All That Is Necessary

Tag: Capitalism

  • Clintonite Matt Miller Makes the Case Against the Public Option

    No system will be perfect, but to me it’s axiomatic that competing, regulated insurers will be more responsive to change and innovation than a government bureaucracy.

  • The Perverse Incentives of Our Health-Care System

    An article in the September Atlantic does the best job I have ever seen of describing why health care is so resistant to cost-control efforts.  At 11,000 words, “How American Health Care Killed My Father” is not a quick read, but it’s not a dry policy treatise by any means.  (Hat tip: TigerHawk.) When David […]

  • Madoff Hoped for Eventual Freedom

    Bernie Madoff got the maximum sentence of 150 years in prison for stealing billions in what the judge called his “extraordinarily evil” Ponzi scheme. Probably it should now be renamed a Madoff scheme — Mr. Ponzi has been dead since 1949, and his take was denominated in mere millions. He was sentenced to only five […]

  • Obama’s Intimidation Trumps Fiduciary Duty

    The group of secured lenders who were holding out for fair treatment in the Chrysler bankruptcy has disbanded, after two more defections in the face of pressure from the Arm-Twister in Chief. “After a great deal of soul-searching and quite frankly agony, Chrysler’s non-TARP lenders concluded they just don’t have the critical mass to withstand […]

  • When Obama Says “Hedge Fund,” Think “Widows and Orphans”

    At least one of Chrysler’s “secured” lenders is vowing to stand fast against President Obama’s efforts to bully the lenders into abdicating their fiduciary responsibility. NEW YORK (Reuters) – Plans for a quick sale of Chrysler to a new company majority-owned by a union-aligned trust is “patently illegal” and will be fought in bankruptcy court, […]

  • Obama’s Not-So-Invisible Hand

    Now that the Automaker-in-Chief has fired the CEO of General Motors and instructed Chrysler to sell itself to Fiat by the end of April,  he’s turning his attention to a variety of other essential American industries, from blue jeans (“Levis yes; Wrangler no”) to toothpaste to ballpoint pens.  President Obama also graciously acknowledged the important […]

  • Slouching Towards Europe: Obama’s Domestic Agenda Undercuts American Exceptionalism

    I’ve been pleasantly surprised by President Obama’s steadfastness regarding national security issues.  After winning his party’s nomination by promising to surrender in Iraq more quickly than the other Democrats would, Obama has: retained his predecessor’s defense secretary; adopted his predecessor’s timetable for responsible disengagement in Iraq; supported his own rhetoric about the importance of Afghanistan […]

  • "Stimulus" Bill Would Gut Welfare Reform

    Buried deep in the so-called “stimulus” bill is an appalling sneak attack on one of the most important positive legacies of the previous Democratic president. As a National Review Online headline calls it, the provision amounts to “Ending Welfare Reform as We Knew It.” At the Heritage Foundation website, Robert E. Rector and Katherine Bradley […]

  • Grateful to Live in the Shining City on the Hill

    Conservative Peggy Noonan takes a step back from the gloomy economy and focuses on the big picture: People are angry but don’t have a plan, and they’ll give the incoming president unprecedented latitude and sympathy, cheering him on. I told a friend it feels like a necessary patriotic act to be supportive of him, and […]

  • Sorry, No Tears Here for Madoff’s Clients

    (After learning more about Madoff’s victims, I recanted in a later post — KP) Apparently regulators ignored warning signs for more than a decade while Bernie Madoff stole and/or lost as much as $50 billion of his clients’ money. Holman Jenkins explains why we should not waste our sympathy on the clients: There are costs […]