When it comes to setting public policy fires, Democrats get away with serial arson. A maladroit opposition party and a complaisant media ensure that the public will never pin the tail of blame on the donkey. Nowhere is this more evident than with interventionist housing policy. Decade’s worth of government intervention in the housing market almost single-handedly took down the economy. Bill Clinton’s National Homeownership | Read More »
The cost of the bailouts seems never-ending and more of the mounting evidence that it didn’t work, like a bailout recipient laying off 16,000 workers this year, continue to make the news. Tied to the root cause of the financial meltdown of 2007-2008, are mortgage giants Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae in light of their penchant for bundling sub-prime mortgage securities in the years preceding | Read More »
Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss teacher layoffs, shrinking government payrolls and the possibility of bailing out failing states and cities. We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at bjackson[at]coffeeandmarkets.com. We | Read More »
As we’ve noted in recent weeks, there is an effort to bail out the Postal Service with phony accounting measures. Democrats are currently voting on amendments to a bailout bill (S. 1789) that leaves taxpayers on the hook, without reforming the USPS with structural changes that the Postmaster General himself supports. This bill will offer a backhanded channel to grant the USPS $41 billion from | Read More »
What’s worse than Congress picking winners and losers and distorting the free-market with bailouts, stimulus, and tendentious interventions on behalf of specific industries? Unelected members of the Federal Reserve doing the same through monetary policy. It is amazing to watch how many Republicans will speak with such conviction against Keynesian fiscal stimulus policies, yet they will fervently promote monetary stimulus policies by the unaccountable Federal | Read More »
It’s another week in Washington, and it’s yet another bailout. This time, taxpayers will be tapped for another $41 billion to subsidize the healthcare retirement benefits of postal workers – benefits that are quite scarce in the private sector. Democrats have a serious problem with creative destruction and advancements in technology. For self-described progressives, they are quite regressive when it comes to efficiency in markets | Read More »
Last week, the House passed a slam-dunk jobs bill (H.R. 3606) 390-23. The bill reduces red tape, securities regulations, and reporting requirements on small companies that desire to go public. It also eliminated some of the new regulations implemented under Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley on companies that generate less than $1 billion in annual revenue. With all the unctuous complaints about partisanship, one would expect the Senate | Read More »
When Republicans were completely shut out of power a few years ago, they railed against the absurd policies of Pelosi and Reid and the out of control spending proposed by Obama. The Tea Party rallied to the cause of freedom and limited government, and helped elect a Republican majority to the House just two years after they were relegated to the ash heap of history. | Read More »
Who needs Democrats when so many Republicans are willing to orchestrate their agenda for them? The Senate is on the precipice of passing Barbara Boxer’s highway bill with overwhelming support. Mitch McConnell is negotiating a deal with Harry Reid in which Republicans would be granted a vote on some of their choice non-germane amendments. After Democrats summarily defeat those amendments, Republicans will return the favor | Read More »
Well, it appears that our efforts are paying off. Responding to our charge that the GOP was violating the pledge against bundled megabills, Boehner announced that he will split the proposal into three separate bills; the highway bill (HR 7), pension reform (HR 3813), and expanded oil and gas drilling (HR 3408). This from Roll Call: In a joint statement with Rules Chairman David Dreier | Read More »
“No one should take for it for granted that there will be peace and affluence in Europe in the next half century,” Chancellor Merkel. (HT:CNBC) Ka-Blam! The Eurozone is saved. They’ve found just the right drug cocktail of financial bailouts. The markets are all a screaming buy!1!1.(/sarcasm off) If only this were the truth. The reality here is that the Europeans will destroy a bunch | Read More »
Our national strength does not come from bailouts and government spending. It comes from a free enterprise system and the hard-working honest citizens who make it run. — Pat Toomey In this week’s Weekly Republican address, Republican Senate candidate and former Representative Pat Toomey talks about the wasteful and extravagant spending of the Democrats’ extreme agenda. Toomey succinctly lays out the problem Obama and the | Read More »
At a time when Americans are speaking out against government bailouts and wasteful spending, President Obama is committing at least $50 billion of U.S. tax dollars to help bailout Greece and the European Union. Just today, the Financial Times reported that the IMF is seeking to boost its lending resources by another $250 billion. If the IMF is successful, the U.S. contribution to the E.U. | Read More »
The last few years of taxpayer-funded bailouts, backstops, and so-called “stimulus” spending have left Americans with a political economy in which Washington, not the market, decides where to allocate capital. Until now, Washington’s interventions have been put together in haphazard fashion – $300 billion here, $700 billion there, etc. But under the guise of “financial reform,” Democrats last Friday unveiled their plan to make this | Read More »
The Elena Kagan nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court is still in the early stages, but problems are emerging. Meet and greets for Kagan completed Day 2 and more one-on-one meetings are expected in the days ahead. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Scott Brown (R-MA) sounded like supporters of Kagan after one-on-one meetings and had nice things to say about the nominee. Maybe they don’t even know that Kagan | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}