A Spend-and-Borrow Debt Mess By Lawrence Kudlow
The ink was barely dry on the $150 billion European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout of Greece, when world stock markets tanked on two major fears.
Political Commentary
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May 6, 2010
May 6, 2010
WI-7: David Obey’s Departure By Isaac Wood
David Obey’s retirement announcement reshuffles the House deck for both parties. Democrats are scrambling to ensure other veteran Democrats do not follow suit, after thinking that the retirement tide had been stemmed. For Republicans the odds of a House majority do not look quite as long now that one of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s key allies has sidestepped a November reelection battle.
May 6, 2010
Preparing for the Bomb That Goes Off By Froma Harrop
It was the best possible terrorism outcome: several heroes and no victims. A prime suspect sitting in cuffs, and chinks in the national security armor exposed for correction. But while the attack on Times Square failed, the perpetrator did manage a small psychological victory -- re-stirring the public's fear. We should cut that win down to size.
May 5, 2010
Russia and America: Turning the World Upside Down By Howard Rich
A little over a year ago, a columnist for the newspaper that once served as the official communications organ of the Central Committee of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had some choice words for what remains of America’s free market economy.
May 5, 2010
Boot the Boot Metaphor By Tony Blankley
In the opening hours and days of an unanticipated event -- such as the current off-shore oil leak, usually not much can be reliably learned about the details of the intruding event -- but much can reliably be learned about the humans responding to it.
May 4, 2010
Latino Giant to Change U.S. Politics By Froma Harrop
SAN ANTONIO -- It was over frozen lattes three blocks from the Alamo that Lydia Camarillo and I discussed the wave of Latino voters expected to change politics in Texas -- and America. Camarillo is vice president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a group that signs up new Hispanic voters and spurs them to the polls.
May 4, 2010
Whitman Can Spend, but Can She Govern? By Debra J. Saunders
"Meg 2010, Building a New California," the glossy 40-plus-page "policy agenda" for former eBay CEO and GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, is so slick that it sat on my desk for weeks before I could finish it. I would pick it up, think that, like her candidacy, it is overly packaged, and toss it back on the pile of papers that litter my desk. It does a great job of laying out California's financial woes and suggesting possible reforms -- but it leaves out how she'll get things done in Sacramento.
May 3, 2010
The Left Loses Its Way by Abandoning 'Third Way' By Michael Barone
Left parties are in trouble in the Anglosphere. Here in America, Democrats are doing worse in the polls than at any time in the last 50 years.
May 2, 2010
Obamacon Doves vs. Hard-Money Heartland Hawks By Lawrence Kudlow
President Obama has appointed three new doves to the Federal Reserve Board, thereby taking command of the nation's central bank. But there's a split developing inside the Federal Reserve System: The Reserve Bank presidents, appointed by their own district boards of directors, are increasingly likely to wage a battle royale against the central-bank headquarters in Washington and its free-money, ultra-easy policies.
May 2, 2010
A Year for Desperate Measures By Debra J. Saunders
Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, has become my go-to guy for good-government issues. His wife, Joan, he recently confided, calls him "the Sisyphus of reform."
April 30, 2010
Midterms Past: The '66 Parallel By Rhodes Cook
For months now, this election has been compared to that of 1994, when Republicans scored huge gains and won both houses of Congress. It is a decent model. But given the recent passage of health care reform – something that did not happen in ’94 – this might be a good occasion to look at another midterm election for instruction, that of 1966.
April 30, 2010
America's Political Grand Canyon By Debra J. Saunders
Let me lead with what should be an unremarkable observation: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer did not write federal immigration laws that require permanent residents to carry green cards, employers to check documentation or limits on the number of legal immigrants admitted each year. Washington did.
April 29, 2010
Is the Sunbelt Ready for Urbanity? By Froma Harrop
HOUSTON -- Houston faces a crossroads, or to be more precise, a five-level stack interchange. Is it going to nurture compact walkable neighborhoods? Or is it going to do what it has always done -- stand back and watch developers build anything anywhere?
April 29, 2010
It Takes Power to Control Power By Joe Conason
With a furious majority of American voters demanding security from the depredations of Big Capital, all of the filibustering and bargaining in Congress will inevitably produce a bill described as "financial reform." Partisan sniping aside, neither Democrats nor Republicans so far have proposed a deep and thorough cleansing.
April 29, 2010
After Policy Stumbles, Obama Turns to Politics By Michael Barone
Setting legislative priorities has been one of the chief tasks of American presidents for the past century. Sometimes, they concentrate on changing public policy. At other times, they highlight issues for political reasons, with an eye to the next election.
April 28, 2010
Goldman: Creeping Socialism Finds A Convenient Enemy By Howard Rich
In its quest to ram perpetual bank bailouts and draconian new government regulations through the U.S. Congress under the guise of “financial services reform,” the administration of Barack Obama and its allies have seized upon a convenient new enemy – Goldman Sachs.
April 28, 2010
The Return of 'Social Utility' By Tony Blankley
In the last few weeks, I have found myself debating on radio and TV programs whether various financial instruments have any social utility -- any "real world" purpose other than "speculation or gambling." (Disclosure: I give professional advice to a number of financial organizations.)
April 28, 2010
Playing with Fire By Susan Estrich
Republican senators are playing with fire. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is perfectly content to pile on the logs.
April 27, 2010
Arizona May Prod Feds to Finally Act By Froma Harrop
President Obama is right that Arizona's tough immigration law is "misguided." And Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is right that her state has been "more than patient waiting for Washington to act." The two are not unrelated.
