TCS Daily : August 2010 Archives
Afghanistan: The Negative-Sum War
Many wars, of course, are zero-sum games, where one side's loss is another's gain. But the current war in Afghanistan is unusual in that the insurgents aren't benefiting from our setbacks.
Read More
|
John Boehner's Pro-Growth Message
The Intrade pay-to-play prediction markets are now showing a 76 percent chance of a GOP House takeover in November, so Boehner's lengthy broadside attack on Obamanomics at the City Club of Cleveland this week takes on special meaning.
Read More
|
Ask Unemployed How the Stimulus is Working
How well is the stimulus working? CBO's latest figures are inconsistent with its claims of the effects of the stimulus bill when it was passed in February 2009. If its models failed to accurately predict the effects of the stimulus bill then, why should we believe
Read More
|
Barney Frank Comes Home to the Facts
Image by World Economic Forum Can you teach an old dog new tricks? In politics, the answer is usually no. Most elected officials cling to their ideological biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove their theories time and again....
Read More
|
How Conservatives Are Winning the Health Care Fight
It's difficult to tell what impact Obamacare will have on healthcare insurance policies. And, regardless of who wins the Obamacare debates of the next few years, I'll suggest three trends in health coverage.
Read More
|
Happier Public Union News from New Jersey
Last week, the Newark Star-Ledger reported on at least six towns where unions agreed to give-backs in exchange for a no-layoff promise. This is a good trend, but state lawmakers -- and those elsewhere in the country -- can do more to expand it.
Read More
|
Lessons of the Summer Swoon
The economy is suffering from something like a summer swoon. In the words of business columnist Jimmy Pethokoukis, the recovery summer has gone bust. We all know this from the sloppy statistics coming in for jobs, retail sales, and most recently manufacturing. But
Read More
|
Obama and the Age of Reaganomics
Certain ideas get so firmly fixed in some folks' brains that no amount of evidence can dislodge them. Such ideas become articles of faith. And one article of faith that is particularly deeply stuck in the minds of "the faithful" is: Reaganomics doesn't work.
Read More
|
Last in Credibility: The liberal campaign to discredit American health care
While Republicans advocate repeal of President Obama's sweeping health care reforms, Democrats are pulling out all the stops to build support for the legislation. And the president's party has a not-so-secret weapon at its disposal: a network of well-funded academi
Read More
|
The Washington War on Investment
Will higher tax penalties on investment really spur jobs and faster economic growth? Most commentators would say no. It's really a matter of economic common sense. But Tim Geithner says, Yes!
Read More
|
Analyzing the Deflation Scare
The scare word being whispered around Washington these days is "deflation." It means a falling price level and it sometimes implies a stagnant if not collapsing economy.
Read More
|
Behind the Fed's Policy Leak
A front-page WSJ story, "Fed Mulls Symbolic Shift," is a great leak from the central bank to reporter Jon Hilsenrath. Basically, the Fed wants to stop its $2.3 trillion balance-sheet portfolio from shrinking and therefore tightening monetary policy. So, when its mo
Read More
|
Will Obamacare kill Indiana's promising experiment in health-care reform?
A key part of American federalism is states' ability to serve as laboratories where the consequences of various programs can be explored without committing the entire nation to what may turn out to be expensive blunders. For instance, Wisconsin successfully took th
Read More
|
More Sins of Omission in U.S. v. Arizona
The Justice Department and Judge Susan Bolton both couched their U.S. v. Arizona analysis almost exclusively in terms of how Arizona's immigration law would have affected legal, as opposed to illegal, immigrants, as I mention here. That strategy makes political sen
Read More
|
