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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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Free the Economy podcast: Understanding the national debt with Thomas Savidge
In this week’s episode we cover whether Americans feel better off than they were four years ago, why we have more billion-dollar…
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Temporarily Buoyed by Japanese Earthquake, General Motors Looks for Profit Overseas
"GM sees China as a road to profit," reports the Washington Post today. "GM last year sold more cars in China than in the…
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New CBO Pension Report: Underfunding Could Be Higher
That state and local governments face serious pension funding problems isn't a particularly controversial contention. However, the question of how much they're underfunded by is…
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Political Bailouts for Underfunded Union Pensions
While the nation's attention has focused on government employee unions' fight to retain their collective bargaining privileges, unions in the private sector are in an…
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Peter Diamond’s Nomination to Fed Benefits from Double Standard
Liberal economist Peter Diamond is likely to be confirmed to a powerful position, despite issues far more severe than those that blocked the confirmations of…
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Big Company With Ties to White House Paid No Taxes; GE Also Got Corporate Welfare and Bailout on Special Terms
“The top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world,” but General Electric, whose CEO was…
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The Obama Administration’s “Open Government” Empty Rhetoric
Liberal "open government" advocates are giving the president a medal for supposedly promoting "government transparency." He shares their liberal ideology, but not their alleged…
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Federal Government and State Attorneys General Push Arbitrary Mortgage Bailout
Back before the election, intellectuals with ties to the Obama administration proposed a trillion-dollar bailout for some (but not all) underwater mortgage borrowers, as…
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An End to Fannie and Freddie?
As has become tradition after a chamber or two changes hands, Congress is currently grappling over the extent of proposed budget cuts with the threat…
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Obama Administration Tries to Rip-Off Retirees in New Mortgage Bailout
The Obama administration is now working with state attorney generals to rip off pension funds to bail out mortgage borrowers who don’t even need help.
Op-Eds
Federal Government Pushes Massive Mortgage Bailout; Would Rip off Pension Funds, Bank Shareholders
Back before the election, intellectuals with ties to the Obama Administration proposed a trillion-dollar bailout for some (but not all) underwater mortgage borrowers, as a way…
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More Corporate Welfare on the Way?
Politico headline from today: "Qualcomm exec calls for small-business research funding." Alternative headline: "Businessman asks government to give money to businesses."…
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Michigan May Fire Salvo Against Regressive Debit Card Price Controls
In the battle against Obamacare, the shots heard ’round the world were resolutions against the law by state legislatures. These resolutions led to court cases that…
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Freddie, Fannie May Be Finished, But What Comes Next?
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Politicans Using Crisis for Political Gain
Here is a letter to the editor responding to the New York Times editorial “Their Real Agenda”: The author claims politicians are using the…
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FDIC’s Pay Caps Will Keep Businesses on “Sidelines”
At 11:30, in a much-anticipated speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama used Super Bowl analogies to urge American businesses to “get off the…
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Fannie Mae Backers Unrepentant Despite Its Fraud and Colossal Bailout
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bailed out at a cost to taxpayers of between $148 billion and $363 billion. Their recklessness…
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California Businesses Vote With Their Feet
According to this report, 204 businesses left California for greener less green pastures in 2010. That is up from the 51 businesses which left in 2009. This…
Citation
Life’s Tough for $144,000 Garbage Collectors
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Will UAW Seek Foreign Help to Unionize American Workers?
America has a vibrant and successful auto industry — just largely outside of Detroit. For years, many foreign automakers’ American divisions have been successful at…
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Repeal Senseless and Job-Destroying Volcker Rule from Dodd-Frank
On Tuesday, the Financial Stability Oversight Council may issue its recommendations for implementing the Volcker Rule, the provision of the Dodd-Frank financial legislation that bans so-called proprietary trading…
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US Loses Ground in 2011 Index of Economic Freedom
The U.S. dropped from 8 to 9 on the just-released “Index of Economic Freedom” put out by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street…
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Dodd-Frank Financial “Reform” Violates Property Rights and Equal-Protection Guarantees
Last week, I described how the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” law passed last summer violates constitutional separation-of-powers safeguards by giving unaccountable bureaucrats the…
Op-Eds
Financial Stability Council Violates the Constitution (Letter to the Editor)
C. Boyden Gray’s Dec. 31 Washington Forum commentary, “Wall Street reform that flouts the law,” rightly criticized the secrecy, unchecked bureaucratic power and constitutional…
Citation
Public Employee Unions Bankrupting States
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses who will confront public employee unions over their unsustainable pensions.
Citation
Obama’s GM Numbers Are Not Adding Up
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Live Blogging: “Fixing The World Economy: Stresses And Solutions”
This is a Live Blog of a Thomson Reuters Event on “Fixing the World Economy.” The speakers are Dominique Strauss-Kahn, International Monetary Fund and Chrystia…
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Curb and Phase Out Taxpayer-Funded Corporate Bailouts
Full Document Available in PDF Many Republicans and Democrats…
Op-Eds
GM Bad Deal
In his 1953 confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense in the incoming Eisenhower administration, former General Motors CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson was asked how…
Op-Eds
Obama’s GM Numbers Are Not Adding Up
Before Thanksgiving, President barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden did a victory lap at friendly venues across the country in the wake of the…
Citation
You Won’t Believe What You Paid for GM Bailout
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Anti-Earmarker Jeff Flake Gets the Nod for Appropriations; “Prince of Pork” Abdicates for Chairmanship
It looks like the anti-spending brigade will get some support on the powerful House Appropriations Committee — incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner…
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Deal to Explode Deficits by $900 Billion Will Burden States and Employers With More Unemployment Costs
President Obama and Republican leaders reached a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years — and temporarily reduce social security payroll taxes…
Citation
Obama’s Claims About Auto Jobs
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Obama’s Federal Pay Freeze That Wasn’t
No one seems happy with President Obama’s announcement that he plans to freeze pay rates of the federal work force. The right claims that…
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America’s Wealthiest County Used Bailout Money to Give Teachers a Paid Vacation
The richest county in America, Loudoun County, Virginia, used money from the Obama administration’s $10 billion teacher-bailout program to give teachers a…
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More Burdensome to Pay Rent Than to Be a Mortgage Deadbeat
Under government mortgage bailout/modification programs, the mortgage payments of many delinquent borrowers were cut to 31 percent of income, even for borrowers with high incomes and big…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on GM Thanksgiving ad
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses the GM commercial thanking the American people for their public bailout…
Op-Eds
GM Shares Are Artificially Inflated (Letter to the Editor)
The Examiner was right to note that General Motors’ supposed “success story” is actually a money-loser for taxpayers. Not only did GM’s recent sale of…
Citation
What’s Good for New GM Is Bad for the Rest of America
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Obama Includes Toyota, Hyundai and Kia in 75,000 Jobs “Created” by GM Bailout
This post was coauthored by CEI Research Associate Andrew Kwiatkowski As we write, President Obama and Vice President Biden are doing a victory lap…
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Unions’ Shifting Lame Duck and NLRB Agenda
With Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives and a substantial number of seats in the Senate, organized labor’s hopes of seeing its legislative…
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GM IPO Raises Billions, But Company Faces Hidden Challenges; Bailout Still Not Repaid
General Motors raised more than $20 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) this week, selling millions of shares owned by the federal government,…
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GM’s Stock Offering Goes Well, But Some See Nothing to Cheer
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Obama includes Toyota, Hyundai and Kia in 75,000 jobs “created” by GM bailout
President Barack Obama and his administration have cited numerous job statistics after last week’s successful initial public offering of General Motors. John Berlau, director of…
Citation
Halfway Between Sanity and Bedlam
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What’s Good for GM Is Now Terrible for America
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What’s Good for GM Is Now Terrible for America
In his 1953 confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense in the incoming Eisenhower administration, former General Motors CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson was asked how…
Citation
Wall Street to GM: Let’s Put Those Bad Days Behind Us
Op-Eds
GM selling at a loss should tell you something
When a government sells stock in a company, it is usually trying to maximize short-term revenue. Therefore, the share price is normally pegged at what…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Medal of Freedom and GM IPO
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses President Obama awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom…