Wasn’t it just like a week ago that Paul “Wrong Way” Krugman was praising Argentina? And wasn’t it this week that he gushed over Japan’s growth, stimulated by tsunami reconstruction?
Oops:
Recently, two more countries have felt the bite of Keynesianism. Today, the credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Japan’s economy and the AP reported that the Argentinian economy is likely to decline sharply. While Japan and Argentina might be different kinds of economies
You remember the Tobacco settlement, don’t you? Based on dubious claims that smoking costs the states healthcare money, 46 states entered into an agreement that (1) froze the market for cigarettes in favor of a cartel existing companies; (2) took hundreds of billions from those companies, which they simply passed on as price hikes to the captive market; (3) paid lawyers tens of millions of dollars; (4) poured money into states ostensibly for healthcare … Read more
This is somewhat disconcerting:
The report from Good Jobs First, a nonprofit taxpayer watchdog organization funded by Ford, Surdna and other major foundations, identifies 16 states that let companies divert some or all of the state income taxes deducted from workers’ paychecks. None of the states requires notifying the workers, whose withholdings are treated as taxes they paid.
General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and AMC Theatres enjoy deals to
One of the most amazing things about our political system is that liberals and Democrats have a reputation as being the champion of the little guy and the foe of big business. You would think their enthusiasm for eminent domain and regulatory capture would disabuse us of this notion. But it persists. And, this month, we have another illustration of why their nobel reputation is entirely undeserved.
The GOP Congress is trying, for once, to … Read more
The concept of a living wage and a minimum wage are universally accepted on the left as great ideas. That they do not work in the real world and produce serious consequences is ignored. But now we have an example that is too easy to ignore:
The catchy Subway sandwich shop jingle involving a variety of foot-long sandwiches available for $5 doesn’t apply in San Francisco. The sandwich-making chain stopped selling the five-dollar footlongs
Gasoline prices have reached absurd levels. In my town – which is not exactly the most expensive market – the price today was $3.83 per gallon. This is kind of odd since we are not yet in the summer travel season and the global economy, while improving, is not exactly on fire. So what is driving it? As with all thing, the Left has their ready-made answer: eeeeevil speculators. But Ezra Klein has put up … Read more
A while back, when we where debating the democrat’s demand that they be allowed to raise taxes as part of the strategy being looked at to bring the outrageous and out of control government spending that has been going on since the democrats took control of congress and the purse strings back in 2007. Some of us pointed out how horrible an idea allowing them to raise revenue now , while pretending to make cuts … Read more
A couple off weeks ago, the SEC indicted a number of executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for fraud. A detailed look at the indictment is here. Money quote is a long one, but I think you have to read it:
The SEC’s complaint against the former Fannie Mae executives alleges that, when Fannie Mae began reporting its exposure to subprime loans in 2007, it broadly described the loans as those “made to
I told you this was coming, and well, here it is:
(Reuters) – Home sales rose in November, adding to hints of recovery, but updated data showed the housing crash was much deeper than previously thought.
The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday that sales of previously owned homes increased 4 percent from October to an annual rate of 4.42 million units.
At November’s sales pace, the 2.58 million unsold homes on
At a time when Team Blue is working hard to cut defense spending, it should come as a surprise that this administration is making our overworked, under paid, and stretched military pay too much for feul so a politically connected cronie can rake in the cash. If this was a republican president this would be a 24/7 scandal on par with all the Haliburton nonsense we heard for the last decade. But since the … Read more
