According to a Washington Post story, Obama wants to be the anti-Reagan, a President who permanently changes the American people’s attitude about big government. Obama’s efforts to make statism popular, however, are not exactly working out as he hoped….
Daily Analysis
An Omen for America?
This has a similar title to an earlier blog post, but the topic is completely different. The U.K.-based Times has a fascinating story about how tax rates are driving business out of London, thus showing the insanity of class-warfare tax policy. Two excerpts are must…
Omen for Massachusetts?
As reported by the Financial Times, Sebastian Pinera, the brother of Cato’s Jose Pinera, was elected President of Chile this weekend. The press is viewing Pinera’s election through the right-left lens of Latin American politics, but this is a bit…
Tom Sowell vs. Empty Pseudo-Intellectualism.
Do stores in low-income neighborhoods charge higher prices because of racism, or greed? That’s what some academics argue, but Tom Sowell points out that there are real economic factors that drive pricing decisions. The example below is about stores, but his IBD…
Don't Trust Economists.
Sometimes a picture really does tell a thousand words. Here’s a chart, based on data from the Philadelphia Fed, showing actual economic results compared to the predictions of professional economists. As you can see, my profession does a wretched job. Comparisons…
Should the Government Subsidize Mortgages for People Who Bought More Home than They Could Afford?
Appearing on Larry Kudlow’s show, Dan Mitchell debates this topic. More important, he asks the fundamental question of whether there should be any government intervention in housing markets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXpcJkGcrXs
Higher Tax Rates Causing More Problems in London.
With Barack Obama planning big tax rate increases in America, it’s useful to see how that policy is working in the United Kingdom. According to the Mayor of London, the answer is not very encouraging. Many successful entrepreneurs and investors are fleeing for…
Washington vs. America.
One of the dirty little secrets of Washington is that Republicans and Democrats have more in common with each other than either party has with ordinary Americans. Tim Carney has an excellent (but depressing) column in the Washington Examiner exposing how both Democrat…
Nebraska Voters Don't Like Stolen Money.
Let’s give some credit to the Cornhusker state. As John Fund reports in the Wall Street Journal voters are overwhelmingly opposed to Obamacare – even though their state would get a big pile of money from taxpayers in the other 49 states. Meanwhile, the…
Weekly Economics Lesson.
Great column by Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz on how markets really operate – and why government intervention either causes problems or prevents markets from fixing them. For those of you who care to get in the weeds, this is one of the reasons why the…