When I saw the news about Smurfit a few weeks ago, I knew it was going to be ugly, painful and in the long run, maybe a good thing. Give me some time on the good part. There really is potential for a shiny side to all of this. Just not tomorrow or next week. […]

When I try to convince Republicans that global warming is a very real threat to the future of mankind they go ballistic with the notion that it is a Democratic hoax being perpetuated on the world. After all, Rush Limbaugh and their local newspaper told them so. When I point out that, if they are […]

Montana made national headlines in the days leading to 2009’s exit. First, there was the controversy, or non-controversy (depending on your point of view), surrounding our senior Sen. Max Baucus’ floor speech defending the Democrats’ health care plan. Then there were the Bozeman tennis courts. These stories aren’t at all related, but they each show […]

A high number of people in the Flathead Valley are protesting their property taxes. I think this tells the government locally that they better start trimming their budgets very quickly because it sounds like a tax shortfall is just around the corner. Local businesses have cut back for over a year while government and school […]

Is the Federal Reserve too secretive? This issue has waxed and waned. It’s reappearing again in Congress because the Fed failed to prevent the financial crisis and the “great recession,” prompting calls for major change at the world’s most powerful central bank. The change with the most backing is a proposal by Rep. Ron Paul […]

Someone mentioned to me privately that if he didn’t know better, he’d think I was trying to put a guilt trip on folks with my column “Waiting, Whining or Working. Your choice”. He went on to say that he figured my point really was that every one who has been used to competing locally has […]

There I was, casting about for a brilliant topic upon which to declaim, finding zilch, zip, nada … a big fat zero. That’s it! Is there any better way to name the past decade? The Gay Nineties, the Roaring Twenties, the Dirty Thirties, the Nifty Fifties. Because they were periods of war and upheaval, the […]

I pass the people standing along side the road praying to end abortion and wondered with all the energy they spend do they support the many women who brought babies into this world they were ill-prepared to raise? The consequences of an unwanted pregnancy are enormous for most women. Few are in the position to […]

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are accused of buying and bartering for votes in order to muster a filibuster-proof majority to pass health care legislation on Christmas Eve. The criticism is warranted in many cases, but not in Libby’s. If you have been following the health care debate, even in passing, you have probably seen […]

Montana State University in Bozeman just hired a new president, Waded Cruzado from New Mexico. The taxpayers will pay $280,000 a year for her expertise, plus housing, car expenses, disability and country club benefits – that’s $135+ an hour. The president of the University of Montana, George Dennison, makes $205,050 ($99 an hour) a year […]

Click the image or use the arrows to see the Beacon’s favorite Stephen Templeton cartoons from 2009.

If you simplify it, competitive behavior has two sides: those who do and those who don’t. As I promised last week, here are some additional thoughts about what “other people do”. While Pittsburgh, Tokyo, Mumbai and Guangzhou were investing in internet and manufacturing infrastructure… Did you think your infrastructure was “good enough”? Did you think […]

Depending on whose definition you use, in less than two weeks, we’ll either begin the last year of the decade or actually end it. Perhaps it’s indicative of the uncertainty of our times that we haven’t yet named it. We can listen to ’80s music and rehash ’90s politics but what numerical term should we […]

By the time I erect a small fake Christmas tree in the corner of my living room, decorate it and place presents by its plastic trunk, it is almost time to take it down again. So goes the speed with which the holiday season passes. From parties to shopping, from traveling to baking, December sure […]

That’s nationally-known business advisor and author Tom Peters. Give him two minutes. The quote from Friedman is definitely worth it. If you’re reading this in the print edition, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOxxBvmpbZU& to view a short two minute clip. Initially, Peters talks about teenagers when referring to a quote from NY Times writer and author Thomas […]