Why Paul Krugman Should Worry About Bernanke's Bubble
May 12, 2013
Paul Krugman dismisses the notion that a stock or bond bubble is forming. He attributes anxiety over heady stock or bond prices to “wishful thinking” and a “deep hatred of Ben Bernanke.” Really? Investor cautiousness is purely personal? Doubtful.
Market watchers are legitimately concerned that it is the Fed propping up markets and not fundamentals; more important, they are exercising the kind of vigilance we should have maintained during the housing boom or the dotcom craziness. With Dr. Bernanke continuing to administer $85 billion a month of liquidity to a…
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The Disability Scam: A Great Government Freebie
April 15, 2013
When asked why he robbed banks, Slick Willie Sutton famously answered, “Because that’s where the money is.” Today, millions of Americans appear to have jumped onto our disability rolls for the very same reason. Today, 8.8 million Americans – nearly 6 percent of our workforce – claim they are physically incapable of working.
Add in dependents, and the figure swells to nearly 10.9 million. The number has grown every month since January 1997, when there was a small dip, and has grown faster than the number of added annually to the workforce. For the United States,…
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Obama’s Budgets No Worse than Sequester
February 28, 2013
Why is President Obama caterwauling against budget cuts, when he has been pushing for just such spending reductions all along? That’s the gist of an op-ed today in the Financial Times by Jeffrey Sachs, who points out that the draft budgets submitted by the president to Congress in mid-2012 targeted this year’s spending at roughly the same level as now set by the sequestration.
Mr. Obama’s budget, which was rejected unanimously by the Senate (perhaps that body’s most unifying moment of the year), demanded deep reductions in discretionary spending – a prospect at…
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Biden Makes Mockery of Debate
October 12, 2012
Desperate to atone for Obama’s debate disaster, Vice President Joe Biden sacrificed his one enduring attribute on the altar of the 2012 campaign – his likeability. During his face-off against GOP contender Paul Ryan, Biden alternately bullied and blustered, chortled and chuckled – making a mockery of Ryan, the debate and the American people. All but the most partisan admirers of the Veep were appalled by his bizarre behavior.
How did it work out? Polling done right after the event showed that Ryan had won; CNN gave it to the GOP contender 48-44, and said…
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Why Obama Won't Reveal Fiscal Cliff Budget Cuts
September 12, 2012
What a shocker: President Obama has missed another budget deadline. As Americans prepare to sail off the fiscal cliff, they might like to know where the budget will hammer fall. To answer those concerns, both the Senate and the House passed a bill over one month ago requiring that the president lay out his plan for slashing the nation’s spending.
Under pressure from those chambers’ near-unanimous votes, President Obama signed the Sequestration Transparency Act, which required that within thirty days he reveal to the country how he will deliver $109 billion in 2013…
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Business Anxiety Rises; Does the White House Care?
September 27, 2012
The NFL is finally putting expert referees back on the job. If only American businesses could do the same.
Unhappily, while the U.S. economy teeters on the edge of recession – again – the White House continues to spin out red tape and tax uncertainty that is casting a pall over employers. The results are in: Bad calls from the sidelines and rogue penalties are dampening growth and stifling hiring. America: We need a new coach!
The U.S. economy grew far less than expected in the second quarter, with expansion of 1.3 percent falling far…
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