http://www.realclearmarkets.com/ en Copyright 2008 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:25:58 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.33 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss In January the U.S. Treasurer, Rosie Rios, traveled to Dallas to join local officials at the construction site of a new convention hotel being built with money raised through Build America Bonds. The purpose was to celebrate the success of the so-called BABs, which are federally-subsidized bonds created by the 2009 stimulus package. Of course, what no one at the Dallas "celebration" pointed out is that the $388 million in BABs that the city floated with federal aid were necessary because no private developer would cough up the money for the risky project. In fact, local officials... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/17/bankrupting_of_the_united_states_bonds_98386.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/17/bankrupting_of_the_united_states_bonds_98386.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/03 03/17/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:25:47 -0500 Surprise, surprise. Sen. Chris Dodd's financial-regulation proposal raises the possibility of substantial progress on the road to ending "too big to fail" (TBTF) and bailout nation for banks and other financial institutions. How the Dodd bill will play out in the final details remains to be seen. But when you read the Dodd fact sheet, there are a few key items to like. First, under the Dodd scheme, large complex companies will have to submit plans for rapid and orderly shutdowns should they go under. These are called "funeral plans." Then, in terms of these orderly... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/16/is_dodd_ending_too_big_to_fail_98385.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/16/is_dodd_ending_too_big_to_fail_98385.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2010/03 03/16/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:54:51 -0500 Over the last two budget cycles, every state except North Dakota has had to close a budget gap. But a handful of states stand out for the depth of their fiscal problems. For 2010, seven states had budget gaps totaling more than 25% of general fund spending, as measured by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Of these, six have a clear story about how they ended up in such a mess. Nevada is battered by weak travel to Las Vegas, while California is heavily reliant on shrinking income tax revenues. Arizona, California and Nevada were all hit particularly hard by the burst of the property... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/16/whats_the_matter_with_illinois__98384.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/16/whats_the_matter_with_illinois__98384.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/03 03/16/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:46:00 -0500 America's banks are as vulnerable today as before the credit crisis, and reforms offered by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd won't fix things. Prior to the crisis, Americans spent vastly more than they earned, borrowing against overvalued homes through creative mortgages. Banks offered adjustable rate mortgages and other products that unrealistically assumed homeowners could shoulder much bigger monthly payments after five years or refinance homes at higher values. Often incomes and home values were not verified, and similar games abounded on credit cards. Many... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/15/dodds_financial_reforms_wont_fix_the_banks_98383.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/15/dodds_financial_reforms_wont_fix_the_banks_98383.html Peter Morici Peter Morici 2010/03 03/15/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:21:54 -0500 The new Obama Fed is going to be very dovish when it comes to fighting future inflation and defending the value of the dollar. The president has nominated Janet Yellen to be vice chair of the Federal Reserve. Ms. Yellen is a distinguished economist who unfortunately subscribes to the Phillips-curve model that trades off unemployment and inflation. In other words, rather than excess money creation as the cause of rising prices, she focuses on the unemployment rate, the volume of new jobs being created, and the growth of the overall economy. For Ms. Yellen, inflation is caused by too many... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/13/yellen_is_spellin_future_inflation_98382.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/13/yellen_is_spellin_future_inflation_98382.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2010/03 03/13/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:58:28 -0600 As Washington and the states pile up mountainous liabilities - $3 trillion for unfunded state pensions, $10 trillion in new federal deficits through 2019, and $38 trillion (or is it $50 trillion?) in unfunded Medicare promises - the U.S. needs once again to call on its chief strategic asset: radical innovation. One laboratory of growth will continue to be the Internet. The U.S. began the 2000's with fewer than five million residential broadband lines and zero mobile broadband. We begin the new decade with 71 million residential lines and 300 million portable and mobile broadband devices.... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/12/entrepreneurial_innovation_and_the_internet_98381.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/12/entrepreneurial_innovation_and_the_internet_98381.html Bret Swanson Bret Swanson 2010/03 03/12/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:42:12 -0600 WASHINGTON-Lucky women. They face an 8% unemployment rate, compared with 10% for men. Women are riding out the recession more easily, so what better time for Congress to put forward an agenda to help those men displaced from construction and manufacturing? Yet men can wait. Today the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions holds a hearing on the misnamed Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill designed to raised women's wages. Hillary Clinton introduced the bill when she was still a Democratic senator from New York, and it has 38 Democratic cosponsors. The bill would vastly... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/11/the_paycheck_fairness_misnomer_98380.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/11/the_paycheck_fairness_misnomer_98380.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/03 03/11/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:20:39 -0600 It's very difficult to pick up any kind of financial publication these days without reading about China's growing economy, and what this means for the economic health of the United States. While an enhanced division of labor has traditionally been viewed as bullish for all who participate in what is a "closed" world economy, China's rise is increasingly seen as a threat to the U.S. for its ever-expanding workforce making ours less relevant. Not only is China's economy presently the third largest in the world, it can now lay claim to being the largest market for... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/11/chinas_economic_rise_is_truly_glorious_98379.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/11/chinas_economic_rise_is_truly_glorious_98379.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/03 03/11/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:58:48 -0600 The health of an economy is too-simply described by GDP growth. If I sue you, and you countersue me, our collective legal fees increase GDP handily. Excellent! If government passes additional laws to increase the complexity of the tax code and the burden of regulatory compliance, and then hires additional staff to better enforce these more-complex laws and regulations, GDP rises handily. If our employers hire additional people to address these new levels of complexity and regulation, GDP again rises handily. Better still, the "Keynesian multiplier" applies to the spending of these... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/10/whats_gross_about_our_gross_domestic_product_98378.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/10/whats_gross_about_our_gross_domestic_product_98378.html Robert Arnott Robert Arnott 2010/03 03/10/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:09:32 -0600 The game of Chicken, in which two players face off against one another in a potentially devastating confrontation, seems like an apt description for the clash on Sunday between Cablevision and ABC over transmission fees, which resulted in a black-out of part of the Oscar telecast for about 3 million viewers. The game is also an appropriate analogy for the face-off between the National Football League and its players' union over a collective bargaining agreement, which could result in a lock-out of players or a strike. In both cases, however, the consumer sits in the middle of this game... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/10/the_oscars_the_nfl_and_failed_public_policy_98377.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/10/the_oscars_the_nfl_and_failed_public_policy_98377.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/03 03/10/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:48:43 -0600 There's an old joke about a chemist, a physicist and an economist stuck on a desert island. The castaways possess plenty of canned food, but no tools. The scientists set about an elaborate scheme to build a fire and explode the cans open. But the economist proposes a more elegant solution -- "First," he says, "assume a can opener." Last week, Republican Representatives Mike Pence and Jeb Hensarling introduced a proposal that is the budgetary equivalent to that economist's approach. With federal spending projected reach 24% of GDP by the end of this decade (or 23%... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/09/rep_mike_pence_assumes_a_can_opener_98376.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/09/rep_mike_pence_assumes_a_can_opener_98376.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/03 03/09/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:16:46 -0600 Employment: As the economy continues to destroy jobs, we hear a new excuse. Frigid weather, the White House says, made the jobs report look worse than it is. Actually, even without snow, it's worse than you think. Businesses shed another 36,000 jobs during February, the latest jobs report shows, but the unemployment rate remained flat at 9.7%. This, say Democrats in Washington, is a positive sign. "Only 36,000 lost their jobs today," crowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as if losing thousands of jobs was an achievement. We're sad to say, the picture is even worse than... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/08/the_jobs_picture_is_even_worse_than_it_appears_98375.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/08/the_jobs_picture_is_even_worse_than_it_appears_98375.html Editorial Editorial 2010/03 03/08/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:02:17 -0600 If you ever find yourself munching a sandwich at your desk and want to enliven your lunch break with a fascinating lecture about the future of medicine, tune in to a talk titled "Systems Biology, Systems Medicine, and Transformational Technologies" by Dr. Leroy Hood of the Institute for Systems Biology. Pitching a lay audience at one of Yahoo! Labs "Big Thinker" events, Dr. Hood does a masterful job describing the possibilities that lie ahead for what he calls the new age of P4 medicine. The four "P"s are predictive, personalized, preventative, and... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/08/will_systems_biology_survive_healthcare_reform_98374.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/08/will_systems_biology_survive_healthcare_reform_98374.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2010/03 03/08/2010/00/00/00 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:53:49 -0600 Rather than a post-partisan olive branch to congressional Republicans and the American public, President Obama's latest health-care speech was a declaration of war. He's more than willing to use a 51-vote reconciliation majority to jam through a roughly $2 trillion health-care plan that amounts to a government takeover of nearly one-fifth of the economy. He's prepared to stick Uncle Sam right in the middle of the age-old relationship between patients and doctors, and doctors and hospitals, all while subjugating the private health-care insurance system to the status of a... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/05/one_giant_government_leap_backwards_98373.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/05/one_giant_government_leap_backwards_98373.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2010/03 03/05/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:12:34 -0600 Sen. Dodd's financial reform bill, like Rep. Frank's before it promises to be a magnificent example of the politicians' craft. The near perfect failure of either bill to address the actual cause of the crisis is outshined only by the shamelessness with which its authors evade their own responsibility for the disaster. Naturally they propose to expand their own power to do it all over again. The most hypocritical and dangerous part of the bill is the creation of a new agency (or in the Senate bill a new department inside the Federal Reserve) supposed to protect consumers from... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/05/dodd_preserves_deniability_98371.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/05/dodd_preserves_deniability_98371.html Andrew Redleaf & Richard Vigilante Andrew Redleaf & Richard Vigilante 2010/03 03/05/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:59:02 -0600 It's important to keep in mind that economic data, even though their definitions and methods of collection may not have greatly changed, do not necessarily give the same signals or tell the same story over time. Take unemployment. Comparable employment losses in different recessions have resulted in disparate increases in unemployment. Let's look at the experience of the six most recent labor market recessions (which in some cases lasted longer than the officially dated recessions). The recession periods run from the monthly cyclical peak to the monthly trough of employment and... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/05/what_is_unemployment_telling_us_98372.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/05/what_is_unemployment_telling_us_98372.html Alfred Tella Alfred Tella 2010/03 03/05/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:55:25 -0600 WASHINGTON-Many Americans are intent on saving money, making every penny count. But here in Washington, even though President Obama has promised to cut the deficit, wasting taxpayer money remains the local sport, as it has been for years under Democratic and Republican congresses. Call it cronyism, or call it helping your friends. Inside the Beltway, there's a new name for these ancient games, the "high road" procurement process. It's not brand new but was given new voice on February 26 with publication of the first annual report of the White House Middle Class Task... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/04/washington_plays_highway_robbery_98369.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/04/washington_plays_highway_robbery_98369.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/03 03/04/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:44:36 -0600 Faced with high, painful unemployment as far as the eye can see, the government naturally is here to help. The Senate passed a $15 billion "jobs bill." Its proudest piece is a tax credit for employers who hire a person out of work at least 60 days. The employer won't have to pay the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax for what remains of this year. If the worker stays on the job at least a year, the government will give the employer $1,000.As to the earlier $787 billion stimulus bill, Vice President Joe Biden praised it in Orlando this week as an engine of job creation, while he... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/04/bring_back_the_robber_barons_98370.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/04/bring_back_the_robber_barons_98370.html Daniel Henninger Daniel Henninger 2010/03 03/04/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:06:23 -0600 Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has announced his intention to move ahead on his financial reform plan without the support of the panel's senior Republicans. Dodd's desire to create a new consumer finance protection agency is a major reason for this lack of support. Republicans, and moderate Democrats, are right to oppose this new agency. As designed, it would increase the likelihood of future crises rather than reduce them. Advocates of the new agency argue that bank regulators have placed too much priority on bank safety and soundness, at the expense of... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/03/consumer_protection_led_to_crisis_98368.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/03/consumer_protection_led_to_crisis_98368.html Mark Calabria Mark Calabria 2010/03 03/03/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:44:26 -0600 As health reform again dominates our public discourse many pundits have highlighted how socializing medicine will exacerbate our already precarious budget concerns. Much has also been written regarding threats to evade public sentiment by employing especially repugnant procedural tactics. While these aspects ridicule the hypocrisy of our elected representatives, they are secondary. Healthcare is not a right. It's a good like anything else. Medical treatment or more specifically how we finance it, cannot be considered an unalienable right. It's a form of consumption. Your right to... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/03/healthcare_is_a_good_not_a_natural_right_98367.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/03/healthcare_is_a_good_not_a_natural_right_98367.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2010/03 03/03/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:08:11 -0600 ACORN, the controversial network of community groups that has lost much of its federal funding, may be fading away, but one of its most cherished campaigns, to get government to pay a so-called "living wage" to those who contract with the public sector, is about to go national thanks to the Obama White House. News reports dating back to early last month on the Daily Caller website and more recently via the Associated Press describe a plan taking shape in the White House to rewrite federal contracting rules to give bidding advantages to those companies that pay higher wages and offer... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/03/white_house_goes_national_with_living_wages_98366.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/03/white_house_goes_national_with_living_wages_98366.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/03 03/03/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:38:46 -0600 Martin Wolf is a prominent columnist for the Financial Times, and a brief bio of sorts on the FT website notes that "leading economists" regularly debate his musings on the global economy. While Wolf's influence over deep thinkers within the economic commentariat perhaps speaks well of him, the contrarian view offered here is that his clout serves as more evidence of how very debased the level of thinking is among today's economic establishment. Indeed, it could be argued from a classical economic perspective that Wolf's rising sway correlates with a weaker... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/02/the_mystery_that_is_martin_wolfs_influence_98364.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/02/the_mystery_that_is_martin_wolfs_influence_98364.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/03 03/02/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:05:03 -0600 Last month, I attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, where I spent a lot of time talking about entitlement reform. Entitlement costs, especially those related to health care, are exploding: over the next 25 years, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid is expected to nearly double from about 5.3% of GDP to 10%, and will continue rising thereafter. I kept repeating one message. Any discussion of restraining federal taxation and maintaining the current size of government -- let alone shrinking it -- must start with entitlement reform that controls costs. And that means making... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/02/innovation_isnt_enough_to_fix_entitlements_98365.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/03/02/innovation_isnt_enough_to_fix_entitlements_98365.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/03 03/02/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:38:13 -0600 On Wednesday Fed Chairman Bernanke presented the updated economic forecasts of members of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) as part of the Fed's semi-annual Monetary Report to the Congress. The forecasts were not greatly different from the FOMC projections released last October and on average anticipate moderate economic growth in 2010 - 2012, slowly declining unemployment, and continued low inflation. The forecasts take into account the monetary policy that each FOMC member considers most appropriate. The forecasts of the Federal Reserve Bank presidents and the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/26/lets_give_the_fomc_pessimists_a_listen_98363.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/26/lets_give_the_fomc_pessimists_a_listen_98363.html Alfred Tella Alfred Tella 2010/02 02/26/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:14:26 -0600 On Thursday, the President gathered with Congressional members to discuss health reform. The President and Democratic leaders spoke of many numbers in their attempt to rebuild support for their proposals. They mentioned 30 million (the number of uninsured Americans, according to the White House), 17 (the percentage of GDP spent on health care), and 1912 (the year when Teddy Roosevelt first called for universal coverage). But here's the number that no one mentioned: 12. And while all the other numbers are important, the key to reforming American health care rests with that one number,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/26/the_health_care_number_you_didnt_hear_98362.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/26/the_health_care_number_you_didnt_hear_98362.html David Gratzer David Gratzer 2010/02 02/26/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:04:22 -0600 Every day, workers change jobs. Businesses start or fail. New products render old products obsolete. People relocate to start afresh. These micro-level disruptions are vital to capitalism's intrinsic capacity for invention and regeneration. We could prevent or avoid these painful choices, but that would scuttle innovation and crush the human spirit a la communism. Only government can engineer shifts so dramatic that these micro-level adjustments accumulate into macro-level hardship. The most common culprit is inflation-driven malinvestment. As the value of the dollar wanes, so does its... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/24/why_the_recession_has_lasted_so_long__98361.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/24/why_the_recession_has_lasted_so_long__98361.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2010/02 02/24/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:10:11 -0600 Speaking to the Wall Street Journal last week, the comptroller of Harrisburg, Pa., sounded downright glum as he explained his city's diminishing prospects of meeting a big upcoming bond payment. Harrisburg has just $1.2 million cash on hand and faces payroll costs alone of about $3 million a month. Even worse, it has about $17 million in debt payments coming due, a result of a series of "dizzying debt deals" according to a local newspaper. "We can't raise taxes; they're already very high," the comptroller explained. "If we did, people would just... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/24/muni_abuses_weigh_down_states_cities_98360.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/24/muni_abuses_weigh_down_states_cities_98360.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/02 02/24/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:32:17 -0600 WASHINGTON-Fifteen million Americans are unemployed and actively looking for work, and millions more have given up looking. Countless others are underemployed. Many working Americans worry whether they will have a job next month, and Americans who have health insurance fear they may lose it. What should the Washington brain trust do to improve our economic situation? Surely two actions should not be on the table: (1) raise taxes which would discourage employment; and (2) deprive Americans of their health insurance policies. Yet these two steps are at the heart of President Obama's health... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/obamacare_20_is_a_job_killer_98359.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/obamacare_20_is_a_job_killer_98359.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/02 02/23/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:23:38 -0600 Deficits: The media breathlessly report an "unexpectedly" large increase in unemployment applications with inflation rising "faster than expected." Given the wasteful spending spree we've been on, what do they expect? The economic gurus at major media outlets such as Reuters are having a dickens of a time explaining why the economy is not responding to the massive doses of monetary steroids we've been injecting. Last Thursday, after the Labor Department announced that claims for state unemployment benefits increased by 31,000 to 473,000, Reuters reported that the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/great_expectations_disappointing_results_98358.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/great_expectations_disappointing_results_98358.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2010/02 02/23/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:25:18 -0600 Long before Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson and Tim Geithner were empowered to allegedly save the world's financial system from collapse, a collection of four central bankers from the United States, England, Germany and France similarly controlled the globe's financial fate in the years between the two major wars of the twentieth century. Investor Liaquat Ahamed tells their story in endlessly interesting fashion in his book Lords of Finance, which chronicles the monetary decisions made in the 1920s that proved impactful in the 1930s and beyond. New York Fed President Benjamin Strong,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/book_review_liaquat_ahmeds_lords_of_finance_98357.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/book_review_liaquat_ahmeds_lords_of_finance_98357.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/02 02/23/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:25:47 -0600 Yesterday, the White House released Health Care Reform Version 4.0, or the White House's opening bid for a compromise between the House and Senate health care bills. The press is generally describing the plan as a tweak of the Senate bill, mostly because it lacks the public option that many House Democrats want. But the President's revenue proposals -- which further expand taxes on rich people's income and neuter the curve bending "Cadillac Tax" -- are much more reminiscent of the House bill than the Senate one. And the proposal reflects an ongoing shift away from... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/dude_wheres_my_healthcare_cadillac_tax_98356.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/23/dude_wheres_my_healthcare_cadillac_tax_98356.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/02 02/23/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:45:27 -0600 Have you watched with amusement as various political commentators have tried to demonize the amorphous Tea Party movement by outing behind-the-scenes bogeymen allegedly pulling the strings of this latter day Great Awakening? Sarah Palin. Glenn Beck. Dick Armey. Newt Gingrich. Grover Norquist. Jack Abramoff. Lyndon LaRouche. The John Birch Society. The list goes on. None of it is sticking. From time to time one professional politico or another may try to jump out in front of the parade. But everyone knows that the Tea Party has no leader, and with a little luck never will. That's because... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/22/pin_the_bogeyman_on_the_tea_party_98353.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/22/pin_the_bogeyman_on_the_tea_party_98353.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2010/02 02/22/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:47:28 -0600 President Obama's budget deficit taskforce is clever politics but poor leadership. Instead of drafting a responsible budget, he seeks to force Republicans to endorse wasteful spending and higher taxes, or be cast as obstructionists. President Bush was no model of austerity. He inherited a $263 billion surplus from Bill Clinton. By fiscal 2007, the year before the Great Recession, the deficit was $161 billion. Bush's foolishnesses started with unnecessary increases in farm subsidies and ended with a TARP that bailed out the banks without imposing needed reforms. Bush and a Democratic... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/22/obama_needs_a_responsible_budget_plan_98355.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/22/obama_needs_a_responsible_budget_plan_98355.html Peter Morici Peter Morici 2010/02 02/22/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:24:19 -0600 It would be possible in other circumstances to disregard the ongoing story of Greece and its debts as a tedious tale of financial markets. But there's much more to it than that. What's happening in Greece speaks to two larger issues affecting hundreds of millions of people everywhere: the future of the welfare state and the fate of Europe's single currency -- the euro. The meaning of Greece transcends high finance. Every advanced society, including the United States, has a welfare state. Though details differ, their purposes are similar: to support the unemployed, poor,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/22/greece_and_the_welfare_state_in_ruins_98354.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/22/greece_and_the_welfare_state_in_ruins_98354.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/02 02/22/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:20:11 -0600 The New York Times ran a front-page story this week called "Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis." As usual, they got it wrong. Instead, the headline should have read, "After Scott Brown's Astonishing Senate Win in Massachusetts, New Political Gridlock in Washington Could Spell the End of the Liberal Crack-Up We Have Witnessed over the Past Year." In fact, gridlock in Washington is good, since it will stop the assault of big government until the end of the year when Congress could be overturned by independents, tea partiers, Republicans, and... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/20/tea-party_power_to_solve_the_debt_problems_98352.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/20/tea-party_power_to_solve_the_debt_problems_98352.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2010/02 02/20/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:04:25 -0600 What a difference a year can make. On Tuesday President Obama announced that the Department of Energy would guarantee $8.3 billion of loans to Southern Company, enabling its subsidiary, Georgia Power, to build two nuclear power plants, the first in America in over 30 years. Going well beyond that and opening a new chapter in his approach to energy and climate, Mr. Obama promised up to $36 billion in federal loan guarantees for nuclear facilities and declared, "we're going to have to build a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in America. "Yet only a year ago, Mr.... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/18/obama_goes_nuclear_in_a_good_way_98351.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/18/obama_goes_nuclear_in_a_good_way_98351.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/02 02/18/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:24:45 -0600 Past troubles within the U.S. financial system continue to generate a great deal of feverish commentary from allegedly wise minds in the economic commentariat about how to fix what was broken. The general view is that something must be done in terms of legislation and regulation to ensure that another banking crisis of the kind which occurred in 2008 never happens again. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Tuesday, Princeton professor Alan Blinder observed that "Doing nothing to safeguard the financial system after what we've been through would be a disgrace." On... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/18/the_best_banking_regulation_is_no_regulation_98350.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/18/the_best_banking_regulation_is_no_regulation_98350.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/02 02/18/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:13:01 -0600 Public Debt: After repeated warnings from government finance officials around the world, the exploding U.S. debt has suddenly become a major issue for foreign buyers. Maybe it's time we paid attention, too. Worried about having too much U.S. debt on their books, a number of countries are cutting their holdings of American government and corporate bonds. According to the U.S. Treasury, foreign holdings of T-bills plunged $53 billion in December - a record. More than $34 billion of it was dumped by China, which fell to No. 2 among holders of U.S. debt. Regaining the top spot was Japan,... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/17/our_rising_national_debt_matters_98349.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/17/our_rising_national_debt_matters_98349.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2010/02 02/17/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:25:22 -0600 The economic crisis shaking much of Europe, most extremely in nations like Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, has been variously blamed on the global financial meltdown, the flawed design of the European Union, and even (predictably) on shenanigans on Wall Street which helped some EU member nations circumvent lending limits. But something deeper and more fundamental is at work which the global credit crisis has merely helped to expose. Most European countries today operate under economic and labor policies crafted during the height of the post-war baby boom, featuring middle-class... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/17/the_demise_of_the_european_welfare_nation_98348.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/17/the_demise_of_the_european_welfare_nation_98348.html Steven Malanga Steven Malanga 2010/02 02/17/2010/00/00/00 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:41:30 -0600 With over $9 trillion in federal budget deficits expected over the next 10 years, lots of people in Washington are talking about the gap between taxes and spending. Rep. Paul Ryan is unusual in that he's proposed to do something about it. Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, released last month an updated version of "A Roadmap for America's Future." The Roadmap proposes radical changes in entitlement programs and our tax code, with the intent of making the federal budget sustainable while encouraging economic growth. The plan is not perfect, but it... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/16/rep_ryans_economic_road_map_is_a_good_start_98347.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/16/rep_ryans_economic_road_map_is_a_good_start_98347.html Josh Barro Josh Barro 2010/02 02/16/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:56:49 -0600 It's become apparent from recent events that America's political, business and scholarly elites have fundamentally misjudged China. Conflicts with China have multiplied. Consider: the undervalued renminbi and its effect on trade; the breakdown of global warming negotiations in Copenhagen; China's weak support of efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; its similarly poor record in pushing North Korea to relinquish its tiny atomic arsenal; the sale of U.S. weapons to Taiwan; and Google's threat to leave China rather than condone continued censorship. The... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/15/weve_misjudged_china__97635.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/15/weve_misjudged_china__97635.html Robert Samuelson Robert Samuelson 2010/02 02/15/2010/00/00/00 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:57:38 -0600 It's not for lack of will. It's not for lack of power. It's not even for lack of money. Washington can never effectively "reform" healthcare for one simple reason. The healthcare industry runs on fake prices. On any given day each of us makes a diverse array of price decisions. On rare occasions, like buying a car or a house, we haggle. Most often we simply decide to buy this or maybe that or instead save for a rainy day.We make these choices based on knowledge unique to our own situation. Should I replace that moth eaten sweater my girlfriend hates? If I splurge on... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/15/why_washington_cant_reform_healthcare_97634.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/15/why_washington_cant_reform_healthcare_97634.html Bill Frezza Bill Frezza 2010/02 02/15/2010/00/00/00 Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:32:46 -0600 The disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country has never been greater. Why can't the political class in D.C. produce a fiscal product that voters, taxpayers, and investors are willing to consume? According to the Washington Post, voters want smaller government and fewer government services by a large 58 to 38 percent margin. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reveals that 61 percent of voters believe tax cuts help the economy, that 59 percent think tax cuts are a better job-creation tool than increased government spending, and that another 59 percent believe higher deficits hurt the... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/13/the_washington_dc_policy_disconnect_97633.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/13/the_washington_dc_policy_disconnect_97633.html Larry Kudlow Larry Kudlow 2010/02 02/13/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:55:32 -0600 From Government Square in Cincinnati, I often sit surrounded by impressive displays of federal invasiveness, and muse that we picked the wrong Roman dictator. The Federal Building across the street, serving primarily to dispense largesse confiscated from the workers packed into the square below. The brilliantly marbled Federal Reserve branch where regulators seek enhanced power to oversee commerce while recoiling vigorously against any attempt to be scrutinized themselves. And the block long Federal Court House, which unlike the others, has constitutional legitimacy even as its reach and... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/13/we_picked_the_wrong_roman_dictator_97632.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/13/we_picked_the_wrong_roman_dictator_97632.html Bill Flax Bill Flax 2010/02 02/13/2010/00/00/00 Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:42:28 -0600 2010 marks the beginning of the second year of the Federal Reserve's zero-interest-rate policy, and there is growing concern from many quarters that it is creating excessive global dollar liquidity. Just two months ago, the Chinese government accused the Federal Reserve of fueling "a huge carry trade" that was having a "massive impact on global asset prices." The nascent recovery would surely stumble if we had a recurrence of another credit and insolvency crisis similar to what led to the economic meltdown of 2008 and 2009. The fact that the Fed's current... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/11/greeces_crisis_a_warning_to_profligate_us__97631.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/11/greeces_crisis_a_warning_to_profligate_us__97631.html Scott Powell Scott Powell 2010/02 02/11/2010/00/00/00 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:02:15 -0600 WASHINGTON-Valentine's Day is approaching, and you know who won't be getting roses and chocolates - bankers. Although this week President Obama claims not to begrudge bank CEOs their multi-million dollar bonuses, he has also gone on national TV to decry "fat cat bankers" and "obscene profits." Banks are Democrats' next regulatory target, so unpopular that even the Republicans who stalled health care "reform" don't want to stand up for them. Banks are out of favor for a host of reasons. Some people think that they escaped the recession which... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/11/its_time_for_volcker_not_taxes_97630.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/11/its_time_for_volcker_not_taxes_97630.html Diana Furchtgott-Roth Diana Furchtgott-Roth 2010/02 02/11/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:07:44 -0600 Last week Congress approved an increase of the U.S. debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion. Once the figure was announced, a lot of understandable hand-wringing ensued, including the suggestion that our federal debt could lose its AAA classification. Without excusing for one minute federal debt raised to fund all manner of unconstitutional spending, not to mention the greater truth that the debt ceiling ignores unfunded liabilities of the Social Security and Medicare variety, the worry over our federal deficits is arguably overdone. While intimidating given its size, federal debt obscures the much... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/11/deficit_hawks_ignore_greater_spending_peril_97629.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/11/deficit_hawks_ignore_greater_spending_peril_97629.html John Tamny John Tamny 2010/02 02/11/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:12:20 -0600 Jobless Recession: Small business has been a key part of plans to stimulate the economy from the very start of the Obama presidency. So why is this crucial job-creating sector of our economy doing so poorly? The latest soundings from small business are not reassuring. In its annual poll of 2,114 members, for example, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) found that "small-business owners entered 2010 the same way they left 2009 - depressed." Meanwhile, the ADP Small Business Report for January shows companies with fewer than 50 workers shed an additional 22,000... http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/10/a_real_cure_for_small_business_97628.html http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/02/10/a_real_cure_for_small_business_97628.html Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily 2010/02 02/10/2010/00/00/00 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:35:15 -0600 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