creates potential construction contracts. We can take it for granted that the airplane hijackings of the 1970s produced, along with a great deal of fear and anguish and even death, any number of baggage X-ray machine millionaires. I believe it was Adam Smith himself who said, "There's always going to be a buck in it somewhere for somebody."

For a few tantalizing weeks this spring, the manufacturers of gun safety locks seemed to have hit...

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