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Hans Bader on Government Ownership of U.S. Banks
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exTXY__Il6g 285 234]…
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Nationalizing the Banks? Stock Conversion May Backfire
The Obama Administration wants to convert the preferred shares the government got from banks in the bank bailout into common shares. In theory, it…
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Between the Headlines: “Russian Voting Tinged with Green”
“Russian Voting Tinged with Green” This Washington Post headline from earlier this month illustrates one of worrisome side-effects of authoritarian rule. …
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Whither Hemispheric Trade?
In his post-Summit of the Americas remarks in Trinidad and Tobago today, President Obama stated his administration’s commitment to improving relations with countries around the…
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Tea Party Protesters Are Right
Tea party protests questioned the constitutionality of some of the massive bailouts over the past year, which amount to trillions of dollars. That drew…
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Endangerment finding: Legislative Hammer or Suicide Note?
The CO2 litigation campaign that begat Massachusetts v. EPA turns out to be too clever by half. As Roger Pielke, Jr. and Michael…
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Stop Thief! NYT steals Examiner’s AIG scoop with no attribution
One week after Washington Examiner ace investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney broke the blockbuster story reporting that American International Group’s post-bailout CEO Edward Liddy…
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Tech is Key in Ideas Battle
Earlier today, Competitive Enterprise Institute President Fred Smith delivered an informative but lively, entertaining speech about the role of NGOs. The speech was delivered at…
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Slandering the Tea Parties
The “tea party” protests against out-of-control government spending have been very clear in identifying what wasteful spending they object to. One example is…
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D.C. Tea Party and the 1,000,000 Teabags
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Well, the Feds at least banned an “amusement tax”
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Chris Horner on Renewable Fuels and Corporate Welfare
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Regulated Out of Work
CEI has highlighted the fact that poorly drafted drinking water regulations do more harm than good. In particular, the that greatly increased the stringency…
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Horse Racing As A Public Good?
Maryland politicians really have their hands full as the legislative session draws to a close. Instead of focusing on their state’s looming long-term budget…
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1,000,000 Tea Bags Find a Home
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The Liberal War on Science
Christina Hoff Sommers writes about a looming liberal war on science. Based on a campaign promise Obama made to feminist groups in October…
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DC Tea Party Draws Big Crowd in Pouring Rain
Hundreds of people turned out in the pouring rain for Washington, DC’s Tea Party – one of many tax protest events taking place around the…
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We Wouldn’t Have Teaparties If It Wasn’t For Rentseeking
Those who say we tried the free market and it failed should research the history of the Boston Tea Party a little. We didn’t even…
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John Berlau Debates Credit Card Fees and the Bank Bailout
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Tea Parties and the Wisdom of Mobs
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A National Anthem for April 15
As Tea Parties brew across the land today, I’m reminded of the infamous “Tax Poem” chain email, or, spam, if you like. Set to music…
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Federalism and Opposition to Illegal Immigration Are Signs of Subversion, Obama Administration Claims
The Obama Administration’s Department of Homeland Security has developed new profiles of potential terrorists. Its definition of “right-wing extremism” is so ridiculously broad that…
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“A good time to start liquidating”
How damaging would the so-called Employee Free Choice Act be to businesses? Enough to force some healthy companies into bankruptcy. Specificaly, EFCA’s binding arbitration provision…
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Sacrificing Safety and Freedom for “International Law”
Piracy has flourished in the crucial shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia partly due to a treaty that the U.S. has not…
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Supreme Inconsistency on Foreign Law
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says that American courts should look more to foreign court rulings in interpreting our Constitution. But she herself does so…
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Liability Gone Haywire Down Under
An 82-year-old Australian grandmother says she is prepared to go to jail rather than pay a A$1-million (US$731,000) bill to clean up toxic chemicals…
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Phil Spector Found Guilty
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Tea Parties Should be More than Anti-Tax
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LOST to Pirates
The celebrations and congratulations over the U.S. Navy’s rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips are well deserved and proper all around. Yet even after the…
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Renewable Energy Not Necessarily Cleaner Than Coal
One irony of mandating renewable energy is that it isn’t necessarily any cleaner than coal. One example of this is North Carolina’s mandate for renewable…
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LibertyWeek 38: Pirate Warriors on Deck
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Broadband Stimulus Plan: Spend First, Ask Questions Later
There has been some noise in technology circles the last week over the FCC comment period or Notice of Inquiry (NOI) in regards to the…
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Don’t Change Interchange
Overstock.com President Jonathan E. Johnson recently penned an op-ed that appeared in The Washington Times last week in which he argued for government regulation…
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Green Agitators
A 15-Year-Old on Global Warming April 10, 2009 Transcript from Rush Limbaugh show BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Who’s next? Alyssa, a 15-year-old from…
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Federal Budget Deficit Skyrockets; $163,000 More in Taxes
“The budget deficit increased by $192.3 billion in March, and is near $1 trillion just halfway through the budget year.” It’s going to…
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Jack Dreyfus, FDA Reform Pioneer
My colleague John Berlau wrote a nice obituary of mutual fund pioneer Jack Dreyfus that was published in Investor’s Business Daily earlier this week.
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AIG CEO Liddy owns millions in stock in bailout beneficiary Goldman — Tim Carney blockbuster in DC Examiner
Everyone should read the blockbuster exclusive in today's Washington Examiner in which Timothy P. Carney confirms that AIG CEO Edward Liddystill owns more than $3…
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Liberal Bootlicking
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus recently visited Cuba and licked Casto’s boots, calling him an “inspiring” visionary and an “amazing human being.”…
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Enough Water?
Cheers to Bill Nemitz for his very insightful piece “Enough Water: Let’s Figure it Out” in the Portland Press Herald. He showed that…
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America – full of Socialists?
Almost half of Americans either prefer socialism to capitalism or are downright confused, according to a Rasmussen poll released today. Twenty percent of Americans…
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Waxman-Markey litigation shell game
When I first eyeballed the 648-page draft cap-and-trade bill, authored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), I was perplexed, even stunned. Secs. 831-834 of…
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Trojan Horse “Food Safety” Law
A misguided bill, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, may shut down farmer’s markets and “drive out of business local farmers and artisanal,…
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CBO catches up with CEI on ethanol
Well. The Congressional Budget Office has finally caught up with what CEI has been saying for years — misguided ethanol policies cause higher food prices…
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Smith on Smith (and Gjerstad)
In a letter in today’s Wall Street Journal, CEI’s Fred Smith references Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith’s earlier op-ed to point out that…
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Baptist-Bootlegger Alliance on Tobacco
In today’s Washington Examiner, Tim Carney has an excellent column on how the bill to place tobacco under FDA regulation would reduce competition in…
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Ideologies Are Like Cults
Herbert Hoover ran up big budget deficits in response to the 1929 stock market crash, in an unsuccessful effort to stave off the Great…
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One Down, Six to Go!
Oh the Worries of Our Modern Malthusians! In Washington this week, the Anarctica and Arctic Councils met for…
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Interview with Sam Kazman on the Auto Bailout
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Credit card debt drops in February
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Rise of the Luddites
When it comes to things such as environmental policy, the Progressives have been rather successful at promoting their world view. They realized that it would…
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India calls carbon tariffs protectionist
At the Bonn, Germany, UN meetings on global warming issues, India urged rich countries not to use “green” protectionism by imposing carbon tariffs on…
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GASPing at the Geithner-Summers Plan
Like the acronym for the Geithner and Summers Plan — GASP — in the article by Laurence J Kotlikoff and Jeffrey Sachs. And “gasp”…
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DeSmogBlog: What About Me?
Yesterday DeSmogBlog added 7 more entries to its Global Warming Denier Database, which is touted as “an extensive database of individuals involved in the…
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Salt of the earth
Many people believe that salt is bad for your health, but John Tierney’s column today in the New York Times points out the body…
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The Growing Chorus against Foreign Aid
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O’Grady takes on the Obama administration’s approach to foreign aid, which, she argues, amounts merely to maintaining…
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Lincoln To Vote No on Card Check
Arkansas Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln announced today that she will oppose the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, also known as teh “card check” bill.
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LibertyWeek 37: Slicin’ and Dyson
Your host Richard Morrison sits down this week with special guest co-hosts Michelle Minton and William Yeatman for LibertyWeek 37 (regular co-host Cord Blomquist…
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Myron Ebell on Cap and Trade
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A Bounty on Your 401(K)
The Obama Administration’s mortgage bailout for irresponsible borrowers (including wealthy borrowers with modest mortgage payments) provides a bounty for reckless sub-prime mortgage lenders…
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The newest altruist: Fidel Castro
“The financial crisis is not the only problem. There’s another worse one, because it has to do not with the means of production and distribution…
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“Newspapers are dying; Are universities next?”
Wikinomics warns that non-elite colleges risk the same plight now facing newspapers. Rarely do the dominant industries lead innovation, and in the case of…
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Crucial Military Votes Excluded in New York Special Election
The outcome of a special Congressional election in New York’s 20th Congressional District will likely turn on the illegal exclusion of up to 1,000…
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That G20 Communique
Yesterday’s communiqué from the leaders of the G20 – a motley collection of democracies and dictatorships – has some good points, but in general…
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Climate alarmists call for more groupthink
Nothing is more Orwellian than quoting Orwell to attack freedom of thought and discussion. Today’s ClimateWire (subscription required) provides a case in point. “Scientists need…
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Regulation of Local, Non-Interstate, Non-Commercial Conduct OK’d
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The mark-to-market relief rally
The events leading to the Dow’s climbing over 8000 today can be properly called the Mark-to-Market Relief Rally. More than any expected action of the…
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Could carbon capture and storage keep the lights on in a carbon-constrained future?
Only if the costs decline dramatically, a recent Congressional Research Service report suggests, as I discuss here. Currently, the costs of carbon capture…
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Markets Rally on Hopes of Regulatory Relief
The stock market has gone up by 280 points so far today, fueled by FASB’s vote to relax rigid mark-to-market accounting rules,…
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What would it take to reduce CO2 levels to 350 ppm?
“Climate 350”–for 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere–is fast becoming the new mantra of Gorethodox believers in climate doom and…
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Senate votes to kill cap-and-trade?
Well, not overtly, but the Senate voted 89-8 for an amendment to the Fiscal year 2010 budget resolution (S. Con Res. 13), introduced by…
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Obama Follows in Hoover’s Footsteps
During the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover damaged the economy, and impoverished the American people, with costly, artificial attempts to stimulate the economy through…
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LibertyWeek 36: We Go Green
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Energy bill — “first shot” in carbon trade war?
In the wake of the release of the Waxman-Markey energy bill, many commenters have pointed to the drastic restrictions on domestic energy use to…
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Bill Giving D.C. a Congressman Is Unconstitutional
A bill that would give residents of Washington, D.C. a Congressman is unconstitutional, lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded. But…
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Virginia Postrel on Her Own Brush with Cost-Effective Drug Research
One letter writer argues that Herceptin was a poor example because "Multiple cost-effectiveness analyses have shown that, despite its high cost, Herceptin is both effective…
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“Robbery of the American People”
“Nobel Prize-winning liberal economist Joseph Stiglitz points out that the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s plan to have the government subsidize investments in ‘toxic assets’ creates…
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Verizon, AT&T See the Regulation Writing On The Wall
AT&T and Verizon are indicating that there is a chance that they will not seek funds from the broadband stimulus portion…
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AIG Chief Loves Vicious Left-Wing Terrorist?
AIG Financial Products CEO Gerry Pasciucco wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Che Guevara — the Cuban “revolutionary” and henchman of Fidel…
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The EEOC: “The Fox Guarding the Henhouse”
“The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, responsible for ensuring that the nation’s workers are treated fairly, has itself willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act…
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Capitalist-David rally versus Goliath-protests for Socialism
During the G20 summit something like 40,000 plus protesters slated to descend upon London. Of that number, there is a small but growing and…
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Organic Pesticides Fail EU Safety Review
Ask people who buy organic food what they like about it, and chances are, most will say "they're grown without pesticides." That's not actually true.
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Billions More for Failed Bailouts
Ironically, by getting rid of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, the Obama Administration has made it even harder for it to demand the painful…
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Cap-and-trade and carbon tariffs — the economic downside
Today the lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal takes a hard look at some of the negative economic consequences of touted cap-and-trade programs…
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With or Without You
The Obama administration's ouster of GM CEO Rick Wagoner won't solve the auto giant's problems. It does, however, show the power that government now wields…
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GM CEO to Resign
The President seems to think that GM is not fit to run itself. Given recent events, he may well be right. But how on earth…
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Torture Caused Bogus Orange Alerts
Many of those bogus orange alerts that inconvenienced and alarmed travelers since 9/11 had an unsavory source: torture. The Bush Administration, with the tacit…
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Have you subscribed to OpenMarket yet?
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Netflix Neutrality
A little over a week ago, Netflix was berated by a user who assumed that the company was throttling his…
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TGIF whimsy: some Metrobus observations
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Policymakers’ letter asks tough questions re carbon tariffs
Yesterday Ranking Members of both two House committees and two subcommittees wrote to the new U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and asked him to…
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Take away their credit card
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Bad News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas from Coal
This funny headline is the title of a column in the March 26 issue of Wired Science. “Scientists have devised a new way to…
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Celebrate Human Achievement Hour
While the lights go out around the world tomorrow for "Earth Hour," join the Competitive Enterprise Institute in a new counter-holiday: Human Achievement Hour.
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Feds Make Freddie Mac Even Worse, Ripping Off Taxpayers
After federal regulators took over failing mortgage giant Freddie Mac, they didn’t stop its risky lending practices. Instead, they ramped up its risk-taking, making it…
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UNITE-HERE Civil War Sets Up AFL-CIO vs. SEIU Confrontation
Like the Cold War-era Third World civil wars in which the superpowers would fight each other by proxy, the increasingly bitter row within UNITE-HERE…
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Utah Gov. Vetoes Bad Gaming Bill, Self-Regulation Triumphs
Last night, the first amendment, self-regulation, consumers, parents, entrepreneurs, gamers, and business won a huge victory in Utah. In early March, I posted about the…
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Can he terminate protectionism?
It seemed like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t have guts, despite his super-macho screen image. Yesterday, however, he wrote to members of the California…
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Losing talent in these perilous times
We’re beginning to see the talent exodus from TARP-funded financial institutions. Yesterday in an op-ed Jake DeSantis of AIG-Financial Products wrote his “resignation letter”…
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Reverse Tea Party to Reverse Freedom?
This says it all: Green groups held a “reverse tea party” by dumping bottled water (minus the bottles of course) into the Boston Harbor.
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Geithner Seeks More Power to Ruin Our Economy
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wants a “vast expansion” of his power over the financial system. This is the same guy whose bungled…