Economy
Setting aside the fact that he apparently didn’t get Martin Luther King Jr.’s memo, can former Labor Secretary Robert Reich please clarify several confusing aspects of his remarks a couple of weeks ago in front of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee? Outlining what he believes should be the focus of President Obama’s economic…
Bruce Bartlett’s summary of the past 80 years of stimulus debate is well worth a few minutes of your time. He concludes thus: The problem is that fiscal stimulus needs to be injected right now to counter the liquidity trap. If that were the case, I think we might well get a very high multiplier…
Fans of our new president perhaps imagine us non-fans as scowling through the day today, embittered by all that hope and rueful of the change to come. Me, I’m just going about my business, as I have on every inauguration day within my lifetime. That said, Andrew Stuttaford’s suggestion is an attractive one, although I…
I’m not sure why anybody’s surprised at bailout recipients’ reaction: At the Palm Beach Ritz-Carlton last November, John C. Hope III, the chairman of Whitney National Bank in New Orleans, stood before a ballroom full of Wall Street analysts and explained how his bank intended to use its $300 million in federal bailout money. “Make…
“O” continues to stand for “audacity”: President-elect Obama countered critics with an analysis yesterday by his economic team showing that a program of tax cuts and spending such as he has proposed would create up to 4.1 million jobs, far more than the 3 million that he has insisted are needed to lift the country…
Like any patriot, I’ve got a problem with this: U.S. manufacturers say they’ve learned to compete against China’s lower wages. What they can’t compete with are government subsidies that enable China to sell some finished products for less than the fiber alone costs in the United States. The difficulty is in the solution. I’ve got…
Across the society, from cornered municipal officials to the national commentariate, people are preparing the way with palms for the eye-popping stimulus proposals of Obama and Congressional Democrats. A radio report, the other day, explained that the president-elect recognized that the stimulus plan required a tax cutting component, and although, unlike conservatives, liberals see tax…
By all means, let’s declare the immorality of gargantuan wealth. Every story of catastrophe and dire need must make the rightly ordered person marvel at the spiritual putrefaction of those who hoard their millions and billions. How could a man of clear conscience sift money idly through his fingers in such sums as could effect…
This has a sadly familiar feel for conservatives, who’ve again and again been vexed by a president mislabeled as one of us: Last week’s deal was supposed to hold both the managers’ and unions’ feet to the fire. In handing out the taxpayer money, the White House insisted the auto union cut worker pay roughly…
Obama’s “task force to bolster the standard of living of middle-class and working families in America” can’t possibly succeed at its stated objectives, because the ideas and priorities that constitute its basis for formation are deeply flawed, even inimical to the goal that it professes. Here’s a bit of ready evidence (emphasis added): The effort,…
