The New York Times ran a front-page story yesterday called “Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis.” I would’ve preferred a different title. In the aftermath of Scott Brown’s Senate win in Massachusetts, the new political gridlock in Washington could spell the end of the liberal crack-up that we have witnessed over the past year.
Money and politics is about my favorite topic (apart from spiritual faith, of course). And we had plenty of both in the last day or two.
The disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country has never been greater. Why can't the political class in the District of Columbia produce a fiscal product that voters, taxpayers and investors are willing to consume?
Stocks shrugged it off yesterday, but I’d like to commend President Obama for his three-year budget freeze plan. That's right. It gives me good old-fashioned, American patriotic State of the Union pleasure to praise the president when he does good.
What exactly did Ben Bernanke promise Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid? That’s the big question right now. Reid reluctantly endorsed Bernanke after a one-on-one meeting. Here’s what Reid said, according to the Las Vegas Sun: “I made it clear that to merit confirmation, Chairman Bernanke must redouble his efforts to ensure families can access the credit they need to buy or keep their home, send their children to college, or start a small business.”
Sen. Scott Brown’s epic victory in Massachusetts on Tuesday night dealt a crushing blow to Obamacare, cap-and-trade, card check (and other union favors), and most importantly, all the tax hikes that are lingering on the table. But does Washington really understand the Scott Brown message?
I know there have been a million blog posts about the Scott Brown race for the Senate. But I want to add a couple of points to the discussion.
President Obama's misbegotten bank tax is precisely the wrong policy at precisely the wrong time. It will wind up backfiring across the board. Why? Because bank consumers and borrowers are the ones who will wind up paying this tax, creating an obstacle to economic recovery.
After the arrival of a disappointing December jobs report, my thought on putting America back to work is simple: de-stimulate.
Here’s my latest Money Politics message: the midterm elections are going to be crucial in determining the outlook for pro-growth, free market policies includes lower taxes, lower spending, ending bailouts and diminishing federal control over our economic freedom.
Despite the historic expansion of the federal government’s involvement in, intervention in, and control of the economy — including Bailout Nation; takeovers of banks, car companies, insurance firms, Fannie, Freddie, AIG, GM, Chrysler, and GMAC; large-scale tax threats; overregulation; an attempted takeover of the health-care sector; ultra-easy money; a declining dollar; and unprecedented spending and debt creation — despite all the things that would be expected to destroy the economy — all this socialism lite and the degrading of incentives and rewards for success — despite all this, the U.S. economy has not been destroyed.
What's a yield curve, and why is it so important?
Helicopter Ben Bernanke passed the Senate Banking Committee vote on his reconfirmation.
First, the good news on the economic recovery that everybody loves to hate: Retail sales totally beat Wall Street estimates with a huge 1.3 percent gain in November. Core retail sales have increase 5.6 percent at an annual rate over the past three months. Family net wealth has rebounded $5 trillion over the past six months.
Fed head Ben Bernanke got hammered today during his reconfirmation hearing in front of the Senate Banking Committee. Jim Bunning was Bernanke’s toughest critic, followed by Richard Shelby, Jim DeMint, and yes, Chris Dodd, the beleaguered committee chair who in all likelihood will be defeated in Connecticut next year.
Fess up, Tiger. If you don't, the tabloids are gonna kill ya.
Speaking as a big skeptic of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, and as a major critic of nation-building, I basically liked President Obama’s surge speech last night. I think he did himself some good with it. I notice today that General McChrystal spoke positively about both the speech and the policy.
President Obama took his declining dollar to the Asia-Pacific economic conference, and he added to it a declinist opinion of America's economy. His big message? Don't count on American consumers to lead the world from recession to recovery and beyond. His second big message? In the U.S., we must save more and spend less.
Against the backdrop of high unemployment and a public revolt against a Democratic health-care bill -- which would significantly increase taxes, slash Medicare spending, and massively raise health-care spending elsewhere in a government takeover of our leading growth sector -- the Republicans swept the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races.
It must be something in the water. The ruling Democrats know their tax-hiking, re-regulating and big-spending policies have failed to rejuvenate job-creation or reduce the unemployment rate. And yet they persist in trying more of the same.
