http://www.realclearmarkets.com/ en Copyright 2008 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:05:40 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.33 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss A growing contingent of financial professionals and members of the media have called for the Federal Reserve to withdraw the liquidity it has injected into capital markets to prevent inflation and asset bubbles. Such discourse brings up a key question: does the Fed have the ability to remove the excess liquidity it has added to the markets? As alarming as it may seem, the answer may be "no". First, a brief primer on interest rates and monetary policy: the 0.25% interest rate quoted by the Fed is known as the federal funds rate; this is the interest rate established by the Federal... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/20/the_fed_couldnt_hike_even_if_it_wanted_to_97520.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/20/the_fed_couldnt_hike_even_if_it_wanted_to_97520.html Sammy Abdullah Sammy Abdullah 2009/11 11/20/2009/00/00/00 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:02:40 -0600 "Never let a good crisis go to waste," said President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanual. For Democrats, the H1N1 pandemic is as good a crisis as they come.Congress seeks to use this crisis to do what Democrats have wanted to do for years-to write into federal law, for the first time, a requirement that employers give workers paid sick leave. On Tuesday Connecticut Democrats Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Rosa DeLauro released the Pandemic Protection for Workers, Families, and Businesses Act, which would require that all employers with more than 15 workers offer... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/19/sick_leave_mandates_make_us_ill_97519.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/19/sick_leave_mandates_make_us_ill_97519.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2009/11 11/19/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:00:37 -0600 Say what you will about the stimulus package, but it certainly has created one kind of job: a reporter who writes about how stimulus job creation numbers are bogus. The federal government released a report on October 30 announcing that the $787 billion stimulus package had "created or saved" 640,000 jobs to date. The report has admirable specificity, reporting job creations and savings down to the employer and zip code. Trouble is, a lot of the data are wrong. Since the release, reporters at papers all over the country have busily written takedowns, picking out nonsensical factoids... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/19/jobs_saved_stats_are_worse_than_meaningless_97518.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/19/jobs_saved_stats_are_worse_than_meaningless_97518.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2009/11 11/19/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:35:26 -0600 The Economy: We knew something was funny when the White House claimed that 640,000 to 1 million jobs had been created from this year's stimulus. What we didn't know was that it would turn into a massive fraud. Not only have 640,000 new jobs not been created from the stimulus - an absurd claim, given the economy's loss of nearly 4 million payroll positions this year - but it now seems that even the jobs themselves are fictional. Thanks to the digging of a number of data sleuths, it turns out that many of the jobs reported by states come from made-up congressional districts. This... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/job_creation_a_massive_stimulus_fraud_97517.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/job_creation_a_massive_stimulus_fraud_97517.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2009/11 11/18/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:22:52 -0600 President Obama took his declining dollar to the Asia-Pacific economic conference, and he added to it a declinist opinion of America's economy. His big message? Don't count on American consumers to lead the world from recession to recovery and beyond. His second big message? In the U.S., we must save more and spend less. Huh? This is the same limits-to-growth, central-planning wisdom we hear so often these days at home. It's also tone deaf, to say the least. Despite a sinking greenback that is wreaking havoc among the Asian economies, and in the face of repeated currency... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/president_zero_sum_goes_to_asia_97516.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/president_zero_sum_goes_to_asia_97516.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2009/11 11/18/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:54:57 -0600 Even with everything else on its agenda, the Obama administration has declared itself ready to plunge forward on an issue likely to be as contentious and exhausting to the nation as health care reform, namely a new effort to restructure our immigration laws. Last Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano laid the groundwork when she labeled our current immigration system "unacceptable" and said that the Obama administration is committed to reform as a crucial component of the future health of our economy. Yet much of her speech wasn't about immigration and the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/and_now_on_to_immigration_reform_97515.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/and_now_on_to_immigration_reform_97515.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2009/11 11/18/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:06:24 -0600 "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." Few dispute that the federal government is currently failing by a wide margin to heed Mr. Micawber's admonition. Explanations vary for this radical departure from financial prudence. One view is that politicians are acknowledging the simple, if cynical, truth that people already of age will cast more votes in 2010 than the children who will be obliged to pay for it all. Some pundits... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/teaser_rate_suckers_us_government_97514.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/18/teaser_rate_suckers_us_government_97514.html Martin Fridson Martin Fridson 2009/11 11/18/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:48:10 -0600 "Money is nothing but a medium of exchange..." - Ludwig Von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit, p. 31 By John Tamny President Obama's arrival in China has predictably generated all manner of commentary about the economic relationship between it and the United States. Not surprisingly, the majority of the commentary has been economically untrue, misguided, or both. First up is the notion that China artificially keeps the value of the yuan lower than it would naturally be. What this commentary misses is that currencies aren't commodities, rather they are... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/17/exposing_myths_about_china_and_the_yuan_97513.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/17/exposing_myths_about_china_and_the_yuan_97513.html John Tamny John Tamny 2009/11 11/17/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:39:42 -0600 Lurking behind the health reform chatter lays a perplexing piece of regulation nicknamed Cap and Trade. This legislation would decrease our carbon emissions 3% from 2005 levels by 2012, 20% by 2020 and a whopping 83% by 2050. A carbon exchange would enforce this all encompassing redefinition of society by exacting massive re-distributions of wealth. Businesses serving their community with marketable products would be deprived of resources in favor of new, politically correct industries permanently affixed to a government incubator. Our economy currently undergoes the consequences of shifting... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/17/capping_prosperity_trading_away_freedom_97512.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/17/capping_prosperity_trading_away_freedom_97512.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2009/11 11/17/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:31:41 -0600 There is an air of absurdity to what is mistakenly called "health-care reform." Everyone knows that the United States faces massive governmental budget deficits as far as calculators can project, driven heavily by an aging population and uncontrolled health costs. As we recover slowly from a devastating recession, it's widely agreed that, though deficits should not be cut abruptly (lest the economy resume its slump), a prudent society would embark on long-term policies to control health costs, reduce government spending and curb massive future deficits. The administration... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/16/obamacare_buy_now_pay_later.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/16/obamacare_buy_now_pay_later.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2009/11 11/16/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:21:10 -0600 President Obama and his friends in Congress have levied billions of dollars in new taxes to secure passage of their domestic agenda. This you probably already know. But you might not know that the folks paying the taxes are American exporters, that they've been doing it for months now, and that U.S. labor unions and foreign governments, not the Treasury Department, are the ones collecting. Such is the truth behind the President's accidental war on America's exporters. I say "accidental war" because the administration's public statements, and basic economics,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/16/obamas_accidental_war_on_us_exporters_97510.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/16/obamas_accidental_war_on_us_exporters_97510.html Scott Lincicome Scott Lincicome 2009/11 11/16/2009/00/00/00 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0600 If you like the spectacle of irresistible forces crashing into immovable objects, you must love the game of chicken being played by pro and anti-abortion forces as each hold the trillion dollar healthcare bill hostage. While a compromise might yet be possible, it's hard to imagine how Pelosi and Reid are going to unify their fractious colleagues. Republicans, of course, are happy to let their opponents immolate themselves on the altar of doctrinal purity, especially if internecine warfare derails the runaway healthcare train. Abortion is a difficult subject, especially if your goal is to... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/16/the_economics_of_taxpayer_funded_abortion_97509.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/16/the_economics_of_taxpayer_funded_abortion_97509.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2009/11 11/16/2009/00/00/00 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:17:44 -0600 Airlines, automobiles, health insurance, energy, commodities, education, housing, and utilities.... these are a few examples of areas in the American economy that increasingly show up in headlines reporting price increases, sometimes with percentages in the double-digits. The co-authors of "Inflation Watch" regularly shared these headlines in emails for many months until this overwhelming evidence of creeping inflation convinced us to track it more formally. Inflation Watch serves as a reminder that even amidst the on-going fears of deflation and credit destruction, easy monetary... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/13/watching_for_inflation_here_there_everywhere_97508.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/13/watching_for_inflation_here_there_everywhere_97508.html Dr. Duru Dr. Duru 2009/11 11/13/2009/00/00/00 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:28:23 -0600 WASHINGTON-As the Senate turns to passage of its version of health care "reform," members must consider how to avoid the misguided job-killing provisions of the House's Affordable Care for America "guaranteed unemployment" bill. Passage of the House bill Saturday night came a day after the Labor Department reported that the national unemployment rate rose to 10.2%, a 26-year high, with another 190,000 payroll jobs lost. Including discouraged workers, those working part-time for economic reasons, and those marginally attached to the labor force, the Labor Department... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/12/health_reform_and_job_destruction_97507.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/12/health_reform_and_job_destruction_97507.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2009/11 11/12/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:57:49 -0600 Of all the issues that the leaders of the G20 nations agreed in Pittsburgh to confront going forward, none is more consequential than that of global imbalances. The U.S. and China - "Chimerica", as historian Niall Ferguson has labeled the symbiotic pairing - are at the heart of the adjustment problem. The other 18 will largely be dragged along for the ride. History tells us that with no change of course by the U.S. or China, financial crises, protectionism, and political conflict are inevitable. Inflation during World War I led to the rise of monetary nationalism in the 1920s and... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/12/dollar_diplomacy_flip-flop_threatens_free_trade_97506.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/12/dollar_diplomacy_flip-flop_threatens_free_trade_97506.html Benn Steil Benn Steil 2009/11 11/12/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:32:33 -0600 "For one particular car produced by an American manufacturer, for example, 30 percent of the car's value is due to assembly in Korea, 17.5 percent due to components from Japan, 7.5 percent due to design from Germany, 4 percent due to parts from Taiwan and Singapore, 2.5 percent due to advertizing and marketing services from Britain, and 1.5 percent due to data processing from in Ireland. In the end, 37 percent of the production value of this American car comes from the United States."~Douglas A. Irwin, Free Trade Under Fire With birthrates falling in wealthy nations,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/12/the_death_of_birth_is_not_a_worry_97505.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/12/the_death_of_birth_is_not_a_worry_97505.html John Tamny John Tamny 2009/11 11/12/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:48:05 -0600 RAA: US Cash 67%, Int'l FX 15%, Commodities 7%, Bonds 5%, Int'l Equities 3%, US Equities 3% "I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight."-US Navy SEALsThat quote was cited by Marcus Luttrell - Team Leader, SDV Team 1, Alfa Platoon - as the central paragraph of the philosophy of the US Navy SEALs. I am... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/11/its_time_for_some_pride_and_accountability_97504.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/11/its_time_for_some_pride_and_accountability_97504.html Keith McCullough Keith McCullough 2009/11 11/11/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:20:24 -0600 "Stimulus" is in the process of turning a nasty recession into a genuine depression. The evidence is in the "Employment Situation" report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on November 6th. The "headline" unemployment rate shot up to 10.2%, the highest in more than 26 years. But the report was much worse than most people realize. The "household survey data" showed that 589,000 jobs vanished during October. This is bad enough, but the three-month moving average of changes in total employment (current month and prior two months) shows that... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/11/more_stimulus_equals_more_unemployment_97503.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/11/more_stimulus_equals_more_unemployment_97503.html Louis Woodhill Louis Woodhill 2009/11 11/11/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:00:26 -0600 For years Dr. Linda Halderman operated a general surgery practice in California's San Joaquin Valley, where she treated patients ranging from those with serious, life-threatening conditions to those seeking elective, cosmetic treatments. In a recent piece in Investors Business Daily, Halderman recounted the story of a woman patient who had not had a mammogram in several years even though her family had a long history of breast cancer. "But I don't have insurance," the woman told Halderman when the doctor asked why she had neglected to get a test that costs $90. Yet the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/11/health_reforms_moral_hazard_97502.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/11/health_reforms_moral_hazard_97502.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2009/11 11/11/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:53:54 -0600 As Americans contemplate slow economic growth and a spiraling dollar, Brian Domitrovic's new book, "Econoclasts: The Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity," should serve as a roadmap to revitalizing the private sector. This sharply written, thoroughly-researched narrative weaves together financial history, economic doctrine, and character study so skillfully that recent decades' policy debates become not only comprehensible, but at times, downright exciting. Domitrovic, an assistant history professor at Sam Houston University with... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/10/a_review_of_brian_domitrovics_econoclasts_97501.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/10/a_review_of_brian_domitrovics_econoclasts_97501.html Sean Rushton Sean Rushton 2009/11 11/10/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:18:39 -0600 In 1992, Colorado voters enacted the Taxpayer Bill of Rights ("TABOR"), a state constitutional provision that limits spending increases to inflation plus population growth, unless voters approve a greater increase. This reform touched off a wave of efforts by anti-tax activists to enact similar limits in other states. However, 17 years later, Colorado stands alone as the only state with a TABOR-like spending limit. Last week, Maine residents voted on a TABOR-inspired measure called the Maine Tax Relief Initiative. Proponents argued that the initiative would control outsized growth... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/10/conservatives_must_rethink_spending_caps_97500.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/10/conservatives_must_rethink_spending_caps_97500.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2009/11 11/10/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:01:26 -0600 In July 2008 Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) "didn't do any subprime lending, because they can't: the definition of a subprime loan is precisely a loan that doesn't meet the requirement, imposed by law, that Fannie and Freddie buy only mortgages issued to borrowers who made substantial down payments and carefully documented their income." (New York Times, July 18, 2008) Earlier this month he compounded his error when he stated: "Zombies, zombies, everywhere. One of the enduring myths of the financial crisis has been... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/10/how_did_paul_krugman_get_it_so_wrong_97499.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/10/how_did_paul_krugman_get_it_so_wrong_97499.html Edward Pinto Edward Pinto 2009/11 11/10/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:49:19 -0600 Regulation: Washington is quietly preparing a hostile takeover of Wall Street with a new bill that would put regulators in control of managing asset prices. While all eyes are fixed on the cobra poised to strike the health care industry, a python is wending its way through Hill banking panels that would squeeze the life from the whole economy. By Christmas, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank hopes to pass legislation that would create an uber-regulatory body called the Financial Services Oversight Council. It would give the Treasury secretary power to pick which large... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/09/a_nightmare_on_wall_street_97498.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/09/a_nightmare_on_wall_street_97498.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2009/11 11/09/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:26:54 -0600 There seems to be a consensus that the severity of last fall's financial meltdown was exacerbated by the existence of big, interconnected banks. And so the hunt is on for regulations that will prevent banks from becoming "too big to fail." But is it possible that when it comes to shuttering failing banks, bigger is better? The premise behind discouraging banks from getting too big is that the failure of big, interconnected banks threatens "the system" and makes bailouts unpleasant but unavoidable necessities. The logic is that if the banks were smaller, the failure of... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/09/with_failed_banks_bigger_might_be_better_97497.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/09/with_failed_banks_bigger_might_be_better_97497.html James Keller James Keller 2009/11 11/09/2009/00/00/00 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:30:21 -0600 In a practice run for The Big One, the H1N1 flu pandemic is working its way around the world disrupting schools, workplaces, and the economy. As public health officials scramble and the death toll mounts, would it make sense to consider a simple change in habits that could one day save millions of lives and billions of dollars? In the age of superstition when western civilization passed through the Dark Ages the bubonic plague regularly decimated populations. While the wealthy and powerful would flee to country villas, the unwashed masses would crowd into churches and pray for deliverance.... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/09/how_to_shake_off_a_h1n1_pandemic_97496.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/09/how_to_shake_off_a_h1n1_pandemic_97496.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2009/11 11/09/2009/00/00/00 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:18:14 -0600 The Job Report: Another month, another drop in payrolls. Will it ever occur to our leaders in Washington that what they're doing isn't working - and may actually be damaging our economy? News that the unemployment rate jumped to 10.2% in October, its highest level since 1983, as the economy shed 190,000 nonfarm jobs, underscores the spectacular failure of the so-called fiscal stimulus to stimulate anything other than economic misery. Since the $787 billion stimulus was passed in February, the economy has lost 2.9 million jobs - for a total of 4.3 million since the end of 2008. The... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/07/stimulating_failure__97495.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/07/stimulating_failure__97495.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2009/11 11/07/2009/00/00/00 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:03:39 -0600 According to the congressional forecasters, Democrats have succeeded in turning water into wine, proposing health care legislation that will simultaneously expand the welfare state with new entitlements while also reducing budget deficits. This is big news, at least from a political perspective, since proponents hope so-called deficit hawks will have an excuse to support bigger government. Moderate Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats should not be deluded by rosy-scenario estimates. Government-run health care will be a budget buster. First, new subsidies and handouts will cost more than... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/07/obamacare_will_balloon_future_budget_deficits_97494.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/07/obamacare_will_balloon_future_budget_deficits_97494.html Dan Mitchell Dan Mitchell 2009/11 11/07/2009/00/00/00 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:16:15 -0600 "It is important where taxpayers have made a central contribution to make sure that taxpayer interests are being put first rather than those of shareholders and certainly rather than those of incumbent management and that's why Ken Feinberg is involved in reviewing compensation levels at the companies where the TARP has made the most major investments."---Larry SummersWhen Congress doled out the Troubled Asset Relief Program money in last fall's crisis, it attached strings giving the government numerous ways to control the entities that were getting the money. At first, it... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/06/of_assets_elevators_and_money_velocity_97493.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/06/of_assets_elevators_and_money_velocity_97493.html Eric Singer Eric Singer 2009/11 11/06/2009/00/00/00 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:13:07 -0600 With the Bureau of Labor Statistics set to announce presumably another dire unemployment figure tomorrow, it's a certainty that politicians from both sides of the aisle will issue all manner of statements suggesting if we just let them make more laws and spend more money, jobs will be plentiful. Politicians bloviate about numerous things, but none more than job creation. "Job creation" is the altar at which politicians worship. Last spring President Obama defended his administration's near trillion dollar... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/05/politicians_and_the_peculiar_worship_of_full_employment_97492.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/05/politicians_and_the_peculiar_worship_of_full_employment_97492.html John Tamny John Tamny 2009/11 11/05/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:31:31 -0600 The stock market has enjoyed a significant rally since the end of the first quarter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last week that the economy grew at a 3.5% annual rate in the third quarter--a figure they achieved by that claiming inflation was running at only a 0.8% annual rate, despite a sharp drop in the dollar, a spike in commodity prices and record highs for gold. The cyclical bull market in stocks and positive print on GDP has caused some on Wall Street and in Washington to claim the recession has ended. Despite all the good economic news, an end to fiscal and monetary... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/05/the_feds_have_no_faith_in_recovery_97491.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/05/the_feds_have_no_faith_in_recovery_97491.html Michael Pento Michael Pento 2009/11 11/05/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:42:51 -0600 The following statement was released by the FOMC on Wednesday. Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September suggests that economic activity has continued to pick up. Conditions in financial markets were roughly unchanged, on balance, over the intermeeting period. Activity in the housing sector has increased over recent months. Household spending appears to be expanding but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, sluggish income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Businesses are still cutting back on fixed investment and staffing, though at a... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/text_of_fomc_statement_97490.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/text_of_fomc_statement_97490.html Federal Reserve Federal Reserve 2009/11 11/04/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:46:16 -0600 Junk Science: The oracle of climate disaster has a new book out on global warming that should be on the fiction list. He asks us to commit economic suicide while he rakes in millions from his green investments. 'Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis," Al Gore's sequel to his 2006 tome "An Inconvenient Truth," came out Tuesday. Printed on recycled paper using low-VOC (volatile organic compound) ink, it will undoubtedly be a best-seller and on the desk of every attendee at next month's climate change conference in Copenhagen. In a press release announcing... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/gore_asks_us_to_commit_economic_suicide_97488.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/gore_asks_us_to_commit_economic_suicide_97488.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2009/11 11/04/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:30:55 -0600 Your sales are lousy. Your biggest customer just went bankrupt owing you a few hundred thousand dollars. Your health insurance costs are rising rapidly and you're having trouble financing your accounts receivables. But that's not the half of it. There's an Internal Revenue Service auditor poring over your books in the conference room. A state sales tax agent has left you a phone message that he wants to come in for a visit, and city fire inspectors just dropped off a violations summons. With government budgets sharply constrained and likely to be under pressure for years to... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/the_bulls_eye_on_business_back_97486.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/the_bulls_eye_on_business_back_97486.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2009/11 11/04/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:28:48 -0600 Should the Fed begin raising rates and extracting excess reserves? In late 2008, our minders diagnosed a credit crunch prescribing massive liquidity injections to make credit flow again. Unfortunately, the credit crunch was more symptom than disease and masking the symptom has only delayed the necessary surgery. The real economic infirmity was declining capital caused by inflation-induced overconsumption and malinvestment. Bernanke's Fed operates on the wrong symptom after misdiagnosing the patient. We're not suffering a crunch slowing the credit he believes to be the lifeblood of... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/dr_bernanke_md_or_missed_diagnosis__97487.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/04/dr_bernanke_md_or_missed_diagnosis__97487.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2009/11 11/04/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:27:40 -0600 Against the backdrop of high unemployment and a public revolt against a Democratic health-care bill - which would significantly increase taxes, slash Medicare spending, and massively raise health-care spending elsewhere in a government takeover of our leading growth sector - a three-race sweep by Republicans is very much in play this Election Day. The Intrade pay-to-play betting/investment parlor shows big wins for Bob McDonnell in Virginia and Doug Hoffman in upstate New York's 23rd congressional district. The New Jersey race for governor is too close to call, with the probabilities... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/03/the_economics_of_a_three-race_gop_sweep_97485.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/03/the_economics_of_a_three-race_gop_sweep_97485.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2009/11 11/03/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:24:30 -0600 During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama famously pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 or families making less than $250,000. With this pledge, he offered over 95% of the electorate something for nothing: you'll get expanded government services, and somebody else will pay for it. The pitch worked, and he became the first winning presidential candidate in a generation whose platform explicitly contained tax hikes. Unfortunately for those who bought in, massive federal deficits will make it impossible for Obama to keep his promise. The Office of Management and... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/03/why_middle_class_tax_hikes_are_coming_97483.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/03/why_middle_class_tax_hikes_are_coming_97483.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2009/11 11/03/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:38:06 -0600 The 18th century French writer Voltaire once observed that the State is "a device for taking money out of one set of pockets and putting it into another." Voltaire elegantly distilled what we're witnessing right now as Washington seeks to prop up what private investors won't: the redistribution of limited capital from the productive to the unproductive. "Stimulus" this is not. Though economic logic tells us that GMAC should never have received even one dollar of federal largesse, if the planned handout of an additional $5.6 billion is approved by Treasury, GMAC... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/03/gmacs_lifeline_is_the_economys_noose_97484.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/03/gmacs_lifeline_is_the_economys_noose_97484.html John Tamny John Tamny 2009/11 11/03/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:09:17 -0600 It doesn't come as big surprise that Wall Street chronicler Charlie Gasparino's greatest regret in life was not going through with the Golden Gloves boxing competition he dreamed of as a teenager. Born in the Bronx, and growing up in Westchester, where he first slipped on a pair of boxing gloves, Gasparino burnishes a hard-hitting, "I don't give a damn what you think" tough-guy image. Look quickly at him, and you might even see a hint of Rocky Marciano staring back at you. But instead of becoming an "Italian Stallion" inside the ring, Charlie chose... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/02/an_interview_with_charlie_gasparino_97480.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/02/an_interview_with_charlie_gasparino_97480.html Dan Holland Dan Holland 2009/11 11/02/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:24:04 -0600 The idea that the government of a major advanced country would default on its debt -- that is, tell lenders that it won't repay them all they're owed -- was, until recently, a preposterous proposition. Argentina and Russia have stiffed their creditors, but surely the likes of the United States, Japan or Britain wouldn't. Well, it's still a very, very long shot, but it's no longer entirely unimaginable. Governments of rich countries are borrowing so much that it's conceivable that one day the twin assumptions underlying their burgeoning debt (that lenders will... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/02/could_the_united_states_go_broke_97482.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/02/could_the_united_states_go_broke_97482.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2009/11 11/02/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:16:56 -0600 Regardless of your tribal affiliations, were you cautiously optimistic when our new president promised to "restore science to its rightful place" in the formulation of public policy? Were you embarrassed by the prior occupant's politicization of issues that should have been decided on a more scientific basis? Did you assume that Barack Obama would surround himself with apolitical science advisors unencumbered by embarrassing anti-science baggage and free of culture-war axes to grind? To paraphrase a once famous mayor of New York - So how's he doing so far? You're... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/02/junk_science_returns_to_the_white_house_97481.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/11/02/junk_science_returns_to_the_white_house_97481.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2009/11 11/02/2009/00/00/00 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:47:23 -0600 Economy: As we said as far back as February, it was likely the U.S. economy would grow by the third quarter of this year. Well, it did - and the 3.5% rebound was better than expected. But hold the hallelujahs, at least for now. It's almost certain that the U.S. emerged from recession sometime during the summer, most likely in June. But those who want to credit the $787 billion "stimulus" package passed in February should likewise refrain from saying "I told you so." They include presidential adviser Larry Summers, who said last week that "thanks largely to the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/30/35_percent_gdp_boost_is_wasteful_growth_97479.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/30/35_percent_gdp_boost_is_wasteful_growth_97479.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2009/10 10/30/2009/00/00/00 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:51:33 -0500 Americans are outraged over bloated executive pay - and rightly so. When a Richard Fuld (Lehman Bros.), Stanley O'Neal (Merrill Lynch) or Chuck Prince (Citigroup) rakes in millions of dollars from a firm spiraling downward, employees, shareholders and lawmakers have every reason to question how public corporations are governed. The distinguished Judge Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nailed the problem when he wrote last year: "Executive compensation in large publicly traded firms often is excessive because of the feeble incentives of boards of directors to police... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/29/channel_anger_at_wall_st_pay_not_fund_fees__97478.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/29/channel_anger_at_wall_st_pay_not_fund_fees__97478.html Paul Schott Stevens Paul Schott Stevens 2009/10 10/29/2009/00/00/00 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:03:49 -0500 WASHINGTON-Pity poor Harry Reid. The Senate Majority Leader has been grappling with the challenge of combining the two Senate health care plans into one, legislation that must also be palatable to Democrats in the House of Representatives. Mr. Reid's compromise is a bill with a public plan that allows individual states to opt out. That puts him squarely in the liberal camp, because few states end up opting out of federal benefits, however hard their initial resolve. The question is whether he can carry the votes of all senators of his own party and muster the 60 ayes needed to block a... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/29/the_public_option_opt-out_is_no_panacea_97477.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/29/the_public_option_opt-out_is_no_panacea_97477.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2009/10 10/29/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:46:16 -0500 Is economic growth the highest priority in Obama's Washington? That's not a trivial question: in 1972, the Club of Rome, a global think tank whose current members include Mikhail Gorbachev, issued a report entitled The Limits to Growth, challenging the primacy of wealth creation. In arguments later taken up by President Jimmy Carter, the book's sub-text is that unbridled growth leads to population expansion, but also pollution, resource depletion, famine, and capitalist exploitation. Reacting to this critique, in the spring of 1979 economist George Reisman published a short... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/29/economic_justice_and_economic_growth_97476.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/29/economic_justice_and_economic_growth_97476.html John Chapman John Chapman 2009/10 10/29/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:39:11 -0500 It must be something in the water. The ruling Democrats know their tax-hiking, re-regulating, and big-spending policies have failed to rejuvenate job-creation or reduce the unemployment rate. And yet they persist in trying more of the same.A recent New York Times editorial acknowledges that the economy is weak, but it pleads for yet another federal stimulus package. The Times editors want another round of unemployment benefits (this would be the third) to subsidize non-work welfarism. They also want more federal spending on state Medicaid -- an area that already has been showered with federal... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/28/economic_freedom_fighters_must_unite_97475.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/28/economic_freedom_fighters_must_unite_97475.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2009/10 10/28/2009/00/00/00 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:30:03 -0500 Back in the winter when Congress was debating whether stimulus programs could get money into the economy quickly enough to make a difference, supporters of government efforts to prime the pump argued that tax credits would offer Americans a quick financial shot in the arm. After all, what else does government need to do to process a tax credit except take in applications, verify their accuracy, and then ship the money out the door? Oops. In what amounts to the most underreported story of the year, the Treasury Department's Inspector General testified last week that in an effort to get... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/28/the_irs_and_our_latest_housing_scam_97474.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/28/the_irs_and_our_latest_housing_scam_97474.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2009/10 10/28/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:10:50 -0500 For 30 years, the Republican Party dominated American political life, winning five of the seven presidential elections before 2008. But the GOP has taken its lumps of late, culminating in its loss of Congress in 2006 and the White House last November. The party's future direction is unclear. But as America struggles to emerge from a financial crisis, any renewal of the right will require Republicans to rethink their approach to the economy. An agenda focused chiefly on tax cuts, as the Republicans' has been since Ronald Reagan's presidency, is no longer enough. In 1980, Reagan... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/27/pro-market_populism_is_gops_out_97473.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/27/pro-market_populism_is_gops_out_97473.html Luigi Zingales Luigi Zingales 2009/10 10/27/2009/00/00/00 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:53:50 -0500 Many analysts decried the various Bush/Obama stimulus bills with the observation that deficits crowd out private investment. When Washington borrows money merely to funnel that same money back into the market via politically favored interest groups, nothing on net gets added to the economy. This is irrelevant to Keynesians who frequently disavow capital scarcity, but it matters to economists who correlate government spending with tight capital markets. Now numerous commentators bemoan that banks are borrowing from the Fed only to invest in treasuries, rather than lend those monies... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/27/the_credit_crunch_is_washingtons_creation_97471.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/27/the_credit_crunch_is_washingtons_creation_97471.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2009/10 10/27/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:45:00 -0500 In his brilliant 1981 book Reaganomics, economist Bruce Bartlett observed that "to the Keynesians, all tax cuts are the same." Seeking to show why that was not the case, Bartlett took readers on a masterful ride through tax policy in the 20th century. As Bartlett put it, the "individual entrepreneur is still the basic motivating force in the economy " and any "measures which suppress entrepreneurship will ultimately cause the economy to stagnate." With the top tax rate at the nosebleed level of 71 percent at the time of the book's publication,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/27/desperately_seeking_the_bruce_bartlett_of_old_97470.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/27/desperately_seeking_the_bruce_bartlett_of_old_97470.html John Tamny John Tamny 2009/10 10/27/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:47:56 -0500 It is 9 o'clock in the evening and the brilliant reflections of Lower Manhattan's neo-classical buildings stream through the mahogany blinds of a gargantuan office on the 29th floor of 85 Broad. They illuminate, just barely, a middle-aged man with a balding pate. He is pacing, agonizing like a present-day Hamlet about what to do with an amount of money that gives new meaning to what is, unmistakably, an embarrassment of riches. An unlit cigar dangling from the right side of his mouth (he's no Jimmy Cayne after all), Lloyd Blankfein picks up a Goldman stress ball he picked up at... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/26/why_goldman_should_pay_a_special_dividend_97472.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/10/26/why_goldman_should_pay_a_special_dividend_97472.html Jason Trennert Jason Trennert 2009/10 10/26/2009/00/00/00 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:40:34 -0500