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See also Handbags & Hayek
Articles and Commentary
The Phantom Priority [of Jobs]
DocZero, HotAir| It is a simple fact that the government can only grow at the expense of the private sector. Wealth is created through voluntary transactions, with a mutual increase of value for both parties. Government has no resources except coercion, no funds obtained through any means but confiscation...The promise of growth is the phantom priority of a leftist President, snappy patter designed to gain time as he does the one thing a successful private businessman never does: spin the economic roulette wheel and hope he gets lucky before he loses his job...
The Cabinet from Another World
IBD| [this] administration led by so few people with any experience in the private sector... Contrast that to the men who ran the Treasury under President George W. Bush: Paul O'Neill (who ran Alcoa), John Snow (CEO of rail giant CSX) and Hank Paulson (head of Goldman Sachs). Their records at Treasury may not all have been stellar, but at least they had real-world experience to lean on...
Why I'm Not Hiring
Michael Fleischer, WSJ (subscription required)| When you add it all up, it costs $74,000 to put $44,000 in Sally's pocket and to give her $12,000 in benefits. Bottom line: Governments impose a 33% surtax on Sally's job each year...
More Blame Obama for Bad Economy than Bush
Julie Mason, WashingtonExaminer| Although the difference is small and within the margin of error, the poll marks the first time in Obama's presidency that more people blame him than Bush for the economy. Obama's 48 percent also shows a three percentage point increase over the past month, according to Rasmussen...
Tim Geithner's Empty Cheerleading
IBD| "Welcome to the Recovery," said the headline over an op-ed by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in the New York Times. At first we thought it must be a joke, maybe a parody. It wasn't. ... It's time we left the fantasyland of Keynesian fiscal stimulus ...
Voters Want Supersized Government to Crash Diet
Michael Barone, Washington Examiner| Let's put government on a diet. That's what voters seem to be saying in response to the Obama Democrats' vast expansion of the size and scope of government...
'Stuff' Does Not Equal Wealth
 Institute Economic Advisor Karen DeCoster| We've been taught to believe that buying and accumulating stuff through the use of debt is "good for the economy." Thanks to a massive disinformation campaign by media and repetition in casual daily conversation, such perceptions have become gospel. Unfortunately those perceptions have fueled a tolerance for consumer debt levels that can't be sustained...
Obama Economy Sends Americans to Their Mattresses
Michael Barone|
America has seen this kind of thing before. In the late 1930s, when Franklin Roosevelt raised taxes on high earners, encouraged lawless sit-in strikes by labor unions and took over utility businesses, the response was a "capital strike."
Instead of creating jobs, businesses and investors put their money in mattresses. The result was a stagnant economy and double-digit unemployment -- and a 75-seat Republican gain in the 1938 off-year elections...
Obama is Pro-Growth (of Government)
Washington Examiner|
Say what he will, Obama's actions since his first day in office have made clear that his business is growing government. On all three basic measures of the size of government -- work force, spending, and taxes -- Obama has stimulated tremendous growth...
Obama and the Fiscal 'Road to Hell'
Karl Rove, WSJ| G-20 leaders don't agree with the president that more spending will revive the economy. Neither do most Americans ...
Government 'Too Big to Fail' and Too Big to Succeed
Clemens & Kaszton, Washington Times| What is purposefully ignored is that by design, government is a systemic risk. When the government gets things wrong, which it often does, it imposes the costs of the mistake on the entire country. Ignoring the systemic nature of government risk will impose sizable costs on the U.S. economy for the foreseeable future as government expands...
Obama's 'Chicago Way' Plunders the Private Sector
Michael Barone, Washington Examiner| One prime assumption of the Chicago Way is that there will always be a bounteous private sector that politicians can plunder endlessly ... The problem with Obama's Chicago Way is that Chicago isn't America. The Chicago Way works locally because there is an America out there that ultimately pays for it. But who will pay for an America run the Chicago Way?...
Obama's Domestic War on Democracy
Noemie Emery, WashingtonExaminer|
Having run out of allies to annoy or embarrass, it seemed only a matter of time before the president turned on his country, and began aiming at one of its states...
Arizona joins Britain, Israel, Poland and the Czech Republic on the list of democracies dissed by this president...
Progressives Can't Get Beyond the Knowledge Problem
Glenn Reynolds, Examiner | "If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" -- President Reagan, Jan 20, 1981.
Economist Friedrich Hayek explained in 1945 why centrally controlled "command economies" were doomed to waste, inefficiency, and collapse: Insufficient knowledge. He won a Nobel Prize. But it turns out he was righter than he knew.
Hayek explained that information about supply and demand, scarcity and abundance, wants and needs exists in no single place in any economy. The economy is simply too large and complicated for such information to be gathered together...
Tea Partiers Embrace Liberty Not Big Government
Michael Barone, Washington Examiner | Over the past 14 months, our political debate has been transformed into an argument between the heirs of two fundamental schools of political thought, the Founders and the Progressives. The Founders stood for the expansion of liberty and the Progressives for the expansion of government...
20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedom
David Hogberg, Investors.com | You’re a single guy without children? Tough, your policy must cover pediatric services. You’re a woman who can’t have children? Tough, your policy must cover maternity services. You’re a teetotaler? Tough, your policy must cover substance abuse treatment. (Add your own violation of personal freedom here.) (Section 1302)...
Cash for Clunkers, RIP by Karen DeCoster
The ‘Cash for Clunkers’ megaflop, which promoted the reckless abandonment and destruction of property, is one of the most absurd schemes ever foisted upon the American public. The politicians who conjured up the plan with a childish name have illustrated how unhinged they’ve become in their quest to plan and control every facet of the U.S. economy. These are the same people who seek to control your healthcare...
Fascism and a Funeral by Karen DeCoster
What we are seeing from the schemers in Washington is the rollout of a soft fascism ... for which freedom, choice, and capitalism will pay a dear price.
Crony Capitalism Again Rules the Day
Michael Barone| Government's pets -- or, in the president's words, "savvy businessmen" -- use government to get policies that will give them competitive advantages and stifle smaller competitors. Pleasing their masters in government is now absorbing the psychic energy of CEOs who used to concentrate on meeting consumers' needs in order to make profits.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:
The End of Prosperity: How Taxes Will Doom the Economy, if we let it happen
|Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, & Peter J. Tanous, Threshold Editions, 2008| The U.S. is in an economic crisis, and Americans are worried. This new book explains to the layman which policies have proven to attract capital, expand industry and jobs, and build prosperity - and why other policies have failed miserably. Readers will find it an understandable roadmap for turning the U.S. economy from crisis to recovery, and a timely, useful guide by which to judge elected leaders' handling of the nation's economy.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism
|Robert P. Murphy, Regnery Publishing, 2007| The liberal media and propagandists masquerading as educators have filled the world - and deformed public policy - with politically correct errors about capitalism and economics in general. This book cuts through all their nonsense, shattering liberal myths and fashionable socialist cliches to set the record straight.
The Forgotten Man
|Amity Shlaes, Harper Collins| What happens if government intervenes in a nation’s economic crisis and makes it worse? Journalist Amity Shlaes tells such a story in her well-researched book, “The Forgotten Man: a New History of the Great Depression." See review.
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by Christina Hoff Sommers, author of Who Stole Feminism? and The War Against Boys
 When asked, "Are you a feminist?," most American women say no.
For good reason, says the author, who makes the case that the feminist movement has been taken over by aggrieved eccentrics who are fighting a gender war that few women support or understand. The potential for harm is enormous to women here and abroad.
Author Christina Hoff Sommers explains how the once noble cause of feminism has been derailed, exposes the destructive nature of modern feminism's public policies, and argues that mainstream American women have to put it back on track.
by Sally C. Pipes, CEO of Pacific Research Institute and one of the world's top health care experts.
 We've all heard the statistic "47 million Americans do not have health insurance" as an underlying argument for massive health care reform. But did you know that 57 percent of the 47 million uninsured have annual incomes above $50,000? Or that two-thirds of the 47 million are between the ages of 18 and 34? Are younger Americans being sold another Social Security scheme?
"Young Americans," says the author, "have the most to gain or lose by the outcome of the health care debate."
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is Director of Employment Policy at the Hudson Institute. She served as chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor and chief of staff at the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.
Ms. Furchtgott-Roth discussed the incoming Administration’s economic proposals with women at a Luce Institute Conservative Women's Network event in Washington DC.
by Karol Boudreaux, Senior Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
 How do everyday choices of shampoo, shoes, magazines, and electronics make the capitalist free-market economic system work? What are the economics of choice, and why is consumer choice a fundamental indicator of individual liberty and democratic societies?
Author Karol Boudreaux explains in this report. "The endless variety of choices Americans enjoy is extraordinary," says Boudreaux, "and yet so common it can be easily taken for granted."
by Nonie Darwish, author of Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.
 Most Americans think of Islam as just a religion. Islam is much more; it is a one party state with a very elaborate legal system, called Sharia law, that can put you to death if you leave it. The lives of women living under Sharia law and those living under democratic law are a world - and centuries - apart.
Ms. Darwish describes the danger America faces from Sharia advocates who claim that Sharia Islamic law is a religious right compatible with democracy and suggests that American women can stand together against the spread of radical Islam and its discrimination against women in the Western world.
by Barry R. Chiswick, Ph.D., Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
 Current immigration laws and policies are not serving the best economic interests of the United States. What changes in border and interior enforcement policies would help stem the flow of illegal immigrants? What reforms in U.S. immigration law would encourage more highly-skilled legal immigrants and increase the economic benefits of immigration for the American public?
Professor Chiswick addresses these questions and suggests how the tide in immigration can be turned.
by Elizabeth Kantor, Ph.D., author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature.
 Classic Western literature has traditionally played a large role in sustaining "Western culture." If Western culture has, on balance, been a benefactor of the human race, then the abandonment of its great literature by college literature professors is a very great loss, both to students and to the long-term health of Western civilization.
Dr. Kantor argues that universities today should be teaching the classic literature of our culture to their students.
by Miriam Grossman, MD, UCLA psychiatrist and author of Unprotected
 A college freshman - I call her Heather - came to me for help with her mood: every so often she had episodes of feeling down, crying easily, and hating herself. Normally, she was social and outgoing; these days she was spending hours alone in her room. Heather didn't know where this was coming from. Everything seemed to be going so well: she liked school, had plenty of friends, and got along well with her family.
She paused at one question: did you recently begin or end any relationship? Well, yes ... I can think of one thing. I recently got a "friend with benefits," and actually ... I'm confused, because it seems to me like he's getting the benefits, but I'm not getting the friendship. ...
by Ryan Lynch, Deputy Director of Students for Saving Social Security.
 Social Security is the largest investment most of us will make in our entire lives, and it will likely be one of our worst. Some working women are particularly hard hit, and today's young workers can expect a one to two percent rate or return on investment - a deal worse than the local bank.
At what cost will we continue paying into a system that has repeatedly raised taxes and cut benefits since its inception? At what point will we demand that Social Security stop undermining the retirement security of future generations?
by Roy W. Spencer, PhD, Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama's Earth System Science Center.
 Global warming is in the news nearly every day now. Calls for action to reduce mankind's greenhouse gas emissions are being made by scientists, environmentalists, politicians, movie stars, and op-ed columnists. Some view the threat to be greater than that from terrorism. But just how real is the threat? And even if global warming becomes dangerous, what can be done about it?
You might have heard that "all reputable scientists" agree on global warming -- that there is a "consensus," and that the science is "settled." But there is only one aspect of the problem that scientists agree on: that global warming has occurred in the last century. What is not agreed upon is the degree to which mankind is responsible for that warming ...
by Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute
 American health care stands at a critical crossroad. National policymakers are debating two very different courses: one toward expanded government-directed health care; the other toward free-market, consumer-directed health care.
Americans of all ages have a stake in this public debate, for the policy outcome will shape the cost, care, coverage, and control of their health care services for decades to come.
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