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High in the mountains where France and Spain come together, I drove for hours with just one goal - to stand atop a ridge looking into a rugged mountain-ringed basin where nature cradles an ancient tribe.

At one time, these pint-sized kingdoms were commonplace, but, today, only a few survive. Finally, I reached my destination deep in the rugged Pyrenees - the principality of Andorra.

Europe's midget countries have an undeniable curiosity factor. In Europe's tiny derby, the Vatican is the big little winner. Then comes Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Malta, which, while an island in the Mediterranean, is considered part of Europe, and finally - measuring about 13 miles by 13 miles, with a population of 80,000 - Andorra. All of these countries would fit easily into Europe's next bigger smallest country - the relatively vast Luxembourg.

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Would you rather be taxed at 15 percent of your income or 35 percent? You don't have to be smarter than a fifth-grader to do that math. So for a guy as clever as Stephen Schwarzman, who turned a $400, 000 investment into nearly $9-billion as co-founder and CEO of the Blackstone Group, it's a no-brainer. His potential tax savings at the lower rate rivals the economic output of Liechtenstein, a European tax haven where his stiff-arm of the IRS might make him a national hero.

Blackstone and Schwarzman are less popular in Congress, where some members wonder why both the company and the CEO should be allowed to pay a 15 percent tax rate, at most, when other companies and CEOs in the same business are subject to a 35 percent rate. The answer is a legal loophole that means "Mr. Schwarzman's tax rate could be less than his chauffeur's, " as Wall Street Journal columnist Alan Murray explained it.

The Senate has a bipartisan bill that would close the corporate tax loophole to private equity partnerships that go public, aimed mainly at Blackstone and one or two others. That threat didn't stop Schwarzman from going forward with an initial public offering of Blackstone stock the other day, and investors gobbled up the shares, maybe because the bill would insulate Blackstone from the higher tax rate for five years. Schwarzman's take was $930-million from the IPO and a substantial stake in the company worth $7.8-billion, according to the Journal.

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High in the mountains where France and Spain come together, I drove for

hours with just one goal -- to stand atop a ridge looking into a rugged,

mountain-ringed basin where nature cradles an ancient tribe. At one time, these

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In 1951, with a population of 2,000, Scottsdale incorporated as a city.

That same year, by popular sentiment, Scottsdale High School English teacher Bernard Kane formed a theater company: Scottsdale Community Players.

The city has now grown to more than 200,000. Silky golf courses and housing developments that look as if they've been pressed from a tin mold have swallowed up the rambling cattle ranches. And, after 56 years, Scottsdale Community Players have announced that it's going dark.

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High in the mountains where France and Spain come together, I drove for hours with just one goal — to stand atop a ridge looking into a rugged mountain-ringed basin where nature cradles an ancient tribe. At one time, these pint-sized kingdoms were commonplace, but, today, only a few survive. Finally, I reached my destination deep in the rugged Pyrenees, the principality of Andorra.

Europe's midget countries have an undeniable curiosity factor. In Europe's tiny derby, the Vatican is the big little winner. Then comes Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Malta , and finally — measuring about 13 miles by 13 miles, with a population of 80,000 — Andorra. All of these countries would fit easily into Europe's next smallest country — the relatively vast Luxemburg.

While Andorra feels impressively remote (and forget about getting there with the convenience of a plane or train), Andorra is just a couple hours' drive from Carcassonne in the south of France and Barcelona in Spain Andorra has a long history. In their national anthem, Andorrans sing of Charlemagne rescuing their land from the Moors in 803. In the 13th century, Spanish and French nobles married. They agreed that the principality would be neither Spanish nor French. This unique feudal arrangement...

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