In the new issue of Forbes, David Malpass summarizes the bad news for investors and entrepreneurs who might have grown the economy, hired people and invented cool things. He correctly calls the government’s regulatory and tax policy:

“a mammoth, nationwide shakedown.”... continue reading »

 That’s the topic of my FBN show tonight... continue reading »

The administration sold Obamacare as a deficit-reduction bill. But as I blogged then, the savings were based on the dubious assumption that Medicare spending would be cut. Such cuts had been promised by Congress, but then Congress voted to ignore them, year after year, since 2003. Yesterday, surprise! The House voted 245 to 171 to delay scheduled cuts until 2012... continue reading »

 The WSJ today points out that: California refutes its own 'green jobs' policy.  Remember when Governor Arnold promised that California’s "cap and trade" law would reduce emissions and create jobs?  The Governor seemed to believe you could create something simply by passing a restrictive environmental law.  Oops. 

“A new study by the state's own auditing agency—its version of the Congress... continue reading »

One beauty of the free market is that it rewards smart behavior.  If you are prudent, you succeed. If you take foolish risks, your business fails.  Government, however, rewards foolishness, as Stephen Meister points out today:

"The Federal Housing Administration, which insures home mortgages, not only failed to learn the lessons of the subprime meltdown, it's been doubling down on failure... continue reading »

Congressional Republicans proudly say that they are prepared to cut the budget.  They put their proposals on their new YouCut website last week. But the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards points out that the GOP cuts amounted to just 0.017 percent of the federal budget.  He proposes more meaningful cutscontinue reading »

The NYTimes’ new “conservative” columnist, Ross Douthat, has been slow to win me over.  He writes like he is trying to appeal to liberals.  Maybe he is.  Maybe that’s just being smart--serving his market.    But I like his column today, in which he points out that amidst all the talk of rebellion against the incumbent political class, government actually has increased:

“concentration of power in the hands of the same elite that presided over the disasters in the first p... continue reading »

In his column today, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman claims its wrong to compare the US to Greece: e’re not Greece... continue reading »

“The state sector is like a fat man of 200kg sitting on the back of a 50kg little man who is the real economy.”... continue reading »

"A party that stands with Wall Street is a party that stands against families and fairness." That's a crude argument. Yet it was made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid... continue reading »