Many of us in the Tea Party have focused intensely on the cost of big government to the federal budget. Undoubtedly, this cost will be born directly by future taxpayers in the form of more taxes, higher interest payments on debt, and less economic growth. While we must continue hammering home this point, we must also understand that many Americans still fail to connect the | Read More »
Every participant in the immigration debate agrees on the importance of assimilation. (In public, anyway. Privately, I suspect some of the open-borders folks could not care less about it, or are actively hostile to it. But everyone says they hope immigrants assimilate and become fully invested, patriotic American citizens.) What is the best way to encourage assimilation? It’s not an individual process that can be applied to specific | Read More »
On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the divergence between a rising market and stumbling economy, what history tells us about what may happen next and if we are forever stuck in a zero interest world.
Read More »We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
– Einstein
Oh Good. We have Comprehensive Immigration Reform being set before the US Senate. It’s the brainchild of a Gang of 8. Perhaps I can be forgiven for wondering if that means this bill will be twice as odious as the intellectual deep thoughts of Mao Tse Tung’s Gang of Four.
Now I understand that this was catty and mean, but I’m just getting really tired of these comprehensive master plans from the desks of our elected mental midgets. Attempting to do everything at once with regards to a difficult, complex issue leads us to the type of legislation where you have to pass it first to find out what’s in it. That, I fear is what will happen with the latest Comprehensive Immigration Reform proposal.
Read More »The Washington Post treats us to a particularly fact-free, faith-based, disingenuous sermon from the Secular Gospel of Keynes entitled Sequestration Stupidity. The preacher, Harold Myerson, perhaps has handled one snake too many and the venom has enstupidated his brain. It seems he doesn’t care for sequestration. It makes him sad that government just can’t spend whatever it bloody well pleases. He laments the evil of people who believe that governments should live within a budget.
Like an uninspired, hung-over reverend, Myerson attempts to preach a set of moral values he does not practice using a parable that represents the world as the world is not. We get treated to homilies of the sort that follow below.
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This is the rock that the Obama administration’s ship of state is going to founder on: (Data via the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
While discussions in Washington are focused on the fiscal cliff, the White House is looking ahead to spending a record amount of money on a three day celebration. Inauguration day will fall on a Sunday in the new year, meaning the President’s official swearing-in will be a small, private ceremony as is tradition. The President has called for a day of service the day before | Read More »
I think that I can taste just the faintest touch of bitterness in this article: When Mr. Ryan returned to Capitol Hill last week, he was met with a standing ovation from his Republican colleagues, a bear hug from Mr. Boehner and the hope from conservatives that he would hold the line on taxes and other spending. [snip] According to aides and others close to | Read More »
How do we know this? Because he announced yesterday that jobs and growth were now his administration’s top priority. On Tuesday, America went to the polls. And the message you sent was clear: you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. [snip] At a time when our economy is still recovering from the Great Recession, | Read More »
If I wanted to be a political hack, I would tell you that this was a terrible jobs report because the unemployment rate rose .1% at a time when we are supposed to be experiencing only growth in the job market. However, the truth is that just like the past few reports which showed the U3 number declining were not good reports; this one is | Read More »
The Bureau of Economic Analysis published its report for 3rd quarter GDP and found that the economy is growing at a mediocre 2.0% rate, a slight improvement of the 1.3% growth in the 2nd quarter. Had we not experienced such a deep recession, this number would not concern us. However, in order to recover from such a deep recession we need consistent growth of 4% | Read More »
Every month, we try to break down the monthly employment report from the BLS and analyze it in plain English. Today’s report of September employment is so bizarre that it’s hard to comprehend, much less give over. The BLS puts out two surveys: 1)the establishment survey, which shows the growth in non-farm payroll jobs (as well as a breakdown by specific industry), surveys businesses and | Read More »
Here we go again. GDP growth for Q2 of this year has been revised down to 1.3% from 1.7%. Our GDP now stands at $15.585 trillion, while our debt (including intragovernmental liabilities that must be dealt with) is $16.022 trillion. Durable goods orders have dropped 13.2% in August, the largest dip since January 2009. Orders for July were revised down. Folks, this is not endemic | Read More »
Every year, the Fraser Institute, a Canadian free-market think tank, publishes an economic freedom index for all developed and some developing countries. The index is determined by 42 variables that fit into 5 broad categories; (1) size of government; (2) legal system and property rights; (3) sound money; (4) freedom to trade internationally; and (5) regulation. So where do we stand in the 2012 Economic | Read More »
So the Producer Price Index (PPP) increased at the highest rate since June 2009 (the “end” of the recession), but fear not, inflation hasn’t trickled down to the consumer end yet, say the wizards of smart. Except that it has. You can use all the data you want, American consumers know they are paying much more for virtually everything at stores, supermarkets, and retailers. And | Read More »
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