That–as I have argued in the past–is what the Obama Administration is doing. And yes, I am pretty sure that the Administration knows that the more it augments the sense of economic crisis, the more it improves its chances of passing its economic program. This, of course, makes the Administration’s public relations efforts deeply cynical. Is it too much to hope that it gets called | Read More »
While some may have thought that the Obama tax plan would sail through Congress relatively unopposed, the reality is turning out to be somewhat different: President Barack Obama’s call to raise taxes on high earners and greenhouse gas polluters met fierce opposition Tuesday from congressional Republicans and also a few Democrats. “I would never want to adversely affect anything that is charitable or good,” Rep. | Read More »
“The Audacity of Hype.” An excerpt: Continuing the tradition he established back when he was Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget has started a blog. I applaud this move if — if — it is meant to promote transparency. But while Orszag is a smart man and a formidable policy player, his blog appears | Read More »
High earners are planning to reduce their incomes so that they will not have to pay as much in taxes. This, of course, not only means that some people will take an income hit. It also means that an important segment of the population will be less productive economically. Cumulatively, this could have a very bad effect on the economy–especially when one considers its current | Read More »
The awful Obama Administration budget and its promises of deficit reduction are premised on the Administration’s belief that we will have robust growth in the economy within relatively short order. Trouble is that said assumption has no basis in reality: A sense of disconnect between the projections by the White House and the grim realities of everyday American life was enhanced on Friday, as the | Read More »
They really don’t come as blunt as this: “The taxing aspect of this is worse than Robin Hood,” said economist Peter Morici, a University of Maryland professor. “He’s resurrecting class warfare for political gain.” Oh, and say hello once again to Ms. Rosy Scenario. She is a lovely lady, to be sure, but quite often, she promises far, far, far more than she delivers.
It is kicking the stock market while it is down: Stocks fell on Wednesday after President Barack Obama warned of stricter oversight for Wall Street, raising the specter of greater regulation that investors fear could sap profits. Obama’s comments near the market close rattled investors when he said financial institutions that pose a serious risk to markets should be subject to serious government supervision. “Whenever | Read More »
Found here. It’s sad that these defenses are necessary, but as George Shultz put it, everyone wanted to debate Milton Friedman . . . when Friedman wasn’t in the room. Now that Friedman has passed, the number of people volunteering to debate him has increased by massive amounts. Too bad none of these people were brave enough to do it while he was alive. This | Read More »
He brings the snark and the serious. The latter, of course, is especially worth reading, as it lays out an efficient and responsible bank reorganization process. But far be it from me to denigrate snark directed at big-government advocates of Keynesian stimulus, who in advocating their position, have abandoned all trappings of reality.
These people: U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he still wants to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite a warning from Canada that this would be a mistake, but he said he did not want to end up curbing trade. In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, shortly before his visit to Ottawa on Thursday, Obama also declined to characterize oil | Read More »
Bradley Schiller calls shenanigans on the Obama Administration’s efforts to compare the current economic downturn to the Great Depression. And he brings in the factoids to back up his argument. I have written this before, but it bears repeating: In December, 2000, George W. Bush accurately warned that the country was entering a recession. He was right, but he got attacked because he wasn’t Mr. | Read More »
It involves him getting thrown into the gladiatorial pit: Last week Giulio Tremonti, Italy’s finance minister and Mr. Geithner’s host for the weekend, gave a tart review of the Obama administration’s stimulus in a local newspaper here. “If the problem is an excess of debt, the cure is not adding more debt, whether that debt is public or private,” he wrote in the Corriere della | Read More »
In a perfect world it would have been nice to have had more time to process it. –Ilan Kayatsky, a spokesman for Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), discussing the fact that the stimulus package was drafted in haste and read not at all before it was voted on.
Compare and contrast. From the AP: Democrats said the [stimulus] bill’s tax cuts would help 95 percent of all Americans, much of the relief in the form of a break of $400 for individuals and $800 for couples. At the insistence of the White House, people who do not earn enough money to owe income taxes are eligible, an attempt to offset the payroll taxes | Read More »
This account of the current G-7 meeting contains the following hopeful passage concerning the G-7′s intent regarding the issue of free trade: Amid signs some are attempting to shield domestic companies and workers from the fallout, the G-7 said it “remains committed to avoiding protectionist measures, which risks exacerbating the downturn.” Sounds lovely. It is then followed by this: A $787 billion package of tax | Read More »
So, a stimulus bill that came in at nearly 800 pages long got passed by Congress a mere day after being agreed to in conference–promises that people would have longer to examine the package notwithstanding. Never mind that lobbyists got this bill before Representatives and Senators did. Never mind that no one in his/her right mind could possibly expect any Representatives and/or Senators to read | Read More »
I try anew to fight the good fight against protectionism in my latest article over at The New Ledger. An excerpt includes my hope that: the Obama Administration will abandon “Buy American” provisions and other protectionist measures and instead, truly encourage the buying of American products by ensuring that free trade principles not only remain intact, but also thrive in the coming years. Only through | Read More »
My thoughts over at the Arena. Concerning the Gregg issue, Andrew Sullivan–in his inimitable way–is claiming that the Gregg withdrawal is proof that the Republicans have “declared war” on Obama. Never mind the fact that other Cabinet nominees–at least, the ones that don’t have to withdraw from consideration because of obstacles like tax cheating–have been receiving overwhelming support from both parties in Senate confirmation votes. | Read More »
As expected, the Obama Administration and Congressional allies are trying to ram the stimulus bill through without allowing the public to take a good, long look at it. Does anyone actually believe that this sort of thing would go on if the Administration were even remotely confident in its work product? Me neither. It’s time to call the Administration on its lack of transparency–a lack | Read More »
Ugh. And yes, the wording of the title is deliberate; look at the story Mankiw links to and you will see that the protectionist measures being proposed by (surprise!) Canadian labor unions are modeled explicitly on the “Buy American” provisions in the stimulus bill. Heck, the labor unions in Canada even say that they have no problem with the Buy American provisions–I suppose that sentiment | Read More »
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