All Entries in the "Free Markets" Category
Mortgage Summit: No New Ideas
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made it clear from the start that the private market would have no influence on the conversation: “We will not support returning Fannie and Freddie to the role they played before conservatorship [in September 2008] where they fought to take market share from private competitors while enjoying the privilege of government support. We will not support a return to the system where private gains are subsidized by taxpayer losses.”
Fed’s Bernanke Running Out of Options
When Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks on Friday at the Fed’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Fed-watchers from around the world will be hanging on his every word, phrase, and nuance for clues. They’ll be listening to hear that the chairman knows what’s happening in the economy, and that if things get worse, he has a plan.
Global Warming Debate? “No way!”
There’s one thing Ann McElhinney would like to accomplish nowdays: she’d like to make good on a challenge from the Hollywood left. She’s looking to get that James Cameron interview on the schedule, but it seems James Cameron doesn’t want to play even though he said he wanted to call out climate “deniers” publicly.
Fiscal Challenges: A Way Out
Despite Ferguson’s discouraging appraisal, he failed to remind his audience of what happened in New Zealand in the late 1980s and ’90s. Maurice McTigue, a former member of the New Zealand Parliament, made a presentation at Hillsdale College in 2004, outlining his country’s successful ability to “step back from the brink” of financial disaster. In his remarks, he said:
Conjuring Magic To Cover States’ Debts
And it’s not just California. Orin Kramer of New Jersey’s pension program estimates a national funding gap among all the states of around $2 trillion. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research institution, announced that “finances in Arizona, New Jersey, New York and other states show few signs of improvement. Forty-six states face budget shortfalls that add up to $112 billion for the fiscal year ending next June [2011].” The May/June issue of Chief Executive magazine published its annual “Best and Worst States for Business 2010” and gave its “booby” prize for worst state to California, with New York, Michigan, New Jersey, and Massachusetts rounding out the bottom five.
Stossel, Greenspan, and Ayn Rand
When John Stossel of Fox Business Network wrote his recent “Memo to Alan Greenspan” column, he recounted many of Greenspan’s failings while Chairman of the Federal Reserve, including especially Greenspan’s relentless expansion of the money supply and lowering of interest rates that set in motion the housing bubble that burst in 2007.
Fed Confirms Recovery Stalled
When the Federal Open Market Committee announced yesterday that “the pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated,” stocks in Europe lost three percent of their value, interest rates on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note dropped startlingly as investors ran to safety, and the dollar hit the lowest level against the Japanese Yen since 1995.
The Coming Congressional Gridlock
The Congress emerging from the November election will be sharply divided and marked by a diversity of constituent mandates. Under those conditions only “one-liner bills” will be feasible – simple, clear and sharply focused measures capable of effectively dealing with increasingly critical issues.
The Fed is Caught in its Own Trap
The much-anticipated, long-awaited pronouncement from the Fed yesterday confirmed what nearly everyone else expected: Things are not going swimmingly, but they’re ready to help further if the patient continues to drown.
Video Professor Obama Walks You Through the Online Freedom Choke
At long last! President Obama has found his niche as the new video professor. Here, he walks you through the few, simple tools commencing the freedom choke that is ObamaCare.
