Tag: Financial Meltdown
-
Funny, He Doesn’t Sound Like a “Greedy Bastard”
I’ve held my tongue about the AIG bonuses because I haven’t had the energy to take on the torch-and-pitchfork brigades. But although I can understand the populist anger, and maybe even share it a bit, the frenzied response has turned me off since the day the story broke. Comes now an AIG executive named Jake […]
-
Responsible Economic Policy is a National Security Issue
John Bolton, who gets my vote for America’s best-ever ambassador to the United Nations (plus I love the mustache), describes how Rahm Emanuel’s never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste mentality will weaken the security of the United States, by devaluing the dollar and making us more dependent on financing from China and other countries that do not share our values. […]
-
Financial Follies: Plenty of Blame to Go Around
A straightforward guide to the financial mess. I missed it when it first came out, but the New York Review of Books last month published one of the best comprehensive explanations I’ve seen of the causes of the current economic unpleasantness. Weighing in at just over 5,000 words, it’s not a quick read — but […]
-
Current Recession Not (Yet) As Bad As 1982
After repeatedly invoking the specter of the Great Depression to frighten the public into supporting the “stimulus” bill, the Obama administration has moderated its rhetoric. Professor Mark J. Perry of the University of Michigan offers statistics to show just how inappropriate it is to even talk about comparisons with the Depression: The chart above shows […]
-
Million, Billion, Trillion… Let’s Settle on "Zillion"
I’m becoming a fan of Politico, which has intelligent writing on politics without any overwhelming left or right tilt. Today the site notes that all of the big numbers start to blur together: Human beings have a hard time differentiating between millions and billions and trillions, let alone the numerical subsets thereof. To most of […]
-
Ready, Fire, Aim: Obama Signs "Stimulus" Bill
No worries — Sasha and Malia’s kids will pay for it Michael Gerson describes the porkulus legislation signed by President Obama yesterday: The bill was written in monopartisan secrecy, weighed down by irrelevant spending, considered in a rushed, uninformed debate and passed on a virtually party-line vote. The law contains provisions that seem to weaken […]
-
"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 […]
-
Dr. Doom Is Still Prescribing, and Says Stimulus Is the Wrong Medicine
Remember Peter Schiff, who was subjected to ridicule for years for predicting that the housing prices and stocks were in a bubble that would eventually collapse? Well, I sure hope someone can convince me that he’s wrong this time. (Hat tip: Conservative Command) He’s ratcheting up the dire rhetoric even more than President Obama is. […]
-
Obama, Geithner Try to Calibrate Our Anxiety Level
Above all else, one thing was crystal clear after President Obama’s prime-time news conference last night: The President doesn’t read this blog. (What, you thought I was gonna talk about the economy?) Despite my admonition yesterday to Stop Saying “Depression”, Obama used the D word twice, once in his opening remarks and once in response […]
-
Slow Down on the Stimulus, and Stop Saying “Depression”
Not even close. My nomination for understated headline of the year goes to today’s Washington Post: “If Spending Is Swift, Oversight May Suffer.” Gee, ya think? The $827 billion stimulus legislation under debate in Congress includes provisions aimed at ensuring oversight of the massive infusion of contracts, state grants and other measures. At the urging […]