While John Tamny does not explicitly have Dark Matter in mind, his criticism of Martin Feldstein largely rest on the thesis: When he served under President Reagan as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Martin Feldstein called for a weaker dollar to reduce the U.S. deficit in the current account … Nearly twenty years […]
Some members of the FOMC are indicating that the Fed will be raising interest rates a little, but only a little bit more: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve has lifted interest rates to more appropriate levels amid solid economic growth, policy-makers said Thursday in remarks that hint the U.S. central bank will raise […]
In keeping with my New Year’s resolution, let me say that I agree with Mallory Factor & Phil Kerpen with respect to at least part of the following: Currently, the long-term fiscal-policy outlook is bleak. A report issued last month by the Congressional Budget Office shows that federal spending as a percentage of the U.S. […]
It looks like Bush is going to spend a fair bit of his State of the Union address talking about rising health care costs. I’ve argued for a long time (yes, I realize that I’m not the only one) that health care is probably the biggest domestic problem that the US will face over the […]
The graph showing the ratio labor compensation to national income serves a couple of purposes. First, let’s begin with a Bloomberg discussion: Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) – American workers have rarely taken home a smaller share of the nation’s prosperity, a condition that is undermining bipartisan support for free trade and creating friction between President George […]
For those who are curious: I’ll be on at 5pm EST on Kudlow and Company. Kash
Kevin Drum reports on the willingness of Justices Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas to overturn a state law in deference to something the Bush Administration wanted to do. William Branigin reports: The Supreme Court delivered a rebuff to the Bush administration over physician-assisted suicide today, rejecting a Justice Department effort to bar doctors in Oregon from […]
The Washington Post ran an interesting story this morning about bankruptcy filings since the new bankruptcy rules came into effect in October of 2005. Some highlights from the article: The law requires debtors to see credit counselors before they file for bankruptcy protection. It is a prerequisite that banks and credit card issuers hoped would […]
Gore gave a speech in Washington today addressing the concentration of power in the executive under the Bush administration in general and the NSA’s domestic spying program in particular. Former Clinton impeachment manager Bob Barr was to introduce Gore, by video rather than in person, but that fell through due to technical difficulties (or perhaps […]
In one of his typical defenses of tax cuts, Lawrence Kudlow claimed: There are a couple hundred billion dollars in farm and corporate-welfare subsidies that can easily be scrapped. It does seem these Bush minions were for pork barrel spending before they were against it, but I have to wonder as to Larry’s undocumented claim. […]