Blog
The World is About to End … Again!
Climate alarmists are in good company. After all, for centuries at least, and probably since the beginning of humanity, some people have worried about the imminent…
Blog
The Wonders of Socialized Health Care, Number 8,977
Ameirca’s health care system is messed up. Agreed. It is a bizarre amalgam of public and private, with government spending and tax policy creating counterproductive…
Blog
Close Seven-Eleven! Save the Planet!
Japanese cities are dotted with Seven-Eleven stores, which typically are open 24 hours. They are wonderfully convenient. In September I attended a Mont Pelerin Society…
Blog
Obama denigrates Delaware in debate
Poor little Delaware. In every presidential election since 1992, she has been in the “blue” column voting for the Democratic candidate. She has long had…
Blog
In Goldman Sachs We Trust?
In the current issue of the Capital Research Center’s newsletter Foundation Watch, Fred Lucas looks into the historically cozy relationship that finance giant Goldman…
Blog
More Bailouts on the Way
At last night’s debate, Senator McCain floated a horrible idea: to have the government buy up bad mortgages and then write off part of…
Blog
Global Warming Alarmists Want Entire World to Become Cuba
If you looked around the world today, you probably wouldn’t say the top problem was people eating too much meat and drinking too much milk. …
Blog
Hank Paulson’s Phishing Scheme
Blog
Shock, Shock … the Climate Catastrophe Lobby is Telling Fibs
This undoubtedly will shock readers, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has a tendency to shade the truth. And only in one direction. It…
Blog
NEW VIDEO: Global Warming and Eco-Imperialism
Coming from the UK, CEI Senior Fellow Iain Murray knows a little something about the history of political empires. Today, however, we find ourselves…
Blog
Sketch Pulled from SNL focused on the Wall Street Bailout
Blog
Quotes of the Day
Arnold Kling: Instead of thinking of the pending bailouts and financial regulation as a new era of government supervisions of markets, think of it…
Blog
Deregulation Wasn’t to Blame for Financial Crisis
Even the reliably-liberal BBC says that deregulation wasn’t the cause of the financial crisis. Other liberal journalists like Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby have…
Blog
EverBank Can Multiply Your Financial Woes
Is any of our readers an expert on banking laws and customs? The reason I ask is that recently, EverBank World Markets, after agreeing to…
Blog
Neither carrots nor sticks II
Further to my earlier post on Latin America, The Wall Street Journal‘s Mary O’Grady points to a good way for the U.S. to…
Blog
Neither carrots nor sticks
Few things are as exasperating as watching two sides argue — and neither rise above being half-right, at best. Still, the resulting exchange in this…
Blog
The Bailout will cost 20% of the entire current budget
My Calculations: The 2007 federal outlays from fiscal year 2007 were 2.73 trillion. The 700 billion is to be allocated before Dec 31, 2009…
Blog
Lehman Bros hearing — Rep. Maloney blames deregulation, ignores her own role as Fannie’s enabler
At the hearing being held today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in which former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld is now…
Blog
Bailout Dangerously Concentrates Power, Harms Economy
Blog
“All the sanctimony without all the effort”
Thus sums up Buck Strickland his love of carbon offsets in last night’s new episode of “King of the Hill.” Buck, owner of Strickland…
Blog
Election Season Gives Me Imaginary Relatives
The upcoming election has given me new relatives, all of them imaginary. The Obama campaign’s get-out-the-vote operation calls my house on an almost daily basis, trying…
Blog
All of the bailouts are expected to $1.8 trillion and we get “green credits” and IRS fun!
Thanks to Declan McCullagh for his article that highlights the non-financial portions of the bailout. Particularly useful is his chart (with information from Reuters)…
Blog
Market down on bailout — Don’t compound damage with overregulation of ‘Main Street’
Today -- five days after a courageous independent vote against Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's $700 billion bailout for Wall Street -- the U.S. House of…
Blog
Better Lifestyle Bureau?
Blog
Bash the Bailout: Government is Not the Answer
Blog
Carbon audit: Can we turn this threat into an opportunity?
Section 117 of the just-passed bailout bill requires a "carbon audit" of the tax code. The provision requires the Secretary of the Treasury,…
Blog
CEI President Issues Statement on the Bailout
Statement of Fred L. Smith, Jr., President of CEI: The bailout bill that passed the Senate is no improvement over the bill the House rightly…
Blog
Bailout Bill Grows More Bloated, Ignoring Alternatives
There are alternative approaches to the bailout that would cost taxpayers less. But instead, Congress is expanding the bailout bill to stuff it with more…
Blog
Kling hits secondary market — misses benefits
Arnold Kling hits the creation of the secondary market for mortgage loans as the major factor -- 50 percent — causing…
Blog
Bailout Bill Gets More Expensive and Dangerous
The politically dangerous $700 billion financial system bailout bill is getting even more expensive as supporters load it up with pork to get wavering…
Blog
Duplicating Bailout efforts
ACORN is speaking against it—maybe it will actually help! This past summer Congress passed “Hope for Homeowners” which took effect Monday. Distressed borrowers can…
Blog
Bureaucrash Launches New Social Networking Site
Blog
Life’s two certainties (being sold out by the Swiss may be one of them)
Blog
Why the Bailout Won’t Help Money Markets
It will actually divert money to the Treasury from commercial lending. Naked Capitalism has more, concluding: When Paulson dumps out his 700 billion in…
Blog
Bailout Bill Is A Threat to Democracy
At least in its original form, the $700 billion bailout bill was unconstitutional because it gave the Treasury Secretary boundless discretion to buy, or…
Blog
Deregulation Didn’t Cause the Financial Crisis, But It Might Help Solve It
Banking expert Peter Wallison explains why deregulation didn’t cause the financial crisis, while Steven Malanga explains how government regulators foolishly pressured banks to drop prudent lending…
Blog
CDS’s House of Cards
It’s been called a ticking time bomb by Investor’s Business Daily. CNNMoney asks if this will be the next disaster. Yet the Feds…
Blog
Another bad bailout idea — raising deposit insurance cap is regressive and counterproductive
As the Wall Street crisis has expanded, politicians are falling all over themselves arguing on behalf of the “little guy” against “fat cats.” But in…
Blog
Let’s Eliminate PMI-As-We-Know-It
Blog
SEC Loosens Rigid Accounting Rules
Rigid mark-to-market accounting rules may have triggered the current financial crisis by artificially undervaluing mortgages and securities (making financial institutions appear insolvent). Even the…
Blog
The Market’s Winners and Losers
The People have spoken. They have picked the Market over the Government to be the chooser of winners and losers. Here are the Market’s choices…
Blog
What Are Markets For?
There are all sorts of people today who normally talk about free markets but who have got themselves into a tizzy over the failed bailout.
Blog
Republican Study Commitee plan now best viable alternative
The stunning defeat of the Hank Paulson’s socialism-for-Wall Street bailout on Monday has just made planks of a pro-free market alternative much more viable. As…
Blog
Bailout fails — Move on to Mark-to-Market Reform
Oh, Happy Day! And it certainly is for all those who value freedom, responsibility and the true free market in which individuals are free to…
Blog
Investing in Communal Failure: The Current Economic Crisis as a Result of Regulation
Unfettered greed is the suspect many point at to explain the current economic crisis. To some extent, they are right, but it isn't irrational…
Blog
Stocks Climb as House Rejects Bailout
Though the bill may have been defeated for the wrong reasons—like the lack of freebies, giveaways, and handouts that many on the left had hoped…
Blog
BREAKING NEWS: Bailout Vote Fails in House
The House of Representatives just voted down the $700 billion corporate finance bailout, despite earlier urging from President Bush to push the measure…
Blog
LibertyWeek 9: Ballparks & Bailouts
Blog
Bailout Bill Just Got Worse, But Congress May Approve It Without Reading It, Based on Misleading Claims
The bailout bill has been larded up with additional welfare that will increase its cost, but the House will likely approve it today without…
Blog
Bailouts to local govts and also foreign authorities
Andy McCarthy on National Review’s Corner points out, The scheme “[a]llows the government to purchase troubled assets from pension plans, local governments, and small…
Blog
$700 billion to worsen economy? — Berlau in American Spectator
Here are excerpts from my story in today’s American Spectator Online on how the $700 billion bailout could actually make things worse — in terms…
Blog
Hurry up with that exchange
Credit default swaps remain a large part of this financial crisis, with some analysts crediting the failures in the $58 trillion market as more important…
Blog
Bailout Gets More Costly Due to “Bipartisan” Deal; Foolish Limits on Foreclosure Should Be Removed
Blog
Bailout Pushes Affirmative Action After “Diverse” Bank Collapses
Blog
Remove ACORN Slush Fund from Bailout Bill
Blog
Beachcombing on the Bailout
Here are a few treasures I found this morning: Kathryn Jean Lopez on National Review Online points out that some of the 20% of…
Blog
Bailout Bill Drafted by Senator Dodd Is a Scam on Taxpayers to Bankroll Left-Wing Extremists
The $700 billion bailout of the financial system just got worse, thanks to a rewrite by Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd. If the government…
Blog
Le Schadenfreude?
Blog
Welfare Added to Bailout to Appease Liberals
The cost of the $700 billion bailout bill, criticized as unconstitutional by legal scholars, is rising, as Congressional leaders demand new handouts for deadbeats (and…
Blog
More, thicker, and earlier Arctic Ice
Where was the press release from National Snow and Ice Data Center? In the past they had these breathless ones: “Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest…
Blog
Bailout Bill Is Unconstitutional Delegation
Constitutional experts have concluded that that the $700 billion bailout bill is an unconstitutional delegation of power, in violation of constitutional separation-of-powers safeguards. I earlier reached the…
Blog
Kudos to Republican Study Committee for bailout alternative
Those of us (and CEI is among the “us”!) who oppose Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion bailout of Wall Street have been challenged to…
Blog
Bailout Bills, Illegal Aliens, and Weird Lending Practices
The proposed $700 billion bailout is “dangerous, inflationary, unnecessary, and unconstitutional,” funds left-wing special-interest groups, ignores less costly ways of propping up financial markets, and fails…
Blog
Do Pre-Schoolers Vote in Virginia?
Virginia is a key battleground state in this election, with polls showing Obama and McCain very…
Blog
NHS Reform: A Few More Brits Might Survive
Great Britain’s Vaunted National Health Insurance won’t pay for necessary drugs to its patients, but it has refused to allow them to contribute their own…
Blog
The new 4th branch of government
I’d rather my government individually bail out each institution that is “too big to fail” and let the smaller imprudent ones fall, sending them a…
Blog
When ‘reporting’ is replaced by opinions
Blog
Massive Bailout Plan Menaces Economy, Triggering Opposition
Blog
Answers
Blog
Chimeras
Blog
Cost of Bailout Gets Bigger; SEC Regulation Backfires
The financial bailout bill is not just “dangerous, inflationary, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.” It’s also a lot more costly than the government admits, judging from the hypocritical arguments…
Blog
Strictly circumscribed containment
From today’s Washington Examiner editorial: “There are credible alternatives to the Bush administration’s bailout approach. Economist Brian Westbury, for example, suggests allowing troubled…
Blog
Bailout Bill Dangerous, Inflationary, Unnecessary, and Unconstitutional
The $700 billion financial bailout bill being pushed by Bush and Congressional leaders is attracting broad opposition. Not only does it rip off taxpayers…
Blog
Socialized Health Care Feels Like it is … Socialized!
Want to nationalize American health care? Just compare what it’s like to be treated in America and in Britain. Writes F. Brinley Bruton: A…
Blog
Bailout Threatens Economy, Shreds Constitution, Rips Off Taxpayers
The stock market sank as the Bush Administration capitulated to liberal demands that its proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system be expanded to add more…
Blog
Mark-to-Markets for Dummies
Blog
Paulson bailout would worsen contagion-spreading accounting rules
My colleague Hans Bader is correct that most of the aims of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion bailout -- stopping the "contagion" of…
Blog
$700 Billion for Disastrous Financial System Bailout
Blog
Carney on AIG’s big government ways
Blog
My Heart Bleeds
From today’s Greenwire: NEW YORK — The crisis roiling Wall Street is threatening to choke financing for green energy projects. Venture capitalists and private equity…
Blog
Trillion Dollar Bailout Will Lead to Future Bubbles
Why did the mortgage bubble occur? One reason was probably that financial institutions engaged in irresponsible lending suspected they were too "big to fail," and that the government would bail them out if their…
Blog
The ‘Naked’ Truth — Short sellers are unsung financial heroes
At the peak of the real estate boom, there was one group of individuals who said the bubble was about to pop. They pointed to…
Blog
Eurocrats Push European Consolidation
Nothing horrifies the New Class of bureaucrats, intellectuals, politicians, and activists than an aroused public dedicated to defeating their plans. The Irish vote against the…
Blog
Financial Regulators Not the Answer
Blog
Are There No Workhouses?
Blog
More on the Energy Bill
I have a post up about the terrible energy bill currently before Congress on The Hill’s Congress Blog. The teaser: The Energy Bill currently…
Blog
Lehman Bros: The Environmentalist Connection
If you go to the web site of the Alliance for Climate Protection, the group that is sponsoring the $300 million “We Can Solve It”…
Blog
LibertyWeek 8: Cheese for Dogs
Blog
College Official Ignorantly Claims Pacific Northwest Is Racist
Is it worth it to spend $49,385 a year to send your kid to Connecticut College? The answer is no, judging from a wacky,…
Blog
Blame Canada (arts funding)
In any list of programs that could be easily cut without much disruption -- except to a small rent-seeking elite -- is arts funding. It…
Blog
Clinton Pressure to Promote Affordable Housing Led to Mortgage Meltdown
The current mortgage crisis came about in large part because of Clinton-era government pressure on lenders to make risky loans in order to “make…
Blog
Lehman bankruptcy: In capitalism, failure is not a dirty word
My reaction to Lehman Brothers' declaring of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the refusal of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and others to take extraordinary Bear…
Blog
Toronto buys into crap on garbage
Blog
Defenders of Big Government Spawned Mortgage Crisis
The Heritage Foundation today discusses the bankruptcy of the great Wall Street investment bank, Lehman Brothers, and explains how defenders of big government caused the mortgage crisis. …
Blog
NFIP Needs Renewal. . .But
Blog
Uproar over Palin Fannie Mae comment is really the media’s ‘gaffe’
Blog
No Gas in North Carolina Thanks to Anti-Gouging Laws
Blog
Washington Post Blames Private Sector for Government Failures
Blog
Divinity School Liberals Are Insufferable
Blog