http://www.realclearmarkets.com/ en Copyright 2008 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:04:53 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.33 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss With lawmakers fighting to close budget gaps created by the Great Recession, some states are considering expanding their sales tax bases to include more services. (The Wall Street Journal had a good roundup of the trend yesterday.) Unlike another recent trend in state taxation - the enactment and increase of "Millionaire's Taxes" - this phenomenon may improve state tax systems over the long term. When evaluating a proposal to expand a state's sales tax base, we should ask two key questions: what's being added to the base? And what will the state do with the new... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/09/broader_sales_taxes_can_be_a_good_thing_97627.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/09/broader_sales_taxes_can_be_a_good_thing_97627.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/02 02/09/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:04:43 -0600 "But is it not conceivable that wants may some day be so completely satisfied as to become frozen forever after? Some implications of this case will presently be developed, but so long as we deal with what may happen during the next forty years we evidently need not trouble ourselves about this possibility."~ Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, p. 113. Last year's stock-market plunge unsurprisingly generated a great deal of commentary about the possibility of an economic depression that would rival that experienced in the 1930s. And with... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/09/searching_for_a_better_understanding_of_depressions_97626.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/09/searching_for_a_better_understanding_of_depressions_97626.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/02 02/09/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:04:06 -0600 Economy: The jobs data for January showed modest improvement, with unemployment dropping to 9.7% from 10% and the number of jobs lost coming in at a mere 20,000. Good news, but not nearly good enough. It's too soon to bring out the party poppers and streamers. But at least the hemorrhaging in the job market has stopped. Last year, the U.S. lost on average 392,000 jobs a month, while unemployment rose as high as 10.2%. Set against that, 20,000 jobs lost and a 9.7% jobless rate sound pretty good. Two things bode well for 2010. One, factory overtime now averages about 3.5 hours - meaning... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/08/january_jobs_data_isnt_good_enought_97625.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/08/january_jobs_data_isnt_good_enought_97625.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2010/02 02/08/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:25:04 -0600 In all the recent reports, speeches and news conferences concerning the federal budget outlook -- including the administration's proposed budget for 2011 -- hardly anyone has posed these crucial questions: What should the federal government do and why; and who should pay? We ought to go back to first principles of defining a desirable role for government and abandon the expedient of assuming that anyone receiving a federal benefit is morally entitled to it simply because it's been received before. We have a massive candor gap, led by President Obama but also implicating most leaders... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/08/on_government_spending_america_has_a_candor_gap_97624.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/08/on_government_spending_america_has_a_candor_gap_97624.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/02 02/08/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:14:37 -0600 This amazing story flashed briefly across the pages of the business press last week. If you blinked, you missed it. Initial news reports indicated that the SEC had taken a party line vote compelling companies to disclose the potential effects of climate change on their business. OK, you might surmise, the Obama administration opened up another regulatory front to pursue its climate policies now that the Scott-heard-round-the-world shuttered the cap-and-trade bazaar in Congress. Aside from another dollop of boilerplate that companies will have to lard onto SEC filings, the practical impact of... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/08/sec_to_force_politician_disclosure_risk_97623.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/08/sec_to_force_politician_disclosure_risk_97623.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2010/02 02/08/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:12:38 -0600 WASHINGTON-Nothing demonstrates the hollow nature of President Obama's promise "to do what it takes to create jobs," as he said at the White House, than the energy policy in the proposed 2011 Budget he sent to Congress. The president's energy policy, if adopted by Congress, would ship jobs to China and discourage job creation at home, even as the administration forecasts unemployment to remain above 8% through 2012. In a section entitled "Creating the Clean Energy Economy of Tomorrow," the president asks Congress to enact policies that would reduce greenhouse... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/04/job_creation_vs_ideology_97622.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/04/job_creation_vs_ideology_97622.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/02 02/04/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:18:17 -0600 "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Alexis de Tocqueville Condolences. If your faith in politicians as stewards of tax dollars isn't yet dead, it should be. Washington's conduct ridicules anyone who trusted that the stimulus bills and other "temporary" spending increases were designed for economic recovery. Washington's record breaking outlays have had far more to do with rewarding interest groups that contributed to victory in the prior election. Now that the 2011... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/04/a_federal_budget_that_insults_all_budgets_97621.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/04/a_federal_budget_that_insults_all_budgets_97621.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2010/02 02/04/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:12:43 -0600 Back in 2002, in the aftermath of the 2000-01 Internet-stock collapse, the New York Post ran a fabulous opinion piece titled "Bearmarket.sued". The op-ed questioned the thinking of investors who, unhappy with the near wipeout of some of their investments in formerly high-flying Internet companies, sought redress for their foolish decisions in the courts. The author of the aforementioned piece was Nicole Gelinas. Gelinas decried the litigious ways of an investor class that seemingly wanted it both ways: stupendous gains during periods of market frivolity, downside protection when... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/02/book_review_after_the_fall_by_nicole_gelinas_97620.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/02/book_review_after_the_fall_by_nicole_gelinas_97620.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/02 02/02/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:10:23 -0600 In his State of the Union, President Obama mentioned "small business" 14 times. He talked about his desire to subsidize lending to small businesses, to give them tax breaks, to help them export to other countries, and above all to get them to create jobs. The President talked a lot about what he's going to do for small business, but not a lot about what he plans to take from it. Small business owners wouldn't have been happy to hear that he plans to impose at least $37 billion in additional taxes on them every year, far outstripping the value of the goodies... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/02/obama_giveth_and_obama_taketh_away_97619.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/02/obama_giveth_and_obama_taketh_away_97619.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/02 02/02/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:31:08 -0600 In politics, whatever the President can get voters to believe becomes the truth, but in economics the numbers establish the facts. Unfortunately for President Obama, Americans can add, and their sums are destroying fantasies the President would hoist upon a more gullible public. Despite claims that the $787 billion stimulus package and bank bailout averted calamity, the U.S. economy is in shambles. The Commerce Department reported GDP grew 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, but 60 percent of that was an accounting adjustment. Businesses ran down inventories at a slower pace, but in the arcane... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/01/the_us_economy_is_in_shambles_97618.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/01/the_us_economy_is_in_shambles_97618.html Peter Morici Peter Morici 2010/02 02/01/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:33:14 -0600 Economy: Gross domestic product grew a robust 5.7% last quarter - much stronger than expected. Like everyone, we're glad the economy's getting back on its feet. But this number isn't nearly as good as it looks. After two years of no growth at all, that annual rate of growth looks dazzling, gaudy even. But scratch the surface, and another picture emerges - one not of gathering strength, but of ongoing weakness. So let's deconstruct that 5.7% a bit. For one thing, most of the gain - nearly two-thirds, in fact - was a result of an end to the panicked inventory liquidation... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/01/behind_the_57__growth_numbers_97617.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/01/behind_the_57__growth_numbers_97617.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2010/02 02/01/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:23:10 -0600 By now, it ought to be obvious why President Obama has wanted his health-care overhaul passed quickly. It would be (and now will be) inconvenient to promote expanded government health spending while simultaneously pledging to rein in future budget deficits -- when unrestrained health spending is a major cause. It's like promising to go on a diet but first treating yourself to one last binge. The Congressional Budget Office confirms the dire fiscal outlook. From 2011 to 2020, the CBO projects cumulative deficits of $6 trillion. By 2020, the debt-to-economy (GDP) ratio increases to 67... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/01/before_spending_more_spend_better_97616.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/01/before_spending_more_spend_better_97616.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/02 02/01/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:13:52 -0600 Now that the Senate has confirmed him for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke has, or ought to have, a very simple agenda: improve confidence. This isn't his job alone, of course. President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are hardly bit players. But what Bernanke does and says -- how he projects himself and the Fed -- matters a great deal, and he faces an exacting challenge. There is a supposition among academic economists (the tribe from which Bernanke comes) that "economic policy" consists of making decisions about interest rates,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/29/ben_bernankes_simple_task_97615.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/29/ben_bernankes_simple_task_97615.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/01 01/29/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:32:18 -0600 WASHINGTON - For a study in contrasts, look no further than President Obama's State of the Union Address. The president, in a spasm of fiscal responsibility, asked Congress to freeze discretionary non-defense spending for three years, for $250 billion in savings over the next decade. Then, he proposed student loan write-offs, new middle-class entitlements, and reiterated support for expensive high-speed rail and $1 trillion health "reform."Mr. Obama declared, "By the time I'm finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/28/a_new_approach_to_health_reform_97614.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/28/a_new_approach_to_health_reform_97614.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/01 01/28/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:13:11 -0600 Robert Bartley, the late great editorial page editor at the Wall Street Journal was known to say that his page was one of the few that actually sold newspapers. The same could be said about Fact and Comment, the page within Forbes magazine authored by its chairman, Steve Forbes. Taking nothing away from a magazine that has long been a fabulous celebration of capitalism, it's safe to say that the economic commentary offered up by Mr. Forbes (author's note: Forbes Inc. is an investor in RealClearMarkets) in each issue has sold quite a few magazines over the years. Particularly among... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/28/book_review_how_capitalism_will_save_us_97613.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/28/book_review_how_capitalism_will_save_us_97613.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/01 01/28/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:11:11 -0600 Despite rosy pronouncements of happy days being here again, a number of prominent analysts look down the tunnel and see serious problems ahead for the U.S. economy. While we very much share the view that we are far from out of the woods, our views diverge from those that see devastating deflation speeding our way down the tunnel. We see devastating inflation. While we could both be right, with deflation first and inflation later, I'm not so convinced. For starters, there is already a massive inflation operation being run by the Fed, evidenced in a historic spike in the monetary base over... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/27/what_the_deflationists_are_missing_97612.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/27/what_the_deflationists_are_missing_97612.html David Galland David Galland 2010/01 01/27/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:23:17 -0600 After Standard & Poor's downgraded California's bond rating yet again earlier this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and members of his administration sounded practically schizophrenic, on the one hand warning the legislature that the state had to get its fiscal house in order while simultaneously deriding the notion that California would ever fail to pay its obligations. The ever-colorful Terminator had the harshest message for the bond market: How could you rate the state's bonds as no better than some African nation's? Echoing the remarks of the state's... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/27/could_california_really_default__97611.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/27/could_california_really_default__97611.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/01 01/27/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:34:26 -0600 Scott Brown's election to the Senate has health care reform on life support. With Congressional Democrats doubting whether it is feasible (or even wise) for them to press forward and pass the bill they spent the last year developing, one idea gaining traction is a "scaled-back" health bill that includes only the most popular aspects of reform. Intuitively, it makes sense: if the bill is too toxic to pass, pick the parts the public likes and scrap the ones that are unpopular. The polling even provides support for this approach -- while the bill itself is unpopular, many of its... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/26/a_scaled_back_health_bill_wont_work_97609.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/26/a_scaled_back_health_bill_wont_work_97609.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/01 01/26/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:05:39 -0600 Newspaper headlines last week and over the weekend pointed to a vote on Fed Chairman Bernanke's re-nomination that is increasingly dicey. Rather than achieve the lame-duck status that will come with a near-miss vote, Bernanke should step down. The irony in all of this is that absent the happy bonus situation on Wall Street which revealed a healthier banking system, Bernanke likely would have sailed through to re-nomination. The bank bonuses, while arguably correct, reminded voters of the bailouts of those same banks which were incorrect, but that Bernanke helped engineer. Bonuses aside,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/26/its_time_for_ben_bernanke_to_resign_97608.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/26/its_time_for_ben_bernanke_to_resign_97608.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/01 01/26/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:47:39 -0600 Taxes: On the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, two Democratic congressmen are advising him to extend the Bush tax cuts instead of letting them expire. Now that's a stimulus. We hear that the administration is considering taking a more populist tack as it sails the choppy political waters of 2010. Some of President Obama's plans reportedly include several tax tidbits for the "middle class," including a doubling of the child care tax credit for families below $85,000 in income, and $1.6 billion for child care and a cap on student loan... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/26/make_the_2003_tax_cuts_permanent_97610.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/26/make_the_2003_tax_cuts_permanent_97610.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2010/01 01/26/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:24:00 -0600 China disclosed the other day that its foreign exchange reserves had increased to about $2.4 trillion in 2009, up $453 billion for the year. These stupendous figures -- and the likelihood that the country's reserves will rise by a comparable amount this year -- have become a financial, economic and geopolitical reality of surpassing significance. The significance is not, as many imagine, that China might suddenly "dump" the dollar and dethrone it as the world's major international currency, undermining American economic power and prestige. Two-thirds or more of... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/25/chinas_24_trillion_global_grip_97607.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/25/chinas_24_trillion_global_grip_97607.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/01 01/25/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:23:00 -0600 Now that the runaway train of one-party profligacy has flown off the tracks in Massachusetts, is there any chance We the People might seize this opportunity to re-examine our party loyalties, challenging the destructive duopoly that's been serving our nation so poorly? How can the decisive repudiations of both the party of George Bush and the party of Ted Kennedy in quick succession possibly be spun to the merit of either? Isn't it obvious that a disgusted electorate has had enough of both? Why do we continue to give allegiance to political parties captured by extremists and funded... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/25/can_common-sense_economics_create_a_new_party_97606.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/25/can_common-sense_economics_create_a_new_party_97606.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2010/01 01/25/2010/00/00/00 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:16:52 -0600 To get the unemployment rate by mid-decade back to 5 percent, where it was at the start of the recession in December 2007, job growth between now and 2015 will have to be strong enough to absorb the expansion in the labor force from growth in the working-age population, the increase in officially measured unemployment since December 2007, and the increase in "hidden unemployment" as represented by the precipitous drop in the labor force participation rate during the recession. Since the recession started, officially measured unemployment has risen by 7.6 million, and hidden... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/25/full_employment_by_mid-decade__97605.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/25/full_employment_by_mid-decade__97605.html Alfred Tella Alfred Tella 2010/01 01/25/2010/00/00/00 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:46:35 -0600 President Obama announced he wants to prohibit banks from forming hedge funds, private equity funds and trading securities on their own accounts, and he wants to limit the size of banks and financial institutions generally. Hedge funds, private equity funds and proprietary securities trading did not cause the banks to get into trouble, and the size of banks did not cause the credit crisis. Banks, small and large, failed or required bailouts because of poorly considered loans, and the kinds of engineered products that were created from those loans by non-bank entities. Collateralized debt... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/23/obama_disappoints_on_banking_reform_97604.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/23/obama_disappoints_on_banking_reform_97604.html Peter Morici Peter Morici 2010/01 01/23/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:39:37 -0600 Demagogues in Washington are thrilled to ply their vote-buying wiles promising to punish greedy rich villains, but the wealthy are not the evil caricatures of popular imagination. Riches are not generated by depriving others. Some actions grow the proverbial pie. Others shrink it. Those prospering society through work, innovation or investing their capital deserve to be rewarded accordingly. Greed has been prominently blamed for the current downturn and it certainly contributed, but not entirely in the manner depicted by the intelligentsia. In the Marxist conception of economics as a zero sum... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/theres_no_iniquity_in_income_inequality_97600.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/theres_no_iniquity_in_income_inequality_97600.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2010/01 01/22/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:12:29 -0600 Sen. Scott Brown's epic victory in Massachusetts on Tuesday night dealt a crushing blow to Obamacare, cap-and-trade, card check (and other union favors), and most importantly, all the tax hikes that are lingering on the table. But does Washington really understand the Scott Brown message? President Obama thinks his "remoteness and detachment" are the problems. This is nonsense. Obama's tax hikes and spending explosion are what caused the populist tea-party revolt that was punctuated by Scott Brown's extraordinary victory. And that leads to the next question. Are the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/its_about_tax_cuts_and_spending_cuts_97603.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/its_about_tax_cuts_and_spending_cuts_97603.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2010/01 01/22/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:44:05 -0600 Iran is experiencing increased economic malaise due to domestic mismanagement and foreign policy adventurism. Its dire situation fuels both a budding populist revolution and attempts to end longstanding isolation. In early January, the worsening economy forced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been in office since June 2005, to compromise with a hostile parliament and Guardian Council over reforming subsidies. Those subsidies had lowered consumer prices on food and fuel but cost more than 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) because much is imported. But state assistance to the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/irans_economic_freefall_97602.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/irans_economic_freefall_97602.html Jamsheed Choksy & Carol Choksy Jamsheed Choksy & Carol Choksy 2010/01 01/22/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:57:59 -0600 It has become quite common to describe U.S. monetary policy as very loose. But with core inflation at 1.4 per cent, that cannot be the case. In fact, at approximately -1 percent, the expected short-term real interest rate is probably higher than the rate that clears markets for goods and services at the economy's production frontier. Federal Reserve economists have estimated the latter to be around -4 percent. The perception of expansionary monetary policy is in large part due to a widespread misunderstanding of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. Contrary to what is often... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/fed_money_is_not_inflationary_97601.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/22/fed_money_is_not_inflationary_97601.html Torgeir Hoien Torgeir Hoien 2010/01 01/22/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:28:12 -0600 Last week's tragic earthquake in Haiti not surprisingly generated a great deal of commentary about the proper response to the impoverished nation's miseries, most of it concerning how much money our government might pledge in order to supposedly reverse the country's descent into chaos. The Washington Post's editorial board wasn't particularly unique in calling for the immediate transfer of $100 million in new funds ($3 billion has already been sent over the last two decades)... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/21/saving_haitis_destitute_from_jeffrey_sachs_97598.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/21/saving_haitis_destitute_from_jeffrey_sachs_97598.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/01 01/21/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:09:17 -0600 WASHINGTON-When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address next Wednesday evening, many Americans will be hoping he will offer help on the employment front. The president could usefully approach job creation by adopting measures to help entrepreneurs, the main drivers of innovation and job creation. The employment situation is worrisome. Not only are over 15 million Americans unemployed, with the national unemployment rate at 10%, but the ratio of Americans of working age in the labor force - the employed plus those looking for work - is 64.6%, the lowest since 1985. Almost 40%... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/21/its_time_to_elevate_entrepreneurs_97599.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/21/its_time_to_elevate_entrepreneurs_97599.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/01 01/21/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:32:55 -0600 Laura D'Andrea Tyson, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Clinton, recently praised the virtues of additional massive government spending with an editorial entitled "Jobs Now, Deficit Reduction Later". Never mind the deficit. Time for that later. We need jobs now! Job creation is all the rage. The theme rings throughout Washington and the media as a talking point for Congress and the Obama administration. Spend now, pay later. Green jobs here. Tax credits there. Government micro management run amok. Problem is, they're misguided and we as a... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/20/societys_producers_are_under_attack_97597.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/20/societys_producers_are_under_attack_97597.html Steve Borowski Steve Borowski 2010/01 01/20/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:15:33 -0600 Last week's cynical deal between the Obama administration and organized labor to exempt unionized workers from the so-called Cadillac health plan tax was portrayed as a victory for organized labor. In truth, the deal was a gift to public-sector unions by a president who is himself a member of what I call the New New Left, that is, the party of Americans who always benefit from a growing government. This New New Left rules the Democratic Party and significant parts of the GOP in some states, and public sector workers are anchor tenants in the New New Left's mall. To understand the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/20/health_reform_and_the_conspiracy_against_taxpayers_97596.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/20/health_reform_and_the_conspiracy_against_taxpayers_97596.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/01 01/20/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:58:40 -0600 There's a recession going on, but you wouldn't necessarily know it by looking at public employee earnings. If you work for the government, you're far less likely than your private-sector counterparts to have been laid off in the recession, and you probably also saw relatively fast wage growth. As states and localities continue to fight budget crises, they have an opportunity to close gaps by freezing employee wages. Because public employee compensation rose too fast over the last three years, they should be able to do this while retaining quality employees at least as well as... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/19/its_time_to_freeze_government_wages_97595.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/19/its_time_to_freeze_government_wages_97595.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/01 01/19/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:48:52 -0600 We all have formative experiences that usher us from the idealism of youth into the realism of maturity. One such event occurred long ago as an amateur boxing coach. I took several fighters for some sparring when another coach reported that he had just been laid off. I expressed my concern to the guffaws of all in earshot. The coach burst out laughing and started high-fiving everyone about, "Six months of unemployment!" As usual, the joke was on me. This was during a period of robust labor markets. Anyone could certainly have found work within six months, but this highlights the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/19/paying_individuals_not_to_work__97594.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/19/paying_individuals_not_to_work__97594.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2010/01 01/19/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:13:15 -0600 Why does Wall Street make the big bucks? A nation with 10 percent unemployment is understandably puzzled and outraged when the very people at the center of the financial crisis seem to be the first to recover and are pulling down fabulous pay packages. At Goldman Sachs, the average bonus for 2009 has been estimated at nearly $600,000; at J.P. Morgan Chase's investment bank, it's been reckoned at slightly below $400,000. These averages conceal multimillion-dollar bonuses for top traders and investment bankers; underlings get smaller sums. Are Wall Street's leaders that much... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/18/the_wall_street_pay_puzzle_97593.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/18/the_wall_street_pay_puzzle_97593.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/01 01/18/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:18:42 -0600 President Obama is at it again - pandering to rich and powerful political supporters, while portraying himself as the guardian of the exchequer and champion of the little guy. The president says his proposed tax on the capital of the largest banks and financial institutions is intended to recoup the TARP money that has not or will not be repaid. That is a flagrant attempt to confuse the public on two fronts. First, the banks the president would tax are repaying their TARP money with interest to the Treasury. Though not all of the TARP money given to the banks has yet to come back, the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/18/the_bank_tax_is_another_bit_of_demagoguery_97592.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/18/the_bank_tax_is_another_bit_of_demagoguery_97592.html Peter Morici Peter Morici 2010/01 01/18/2010/00/00/00 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:48:41 -0600 President Obama's misbegotten bank tax is precisely the wrong policy at precisely the wrong time. It will wind up backfiring across the board. Why? Because bank consumers and borrowers are the ones who will wind up paying this tax, creating an obstacle to economic recovery. Obama is actually rewarding losers and punishing winners -- exactly the reverse of free-market capitalism. Who's being rewarded? Obama's bank-tax penalty is being used to finance the failed government takeovers of GM, GMAC, and Fannie and Freddie. And let's not forget the $75 billion failure of the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/16/obama_rewards_losers_punishes_winners_97591.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/16/obama_rewards_losers_punishes_winners_97591.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2010/01 01/16/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:18:45 -0600 Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio and others have introduced HR 4191, Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act of 2009. This bill seeks to fund spending programs by taxing securities and derivatives transactions. As a claimed side benefit to raising revenue, the tax would massively raise the costs of trading, thus curbing "speculation." But alas, passage of this Act would likely hit the superfecta of unintended consequences as little tax is actually collected, stock prices fall, systemic risks increase, liquidity dries up, and, ironically, credit costs to... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/15/transaction_taxes_dangerous__destructive_97590.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/15/transaction_taxes_dangerous__destructive_97590.html Cliff Asness, Aaron Brown & Michael Mendelson Cliff Asness, Aaron Brown & Michael Mendelson 2010/01 01/15/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:06:37 -0600 Economic Recovery: The results are in, and last year's $787 billion stimulus not only failed to do what it was supposed to do, but it has also turned out to be one of the worst investments in economic history. Remember the debate in 2008 over the bailouts then being put together by the Treasury, the Fed and the Democratic Congress? Proponents often raised the possibility that any bailout would make money for taxpayers. Didn't work that way. As we've discovered, the American people aren't just saddled with the ongoing costs of the various and sundry stimulus programs.... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/13/no_shock_stimulus_is_a_money_loser_97589.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/13/no_shock_stimulus_is_a_money_loser_97589.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2010/01 01/13/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:51:05 -0600 The Goldman Sachs-AIG scandal may be worse than we think. Former New York Fed President and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is being castigated for paying off AIG's counterparties - Goldman foremost among them - 100 cents on the dollar and then keeping these payments secret. But it seems likely that Goldman actually got much more than 100%. What is worse, Goldman may have received this windfall by trading on information that was deliberately withheld from the public. A brief recap of the Goldman-AIG story is necessary. Goldman has revealed that it had $20 billion in... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/13/goldman_sachs-aig_its_likely_worse_than_you_think_97587.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/13/goldman_sachs-aig_its_likely_worse_than_you_think_97587.html James Keller James Keller 2010/01 01/13/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:43:50 -0600 I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I read the dozens of news stories that appeared recently describing the Internal Revenue Service's new effort to cut down on errors and fraud by clamping down on tax preparation services. With their typical credulity, reporters at newspapers across the country, quoting IRS statistics and the agency's aggressive new commissioner, Doug Shulman, painted a portrait of taxpayers victimized by ill-informed tax preparers whose mistakes cost ordinary folks big-time penalties and interest payments. What none of these gullible stories mentioned is... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/13/the_irs_should_fix_itself_first_97588.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/13/the_irs_should_fix_itself_first_97588.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/01 01/13/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:59:50 -0600 Six months ago I caused a bit of a stir with the statement, "Accordingly, we can expect unemployment to rise to about 14% within a year unless the downward slide of (private business investment) is reversed." Well, if the next six months are a replay of the last six, the unemployment rate in June 2010 will be the equivalent of 13.4%. Before I go any further, I need to point out that, given the way the government's "headline" unemployment rate is calculated, it can never reach 14%. This is because the civilian labor force includes only people who are working or have... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/12/on_track_for_14_unemployment_97586.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/12/on_track_for_14_unemployment_97586.html Louis Woodhill Louis Woodhill 2010/01 01/12/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:05:46 -0600 Last week, the governors of New York and California took to the rostrums in their respective state capitols to give their State of the State Addresses. Both states face budget crises -- New York's extremely bad, California's even worse -- and both governors will be in a position of pushing for unpopular solutions. Are they ready for this challenge of leadership? While much of the content of the governors' speeches was necessarily similar, their tone and emphasis were strikingly different. New York Governor David Paterson took a direct approach, declaring that he would dispense... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/12/time_to_get_serious_in_california_97584.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/12/time_to_get_serious_in_california_97584.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/01 01/12/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:11:35 -0600 "Nature recks nothing of intentions, good or bad; the one thing she will not tolerate is disorder, and she is very particular about getting her full pay for any attempt to create disorder." ~ Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State, The Caxton Printers, 1950, p. 197. The great economist Henry Hazlitt long ago observed that "Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man." To Hazlitt this was no accident given the "persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy." This failure had to do with the inability of... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/12/looking_beyond_the_immediate_effects_of_policy_97585.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/12/looking_beyond_the_immediate_effects_of_policy_97585.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/01 01/12/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:38:20 -0600 You may think that the last place to find a portrait of a nation is a book full of numbers. But turn to Page 673 of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, and you find these intriguing figures. About three-quarters of Americans (76.1 percent in 2007, to be exact) get to work by driving alone. Only 10.4 percent carpool, while 4.9 percent use public transportation and 2.8 percent walk. On average, Americans spend 25.3 minutes commuting each way. The state with the longest commuting time is New York, at 31.5 minutes; the states with the shortest are North and South Dakota, at about 16... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/11/the_numbers_behind_our_daily_lives_97583.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/11/the_numbers_behind_our_daily_lives_97583.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/01 01/11/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:20:54 -0600 It's ironic that just as the Department of Labor announced on Friday a loss of 85,000 jobs in December, the lead headline in the New York Times read "EPA Seeks Tighter Rules to Cut down Air Pollution." The December employment performance was disappointing. There had been some hope that job losses had fallen to zero-and yet the Obama administration is about to risk more job loss by imposing more stringent controls on air quality. It would require power plants, factories, and automobiles to reduce emissions, in order to lower permissible levels of ozone in the atmosphere. The... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/11/obama_regulates_away_jobs_97582.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/11/obama_regulates_away_jobs_97582.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/01 01/11/2010/00/00/00 Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:59:59 -0600 One of the compensations for the scar tissue accumulated over three decades in the technology business is a chance to interact with young students and entrepreneurs seeking guidance. In return for a whiff of their energy and enthusiasm you get to tell stories about the-way-it-was and opine about the-way-it-will-be. When I left MIT to join Bell Labs back in the late 70s the United States was poised for one of the most dramatic bouts of innovation the world had ever seen. Belying Jimmy Carter's prediction that America's glory days were over - beset as we were by the energy crisis, the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/11/go_east_young_man_far_east_97581.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/11/go_east_young_man_far_east_97581.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2010/01 01/11/2010/00/00/00 Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:04:42 -0600 The financial collapse of 2008 spawned a myriad of books attempting to make sense of it. While our list is by no means exhaustive, these are some of the best books that analyzed the causes of and offered solutions to our current economic turmoil:  Nicole Gelinas - After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street and Washington Gelinas' book is a standout in the barrage of recent tomes exploring the many reasons behind the financial meltdown. She manages to identify the root cause of the crisis - "Too Big To Fail" - and offers smart solutions to prevent another... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/09/publishers_picks_top_books_of_2009_97580.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/09/publishers_picks_top_books_of_2009_97580.html David DesRosiers David DesRosiers 2010/01 01/09/2010/00/00/00 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:24:56 -0600 While there are varying views as to what tomorrow's unemployment report will reveal, it's generally assumed that the number will be too high. But what's not spoken of enough is how the very federal government seen as so eager to put people back to work is blocking the kind of recovery that would make more hiring possible. To put it very simply, hiring is a cost born by investors and employers. And the problem with the latter in mind is that continued governmental efforts to drive non-market outcomes are reducing the amount of available capital for hires, all the while raising... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/07/housing_jobless_benefits_and_unemployment_97579.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/07/housing_jobless_benefits_and_unemployment_97579.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/01 01/07/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:11:55 -0600 WASHINGTON--With Americans understandably preoccupied with high unemployment and a modest outlook for economic recovery, another worrisome problem has been building, all but unnoticed. The unfunded pension liabilities of state and local governments have been rising. By law, these pensions will have to be paid to the 20 million men and women who work in the state-local public sector. They will have to be paid chiefly by the taxpayers, either of the respective states or-possibly-by all of us if Congress decides to ride to the rescue. The latest estimate of unfunded pension obligations for state... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/07/dont_ignore_public_pensions_97578.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/01/07/dont_ignore_public_pensions_97578.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/01 01/07/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:02:58 -0600