Economy
It’s disorienting to hear folks who follow politics for a living take speeches as sincere explanations of politicians’ hopes and intentions. One would expect, as a case in point, David Brooks to understand the dangerous undercurrents of a speech by President Obama that Brooks describes as “a small masterpiece” of “explication.” His view was clear.…
Put your wonk hat on. Economists Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein write: While the theory of public choice can be broadly applied, it is the ideas of “special interests” and “rational ignorance” that are useful in understanding last week’s tea parties. Here’s an example of public choice at work. Let’s say teachers could benefit by…
Michael Barone writes, “Many of the sneering comments about the participants in last week’s hundreds of tea parties across the nation were premised on the idea that these people didn’t know much about public policy.” (Sounds familiar). However, as Barone mentions, a Pew Research poll conducted at the end of March (you can take the…
Although Arlene Violet subsequently whacked him with a great question about using stimulus money to suppress changes to teachers’ healthcare benefits, I’m very disappointed that the Newsmakers gang let Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse ramble on with this partisan mumbo-jumbo for three minutes: I think it’s sort of an ironic moment on this subject, and particularly to…
We must keep in mind, of course, that economic recoveries occur in fits and starts, and that factors of timing and non-economic events play a role in the month-to-month numbers, but we also shouldn’t gainsay the possibility that disappointing results may in part reflect a lack of confidence that has been a byproduct of the…
My fellow right-wingers, I suppose we must rearrange our thinking. The governor of New York has spoken with some rich people, and they have assured him that they will not leave the state as a result. Clearly, taxation has no effect on the domestic decisions that wealthy families make. I apologize if there’s a nagging…
Yeah, we could discuss the rights of a governing entity that is spending billions of dollars to prop up a specific company, but that would slide past the real question of political philosophy that makes this such a frightening proposition, no matter which step we highlight as the one in the wrong direction: The Obama…
Tom Sgouros has penned another missive explaining why Rhode Island’s fiscal conservatism has spelled its doom, and why more progressive spending and a bigger state government is the solution. I know. I know. Such are the indications that, though we all breathe the same air, we live in the different realities of our preconceptions. One…
Already talking about his next run against Rep. Jim Langevin, Mark Zaccaria is pitch perfect on the AIG mess, as far as I’m concerned: “I don’t anticipate that all of the stimulus money will be effectively used,” he said. Zaccaria said he is not opposed in principle to such federal pump-priming measures to invigorate an…
W. Edward Massey reminds us that conservative free-marketism doesn’t really dictate was can or cannot be put into a contract by one of the parties creating it — salary caps are a perfectly legitimate item for negotiation — as long as the agreement is mutually agreeable and considered binding. The possibility of changing the rules…