Rogue Politics » Entries tagged with "Economics"
New Rankings from Economic Freedom of the World Reveal Dismal Impact of Bush-Obama Statism
The 2011 edition of Economic Freedom of the World, published by Canada’s Fraser Institute (with help from groups like Cato), has been released. Covering data through 2009, the new report provides damning evidence of the negative impact of the Bush-Obama policies of bigger government and more intervention. Here’s a relevant passage from the Executive Summary. The world’s largest economy, the United States, has suffered one of the largest declines in economic freedom over the last 10 years, pushing it into tenth place. Much of this decline is a result of higher government spending and borrowing and lower scores for the legal structure and property rights components. Over the longer term, the summary chain-linked ratings of Venezuela, Zimbabwe, United States, and Malaysia fell by eight-tenths of a point or more between 1990 and 2009, … Read entire article »
Filed under: PageTwo
Governement Stimulus: They can’t Prime the Pump
Barack Obama is set to give a speech on September 7 2011 on his jobs plan. There is conjecture that he will propose tax credits for somebody, more taxes for others and more spending by the government on infrastructure. Let’s just go slowly here, Tax credits for who? What will be the threshold on this item? Who gets the favor just one year before an election? We already have a protected class of voters who pay little or worse get more back then they pay. This goes back to my equality issue in a earlier post. Where is the equality in me paying close to 28 percent of my wages to the federal government and someone making as much as 30,000 paying nothing, or others getting back money from the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
An Amazing Indictment of Obamanomics – Banks that Don’t Want Deposits
I’ve commented on the failure of Obamanomics, with special focus on how both banks and corporations are sitting on money because the investment climate is so grim. Not exactly flattering to the White House. Using Minneapolis Federal Reserve data, I’ve compared the current recovery with the expansion of the early 1980s. Once again, not good news for the Obama Administration. And I’ve shared a couple of cartoons – here and here - that use humor to show the impact of bad public policy. But here’s a Bloomberg story that provides what may be the most damning evidence that the President’s big government agenda is a failure. U.S. regulators have asked some banks to take more deposits from large investors even if it’s unprofitable, and lenders in return are seeking relief on insurance premiums and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
The Keynesian Crackup Continues: From Space Aliens to Food-Stamp Stimulus
Paul Krugman recently argued that a fake threat from space aliens would be good for the economy because the people of earth would waste a bunch of money building unnecessary defenses. That was a bit loopy, as I noted a few days ago, but other Keynesians also have been making really weird assertions. Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture (another department that shouldn’t exist) just said that food stamps are a great form of stimulus (video at the link, for those who think this can’t possibly be true). Makes me wonder if they’re having some sort of secret contest for who can say the strangest thing on TV. And if that’s the case, Nancy Pelosi has to be in the running for her claim that you create jobs by subsidizing joblessness. Appearing on Judge Napolitano’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
Needless Budget Drama in Congress, Time Machines, and some Debt Limit Humor
In the spirit of the budget battle, readers have to eat their peas (i.e., endure my analysis) before getting to the dessert menu of jokes from the late-night comics. The big news today is that Speaker Boehner had to cancel a vote on his “Budget Control Act” last night. But other than the political-drama angle, I’m not sure why this is newsworthy. Senate Democrats were united against the plan, with all 53 members signing a letter of opposition. In other words, this was just a symbolic vote. But I must admit that I’m puzzled why the GOP leadership decided to even bother going down this path. Republicans were beginning to make progress with the theme of “We’ve passed two proposals, where’s Reid’s plan or Obama’s plan?” So why did they let the Democrats off … Read entire article »
Filed under: HalfBaked
The Gang of Six Is Back from the Dead: Contemplating the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in their Budget Plan
The on-again, off-again “Gang of Six” has come back on the scene and is offering a “Bipartisan Plan to Reduce Our Nation’s Deficits.” The proposal is quite similar to the one put forth by the President’s Simpson-Bowles Commission, which isn’t too surprising since some of the same people are involved. At this stage, all I’ve seen is this summary (A BIPARTISAN PLAN TO REDUCE OUR NATIONS DEFICITS v7), so I reserve the right to modify my analysis as more details emerge (and since I fully expect the plan to look worse when additional information is available, the following is an optimistic assessment. The Good o Unlike President Obama, the Gang of Six is not consumed by class-warfare resentment. The plan envisions that the top personal income tax rate will fall to no higher than … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
New Study from Swedish Economists Allows Us to Quantify the Cost of the Bush-Obama Spending Binge
The United States has been on a decade-long spending binge. Thanks to the profligate policies of both Bush and Obama, the burden of federal spending has climbed to about 25 percent of economic output, up from 18.2 percent of GDP when Bill Clinton left office. The political class tells us that more government is good for the economy since it an “investment” and/or a “stimulus.” The academic research, however, tells a different story. Here are some brief excerpts from a recent study by two Swedish economists, including a critically important observation about the impact of bigger government on economic performance. …most recent studies typically find a negative correlation between total government size and economic growth. …the most convincing studies are those most recently published. …In general, research has come very close to a … Read entire article »
Filed under: PageTwo
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