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LibertyWeek 22: It Sure Is Looking Christmasy
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Trillion is the new billion
When you get calls from your friends specifically to talk about their zany ideas on how to reduce the national debt you know that the…
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Stimulus Plans: Economic Failures, But Sometimes Political Successes
So-called “stimulus packages” don’t revive the economy, but that hasn’t stopped President-elect Obama from pushing a budget-busting $850 billion stimulus package. Japan…
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More Criticism for Unconstitutional Auto Bailout
Andrew Sullivan, George Will, Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the Heritage Foundation, and many others have joined CEI in calling the auto bailout Unconstitutional.
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Fewer Toys for Christmas
Small toy manufacturers may go out of business thanks to the “Consumer Product Safety Act of 2008,” which Congress hastily passed in response to…
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Bush Auto Bailout Illegal, Bailout Supporter Admits
Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who supports bailing out the Detroit automakers (whose unionized workers are paid $70 an hour), nevertheless points out…
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Drew Edmondson’s Prosecution of Paul Jacob Is Unconstitutional
The federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has declared unconstitutional an Oklahoma law banning non-residents from helping to collect signatures for ballot initiatives…
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The Real Auto Bailout: A Six Point Plan for Regulatory Relief
Here’s what the auto companies really need – a reduction in the regulatory burden placed on them by Congress. These burdens have placed Detroit at…
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GM-Chrysler Merger Likely Blocked by Antitrust
General Motors & Chrysler could be strengthened by a merger, an option that wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. But, the idea has been pushed aside,…
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“Calling all economists . . .”
Supposedly President-elect Obama’s transition team has been calling up economists and asking for their views on a possible $1 trillion stimulus spending plan. …
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A loophole wide enough to drive a GMC truck though
The Bush administration’s outline of its automaker bailout package lists some seemingly sensible changes in labor practices that GM and Chrysler need to…
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An Insult to the American People
Thumbing its nose at the American people, who have opposed a bailout for automakers by a two-to-one margin in public opinion polls, the Bush…
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Ron Kirk’s Texas origins may temper trade stance
Selecting former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as the nominee for U.S. Trade Representative sends a signal that perhaps President-elect Obama will temper his anti-trade…
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Bush Bailout Beggars Belief
If there’s one provision in the GM/Chrysler bailout that I just don’t get, it’s the suggestion that the automakers must be financially viable by…
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Killing Without the Smile
The National Health Service loves to save money. Too bad that means denying essential medical care and killing patients. But what’s a bureaucracy for? The…
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Mortgage Madness
Here is a letter I fired to the Wall Street Journal: December 17, 2008 Editor, The Wall Street Journal 200 Liberty Street New…
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Likely Obama Appointee Includes Climate Change Alarmist John Holdren
On the heels of creating a new position for the scandal-plagued and therefore, presumably, unconfirmable Carol Browner to lord over Senate-confirmed cabinet officials in pursuit…
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Minnesota Vote Manipulation Likely Overturns Key Senate Election
The Minnesota Senate election was very close: GOP incumbent Norm Coleman led liberal ex-comedian Al Franken by just 725 votes. As a result, Franken demanded a recount. …
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How Do Regulations Stack Up as a Small Firm Grows?
Tomorrow, electric utilities and green groups team up at the National Press Club to ask for billions of new spending on what they term energy…
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Solis: Could have been worse…but not much
According to the Associated Press, President-elect Barack Obama is about to name Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor. If Rep. Solis’s voting…
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Taylor Tells of Tol’s Ton Toll
Jerry Taylor of Cato has an excellent summary of what the scientific literature tells us about the social cost of carbon emissions, drawing on…
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What’s $50 Billion Among Friends?
Bernard Madoff defrauded investors out of an unprecedented $50 billion, in a massive Ponzi scheme that was perhaps the vilest swindle of the century. But a…
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From CEI’s President: Remembering Paul M. Weyrich
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Fed Chairman Uses Incompetent Ratings Firms for Bailout
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is basing hundreds of billions in emergency lending on credit ratings from companies that gave AAA grades to toxic…
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Credit Card Price Controls Harm Consumers
The Wall Street Journal editorial got it exactly right: The Federal Reserve cut rates to historic lows Tuesday, but today it…
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Paul M. Weyrich, RIP
[Since I wrote this, Paul Weyrich’s last column was published the day of his death, “The Next Conservatism, A Serious Agenda for the Future”…
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The Value of a Dollar
Yesterday the dollar reach a 13-year low against the Euro as the Federal Reserve continues to pump new money into the system. All of this…
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Yahoo! vs. the Obama Justice Department
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Coming to an ISP Near You: Google Servers
Over at the Tech Liberation Front, the Internet’s premier free market technology blog, we’re discussing the implications of Google’s OpenEdge program. The program plans to…
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China’s Economic “Boost”
Recently, the Chinese government released a plan to “boost” the Chinese money supply and stimulate the economy. Unlike Americans, people in China actually save…
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Bailouts Unconstitutional Failures
Jacob Sullum’s recent column argues that Bush’s auto bailout plan is an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers. We earlier argued that it was…
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LibertyWeek 21: We Clear Ourselves of All Wrongdoing
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VIDEO: Fred Thompson on the Economy
In a great satire of today's political doublespeak, Fred Thompson tells us why the sophisticated policies coming out of Washington defy common sense. How do…
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Paulson’s Bailout Was a Scam
National Review editor Rich Lowry, who mistakenly supported the financial system bailout because he trusted the Bush Administration, now realizes that he was deceived by…
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Iain Murray on Obama’s Energy Team
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUVzVXz19I8 285 234]…
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No Regrets Greenery for Kids
In recent days I’ve been heavily exposed to commercials featuring the Nickelodeon network’s teen stars advocating The Big Green Help, including, Lord help us,…
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Fed Cuts Rates, Punishing Thrift, and Impoverishing Savers
The Federal Reserve has just cut the federal funds rate for loans to banks to an unprecedentedly low rate — ranging from 0.0% to…
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Auto Bailout Would Kill Jobs, Impoverish Taxpayers
A bailout would be worse for the auto industry than automakers filing for bankruptcy, explains banking and bankruptcy expert Todd Zywicki, a law professor,…
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Broken Windows, Broken Logic
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The Cloverfield Monster of the Internet
Earlier posts today dealt with the hoo-ha over Net Neutrality. By coincidence, an anonymous colleague put the following old 1996 quote by Sen. James Exon…
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EU Climate Agreement All Smoke and Mirrors
So if the EU has just put together an agreement to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, why are the climate alarmist groups calling it…
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Stupid v. Evil
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Stupid v. Evil
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“Net Neutrality,” RIP? Well, One Can Hope
Net neutrality has long been a threat to Internet users. Despite the rhetoric and appeals to “openness,” it was always an anti-consumer enterprise, irretrievably and…
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Why Not a Wal-Mart Bank?
Seems like every business these days is becoming what’s called a “bank holding company” — seeking the shelter of the federal government’s deposit insurance and…
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Bush’s Auto Bailout: Illegal or Unconstitutional
The Bush Administration is planning to bailout the Big Three. It's using part of the $700 bill financial sector bailout package by seizing on TARP's…
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Lawrence Lessig and Fighting Corruption
Lawrence Lessig has recently shifted his focus away from intellectual property and technology policy and toward tackling the larger issue of political corruption. It’s quite…
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Antitrust Liberalization May Avert Need for Bailouts; Outdated Laws Deter Efficient Mergers
In early 2007, the economy was humming along and General Motors was considered to be in the process of a turnaround. To help stabilize itself,…
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Jimmy Carter Disowns the Dictator Mugabe, His Frankenstein
After years of criticizing supposedly “unilateral” American military intervention in places like Iraq (where the U.S. was actually acting in concert with other countries, like…
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Deregulatory Bailout
There are hundreds of regulations that Congress and agencies have imposed on the auto industry, driving up their costs unnecessarily. As an illustration, these are…
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U.S. and Latin America need closer ties
Four former presidents of Latin American countries and the former president of Spain joined in an ardent plea for the U.S.
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Jay Leno Riffs on the Bailout
A new viral email, claiming to be jokes written by Mr. Leno, adds a bit of humor to the financial crisis. As business and government…
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The UAW’s Three-Year Emergency Response
Last night, the Detroit Big Three bailout package crashed and burned for the best of reasons. To their credit, Senate Republicans refused to abide…
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Weren’t We Supposed to be Making Money?
Let’s see … weren’t the government “investments” in failing firms supposed to pay off for the taxpayers? Alas, it’s not looking good so far. …
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Protecting Pets Before People
Why do advocates of socialized medicine prefer pets over people? It’s hard not to conclude that’s the way they think. After all, in Canada you…
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Forbes China’s 100 richest
Each year, Forbes magazine produces a list of the 100 richest people in China. But no rich people would like to appear in…
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Federally Sanctioned Propaganda Machine
Apple's 1984 "Big Brother" ad An article over at Ad Age brings up an angle on the whole…
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Marlo Lewis on Global Warming & The Economy
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The Acceptable Face of Capitalism?
Our simplest and best answer to the whole bailout issue, it seems to me, is that creative destruction has to be allowed to take place.
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Auto Bailout Smoke and Mirrors
Mickey Kaus, a moderate Democrat, explains how the proposed auto bailout contains little leverage for the proposed “auto czar” to really cut the excessive…
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Socialism: It’s Already Here!
The candidates in the recent presidential election argued about whether one of them was advocating socialism. Actually, it looks like we’re already there. An ever-growing…
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Auto Bailout – Destroying Detroit by ‘saving’ it
In a famous quotation from his 1986 address to the annual White House Conference on Small Business, President Ronald Reagan quipped that “government’s view…
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German Finance Humor
When the Germans are laughing at you, things are in a pretty serious mess. That’s the case with the British version of the bailout, which…
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Bailout for Bloated Union Contracts
The auto bailout being fashioned by liberal lawmakers with Bush's apparent acquiescence contains no meaningful limits on the bloated union contracts that have helped make…
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Sheila Bair’s Coddling of Mortgage Deadbeats Fails, Costing Taxpayers
Sheila Bair, the head of the FDIC, has been busy rewarding irresponsibility and punishing thrift by giving special breaks to deadbeat mortgage borrowers from…
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Dick Morris: Stimulus Plans Usually Fail, At Taxpayer Expense
Stimulus packages usually fail, while costing the taxpayers a lot in the long run by running up the national debt. Dick Morris, a former…
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Effective Health Care Cost Containment
With the Obama administration preparing to address the problem of health care, they should remember that the most effective form of cost containment is to…
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Physicist Richard A. Muller Endorses Lying for the Environment
It must be nice to be so certain of one’s moral purity and political correctness to believe that anything, including, well, lying, is fine and appropriate…
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LibertyWeek 20: The Future Is Cao?
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SEIU/CtW Deny Blagojevich Ties; “source” names Stern
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A Blagojevich-SEIU connection?
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An Old Joke
But still a good and classic one. In 1949, only Socialism could save China. In 1979, only Capitalism could save China. In…
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Rule of Law at Stake in the UK
Yesterday the UK saw a large group of protesters bring a major London airport to a halt. Plane Stupid (you can’t get them for false…
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A Wrinkle in the Story of Republic Windows and Doors
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Unbelievable Gall from the New York Times
As economists and the Wall Street Journal have noted, the Community Reinvestment Act was an important ingredient of the financial crisis, by pressuring…
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Censorship and Bailouts for the Rich
George Will has an interesting column on how the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” that many liberal lawmakers want to reimpose in order to shut down…
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Sam Kazman Debates the Auto Bailout
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John Berlau on Timothy Geithner
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The New Ice Age, Continued
The global cooling scare of a few decades ago is written off as a product of bad science, without much peer-reviewed support. But Maurizio Morabito went back…
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To world leaders: halt the spread of protectionism
It’s timely and needed — a new publication gives leading trade economists’ views on “What world leaders must do to halt the spread…
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Fighting Big Government: Not Why, But How
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Trashing Taxpayers
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Life Imitates The Simpsons, Part CCXXXIV
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Claim of consumers’ fear of auto bankruptcy a canard in bailout debate
Eli, in answer to the blog post you phrased as a question, the argument from the individual you heard, echoed by other Big 3…
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Bureaucrats are the Same the World Over
You’ve got to love the European Union. It took the federal government decades to become so extraordinarily bureaucratic, wasteful, and out of touch. The EU…
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Abarackadabra! A 21st Century “New Steal”
JOBS, ROADS, BRIDGES, SCHOOLS, BROADBAND, ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS, ENERGY…blares the Drudge Report. It’s President-elect Obama’s weekend plan—not to produce, but to transfer yet…
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The Wonders of Socialized Medicine, Part LXVI
The Daily Mail reminds us how government health care is compassionate and efficient; So imagine my shock when I saw how some nurses recently…
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A Valid Point In Support of Auto Bailouts?
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How Not to Create Jobs
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The End of Auto Bailouts (Not.)
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Declining Market Power Means Fewer Limits on Government
With much of American finance and industry either on the government dole or desperately trying to get on it, market constraints on political abuses have…
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Celebrating 75 Wet Years
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More on the Carmakers Recovery Assistance Program
Jeremy Clarkson on the fall of the British Auto Industry:…
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The Amazonians Speak Out
I wrote recently of California’s declaration to allow tropical forestry carbon offsets so that California businesses wouldn’t have to actually reduce their…
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Carmakers Recovery Assistance Program
While lawmakers consider whether or not to bail out an industry they holed beneath the waterline, perhaps they could learn from the history on…
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Tech Policy at TechLiberation.com
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Water for the Homeless
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If Obama Rewrites NAFTA, Canada Could Hit Back Hard
As President-elect Obama fills his Cabinet and top-advisor positions, he has not yet named a U.S. Trade Representative, but, as CEI noted, he…
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Feds to Flush Billions More Down the Toilet, Destroying Jobs
The Treasury Department wants the federal government to effectively buy up all mortgage loans in America, by selling treasury bonds to buy up mortgage-backed…
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Federal Spending Without End
Heck, it’s only money, as a friend tells me when he uses his credit card to buy new collectibles which he can’t otherwise afford. That…