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Category Archives: Economics

New York AFL-CIO Chief Named Head of NY Fed

Amazingly, the Federal Reserve has appointed the leader of the 2.5 million New York State AFL/CIO as head of the New York Fed.
The New York Fed chairmanship typically has gone to prominent Wall Street executives or academics. The ascension of a labor leader is a new twist for the New York Fed and a sign [...]

The Government is to Health Insurance as Microsoft is to Linux

My dad was a big fan of critical thinking; I think that for some reason colleges of his era taught critical thinking methods, and there were quite a few men and women of his age that actually enjoyed thinking and running through the little exercises they played at to sharpen their thinking skills.  I don’t [...]

Leadership by Exception

Taking a look at President Obama’s new budget, the first thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the second section of the document, the “don’t blame me” section, entitled “Inheriting a Legacy of Misplaced Priorities“.
As a former Army Officer, and as a VP level manager in two industries and a partner in my current business, [...]

Stimulus Logic – Gone in Sixty Days

I’m trying to figure out my personal angle on the stimulus logic.  OK – Bush runs a $500 billion deficit, and the media goes nuts.  Deficits are bad, the effects are devastating on the economy, markets are crashing, eight years of bad decision making, and so on. 
Obama effectively quadruples the deficit in less than sixty days, [...]

The Market Values the “Stimulus”

The Dow at 7,114 yesterday?  Wow.  This is the worst market I can remember, and according to MSN, is at the lowest point since 1997. Generally, the usual suspects in the media have almost considered it a non-story or talked about it in vague terms as being tied to the “global malaise”.  MSN cuts a [...]

Newsweek: Stale, Republican-style Debate Over Pork, Waste and Overspending

Newsweek, in analyzing the administration’s loss of momentum, comes to a couple of startling conclusions: the President is getting bogged down because he’s been too generous with the Republicans, and they’ve betrayed his bipartisonship.   That in itself is amazingly pedantic, but even more jaw-dropping is Michael Hirsh’s assertion that because the stimulus package is huge, and an [...]

Worry About Deficits? That’s So 2008.

Saw a bumper sticker yesterday about “your honor student will pay for Bush’s deficits”, or something like that.  Brilliant analysis, but who’s paying for the extra trillion dollars being piled on via the “stimulus” bill?  At whose expense are we paying off Democratic special interests?  And where are the hounds of the media that were barking [...]

AP: Obama Discovers Federalism; Looks Forward to Re-Election in 2021

In an article that was initially and hilariously titled, “Stimulus Differences are Modest“, the AP reports that Republican governors are breaking with their colleauges in Congress to urge passed of the pork-filled stimulus package.  Same stuff, different day.  Interesting to see that Obama’s new-found belief in states rights, though.
Obama said that those who really know [...]

Infantile Analysis Syndrome

The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson (via Real Clear Politics) makes a startling, completely wrong but ultimately revealing comparison between the feckless Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization that challenged President Reagan’s resolve by openly defying him with an illegal strike, and today’s Republican Party and their unanimous opposition to the Obama Stimulus package in the House.  [...]

The Stimulus Package: Morally Reprehensible

Rush Limbaugh this afternoon railed against the stimulus package this afternoon, and I don’t mean “rail” in the pejorative.  The stimulus package put forth by the Democrats is immoral and an embarrassment, though the media has been busy chastising the Republicans for playing “partisan politics” by opposing the bill.  It’s immoral; it’s looting the Treasury [...]