The Open Market Blog

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/23/2008

A $25 billion bailout of government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae is now planned.  But Fannie Mae has such political power that its crooked managers will…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/22/2008

“The proposed government rescue of the nation’s two mortgage finance giants will appear on the federal budget as a $25 billion cost to taxpayers, the independent…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/22/2008

A stealth assault is being mounted on the Constitution’s state-action doctrine in a case pending before the Supreme Court, Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee. The Supreme…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/19/2008

Franklin Raines, a liberal power-broker, mismanaged government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae so badly that a federal bailout of it is now planned.  He received…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/18/2008

Historically, jurisdictions with judicial elections tended to be somewhat more anti-business than those that didn’t have judicial elections.  But in recent years, voters in some moderate and conservative…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/17/2008

Over a year ago, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson refused to push for reforms of fraud-ridden government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae, even though colleagues in the Bush Administration had…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/17/2008

U.S. immigration law is full of contradictions.  On the one hand, U.S. immigration laws keep out skilled immigrants who would help our economy,…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/16/2008

In the Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins says we should get rid of the shaky, fraud-ridden government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae in its current…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/16/2008

Professor Ilya Somin explains how New York City taxpayers are being fleeced to pay for a new Yankee Stadium.  And the Washington Examiner describes…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/15/2008

Senator Charles Schumer recently triggered a massive bank failure by publicizing a letter claiming IndyMac Bank was on the verge of collapse.  That caused a run on…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/15/2008

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is now pushing a multibillion dollar bailout of the government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  But as the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/14/2008

Both the House and Senate have passed similar mortgage bailout bills by lopsided margins, although Bush has threatened to veto them.   But the American…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/14/2008

Following in the wake of Friday’s massive bank failure, and the Senate’s passage of an economically destructive and pork-filled mortgage bailout bill that…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/14/2008

The Washington Examiner today pointed out on page 17 that thanks to advances in drilling technology, it’s now far safer to drill for oil off…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/12/2008

IndyMac Bank was seized Friday by federal regulators after the “second largest US bank failure in history.”  (The bank had $32 billion in assets).  But rather than…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/11/2008

The Senate has passed the bloated mortgage bailout bill by a 63-to-5 vote, over objections from Senators like Jim DeMint (R-SC) who say it will rip…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

The mortgage bailout bill sailing through Congress gets weirder and weirder.  It turns out that in order to circumvent the Constitution, which says that tax…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

Ted Frank explains in the Wall Street Journal just how feeble courts are at reining in excessive punitive damages awards, contrary to what…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/10/2008

The Virginia House of Delegates rejected a Democratic plan to raise several taxes to pay for transportion.  The proposal was the same as one earlier…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

The Religious Left and liberal groups are currently defending the “Red Lion” doctrine, under which judges allow the government to restrict speech on the radio because of the…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

The Senate has passed the FISA reform bill by a 69-to-28 vote, providing the phone companies with immunity from the multibillion dollar lawsuits against them…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

ACORN is a radical left-wing group with ties to liberal politicians that will receive taxpayer subsidies through the Congressional mortgage bailout legislation nearing passage.  (Bush has expressed…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/09/2008

Congress is poised to enact the ADA Restoration Act.  That law is based on the unfounded notion that the federal courts have too narrowly interpreted…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/08/2008

Even longtime ACLU leader Morton Halperin is endorsing the FISA bill, which authorizes and regulates federal antiterror surveillance programs.  Halperin says that the “bill…

• By: Hans Bader
• 07/08/2008

Congressional mortgage bailout legislation would create a costly “affordable housing trust” that would spawn new slums at taxpayer expense, and enrich the politically-connected developers…