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Sovereign wealth funds: Should governments invest in private businesses?
President Trump recently signed an executive order to study creating a sovereign wealth fund for the US government. If the proposal comes to pass,…
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Department of Education bails out of student loan bailout
For the second time in the past month, the Biden administration withdrew a proposed rule that CEI had opposed. The Department of Education has…
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Proposed student loan bailout rule makes no sense
As the Federal Register approached its previous record of 95,894 pages in a year (set in 2016), the Biden administration devoted a few more…
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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,…
Newsletter
Bailout Indecision, Greenhouse Gas Negotiations and Privatizing Electricity
President Bush and Treasury officials continue to evaluate possible bailout proposals for General Motors and Chrysler. Twenty-seven European countries sign a new agreement to reduce…
Blog
“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…
Blog
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…
Newsletter
Auto Bailout, Global Warming Controversy and Free Trade
Senators vote down a bailout proposal for U.S. auto companies. Czech President Vaclav Klaus criticizes a new European agreement on global warming as “a silly…
Blog
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…
News Release
Auto Bailout Still Looms over Taxpayers
As the White House today offered assurance to Detroit auto makers that U.S. taxpayers would be made to bail them out of their financial woes, a government watchdog…
Blog
Antitrust Liberalization May Avert Need for Bailouts; Outdated Laws Deter Efficient Mergers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,…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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. …
Blog
Federally Sanctioned Propaganda Machine
Apple's 1984 "Big Brother" ad An article over at Ad Age brings up an angle on the whole…
Blog
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.
Blog
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…
Newsletter
A Union Sit-In, Global Warming Politics and Mortgage Modification
Laid off union members stage a sit-in at the recently-closed Republic Windows & Doors plant in Chicago. Physicist Richard A. Muller endorses “exaggeration and distortion”…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Citation
The causes of the subprime fiasco?
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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…
Blog
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…
News Release
Congress Probes Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
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Newsletter
Obama’s Public Works, FCC Diversity Mandates and the Auto Bailout
President-elect Obama promises the largest spending program on public works programs since the 1950s. Obama tech advisor Henry Rivera endorses a proposal to expand minority…
Blog
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…
Blog
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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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…
Blog
More on the Carmakers Recovery Assistance Program
Jeremy Clarkson on the fall of the British Auto Industry:…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
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…
Blog
Berlau on Air America today — debating deregulation on Thom Hartmann
Today at noon Eastern time, I will enter the lion's den. I will be live in the New York City studios of liberal network Air…
Blog
The Dozen Auto Companies that Aren’t Going Bankrupt
The “Big Three”–which really should be called the “Broke Three”–have made their pitch for $34 billion in government aid. What’s a few (billion) bucks among friends?…
Blog
Wealth-Creating Alternatives to Pelosi’s Destructive Infrastructure “Stimulus”
Well, who can possibly be surprised by the revelation that “The federal government's economic stimulus package will include investment in broadband Internet infrastructure and…
Blog
This week’s Least Objectionable Bureaucrat
My occasional “Least Objectionable Legislator Award” (no prize) takes a detour today and goes to a bureaucrat instead. So the LOL Award (pun intended, I…
Newsletter
Obama’s Attorney General, More Stimulus Spending and Defending Deregulation
Barack Obama’s choice for attorney general comes under scrutiny for his record on civil liberties. Democrats in Congress plan to seek additional billions in taxpayer…
Blog
Stimulus as if Capitalism Mattered
Those dispensing the "Bailout to Nowhere" proceeds seemingly answer to no one (here's one article behaving as if this were unexpected and surprising). Today…
Newsletter
Stimulus Spending, General Motors and Mortgage Lawsuits
President-Elect Barack Obama outlines his plan for more federal spending to stimulate the economy. Auto executives present restructuring plans to Congress in hopes of avoiding…
Blog
The Obama Administration’s Regulatory Opportunity
Columnist Timothy Carney warns that the massive bail-outs now flowing out of Washington will give the incoming Obama administration an opportunity to impose a regulatory…
Blog
Prepare the Money Bombing Raids!
The stock market continues to tank, but have no fear. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Is considering new bail-outs! Reports the Wall Street Journal: Treasury…
Newsletter
Online Poker, Auto Workers and Public Works Programs
60 Minutes reports on fraud in the world of online poker. The president of the United Auto Workers union makes a public plea for a…
Op-Eds
Which Way Is Wise?
If there is one phrase to describe the events in the subprime meltdown, it is “collective stupidity.” Looking back on the poor underwriting…
Blog
Banks Sued No Matter What They Do
Banks get sued for discrimination no matter what they do. If they don’t make enough loans in low-income, predominantly minority neighborhoods, they get accused of “redlining,”…
Blog
DeLorean disproves domsayers in debate over auto bankruptcies
In the debate about bailing out the Big 3 automakers, it is said that we just can’t allow a bankruptcy. Despite the fact that Chapter…
Blog
Wasteful “Stimulus” Packages by Government Don’t Work
Only in Washington could politicians and bureaucrats dump more than $2 trillion into bail-out money holes and then claim that the federal government needs to…
Blog
Filling the Federal Money Hole
The Onion explains Washington, D.C. to those Americans who still have a naive civics class view of government. Why is it important to continue filling…
Blog
Credit Spiral
So, say you've had a good relationship with a credit card company and been paying off substantially more than minimum payment over recent months. You've…