During his 1976 campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, Ronald Reagan popularized the notion of “welfare queens” who bilked redistribution programs for thousands of dollars. It has since become non-PC to use such a term, but that’s never stopped me. Here’s a…
Daily Analysis
The Solyndra Scandal Reeks, but the Entire Green-Energy Program Is a Scam
I’ve commented on the corruption of the Solyndra scandal, but it’s important to understand this is not just a story of sleaze. From an economic perspective, the real problem is that green-energy programs cause a misallocation of capital. Simply stated, government…
Hell No, American Taxpayers Should Not Bail out the IMF
This is getting surreal. We now have layers of bailouts around the world. Different nations are doing their own bailouts. On top of that, the Europeans have set up something called the European Financial Stability Facility, which does bailouts across the continent….
The Tea Party Goes Global: The Revolt of the Greek Tax Slaves
The fiscal turmoil in Greece is not about fiscal balance. It’s a fight between looters and moochers such as Olga Stefou, who think taxpayers should endlessly subsidize everything, and the shrinking group of productive people who are pulling the wagon and keeping…
Measuring One Part of the Bush-Obama Regulatory Onslaught
Have you ever tried to run in waist-high water? It’s not easy, but it’s a useful exercise if you want to experience what it’s like to comply with government rules, regulation, paperwork, and red tape. Especially if you want to understand why it’s getting harder for…
Home-Town Columnist Eviscerates Obama for Chicago-Style Corruption in Solyndra Scandal
I haven’t paid too much attention to the Solyndra scandal, except to note that waste, corruption and job losses are the inevitable consequences of big government and crony capitalism. But if you want a withering indictment of the sleaziness of the whole enterprise, a…
Europeans Mock Treasury Secretary Geithner, Showing Spend-aholics Shouldn’t Give Advice to Spend-aholics
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner may be most famous in the United States for cheating on his taxes (you can even buy a t-shirt to acknowledge his tax dodging), but he’s becoming a punch line in the rest of the world for different reasons. I wrote two years ago about…
Thomas Sowell Exposes the Historical and Economic Illiteracy of the Political Class
Thomas Sowell just completed a three-part “Back to the Future” series, looking at a couple of fiscal policy issues. His unifying theme is how the political class fails (perhaps deliberately) to learn from mistakes. In Part I, he decimates President Obama’s new…
Washington’s Revolving Door of Legal Corruption
If you want to know why Washington is a cesspool of corruption and graft, you should read this story from the Washington Post about how Capitol Hill staffers use their positions as stepping stones to jobs in the lobbying community. Nearly 5,400 former congressional…
Obama and Geithner Advising the Europeans on Fiscal Crisis?!? This Is a Case of the Blind Leading the Blind…on Steroids
This is either frightening or hilarious. The people in Washington who are trying to make America more like Europe are advising the Europeans to double-down on the awful policies that have pushed the continent’s welfare states to insolvency. Here are some of the…