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Biden’s budget: A continued attack on reliable energy and freedom
President Joe Biden’s FY 2025 budget request of $7.3 trillion is exactly what Americans should have expected: increased spending and taxes. A budget…
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New student loan proposal is regressive, politicized, and won’t stop rising prices
President Biden this week unveiled a new student debt relief proposal. It would cancel student debt for up to 153,000 people who incurred $12,000…
Blog
Red tape? More like chains, thanks to deficit spending and subsidies
Federal subsidies and grants are infamous for having strings attached. That’s nothing new, but those strings are increasingly chains. Businesses are being seduced into corporate…
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Election 2010: Union Losses, Worker Gains
Yesterday’s election results will make it much more difficult for organized labor to advance its agenda in Congress. This is good news for the American…
Blog
Administration Allies Float Trillion Dollar Bailout to Offset Rising Savings Rate
Alarmed by the rising savings rate, which liberal Keynesian economic theory views as potentially bad in a weak economy, intellectuals with close ties to…
Blog
The Stealthy Public Pension Time Bomb
As state and local government budgets have come under increasing stress, greater public attention has come to focus on government employees’ compensation. This greater scrutiny…
Op-Eds
Fannie & Freddie Don’t Deserve Any More Tax Dollars (Letters to the Editor)
The Examiner was right to oppose more taxpayer bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are expected to receive between $73 billion and $215…
Blog
Increase in American Corruption May Have Been Understated
Earlier, I wrote about how America had slipped to a historic low on the Global Corruption Index, becoming more corrupt. In retrospect, I think…
Blog
Foreclosure Moratorium Would Impose Huge Losses on Taxpayers
“Taxpayers and the federal government would be among the biggest losers if officials heed calls from some legislators and homeowners rights groups to stop millions…
Blog
U.S. Slips to Historic Low in Global Corruption Index
America has slipped to a historic low in the global corruption index, Reuters reports, and it is no longer one of the 20 least…
Blog
Another Reason Why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Need to Go
The monthly payments a home mortgage has depend on two variables (among others): the initial down payment and interest rates. A larger down payment means…
Blog
The Chevy Volt: Just Another Hybrid
It turns out GM wasn’t being completely honest when they touted the Chevy Volt as an all electric vehicle. From Edmunds: GM Lied: Chevy…
Blog
“The Cluster of Errors” — The Austrian Theory of Boom and Bust (Part III of III)
“Econ Stories” is back at it again with a new video. This time they explain the Austrian theory of the business cycle. What I like…
Blog
Bailout of Fannie and Freddie Will Cost Double Earlier Estimates
The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will cost double earlier estimates, and could cost $363 billion over the next three years, report…
Blog
General Motors’ Losses Hidden by Deferral of Union Pension Obligations
Any General Motors bonds issued this year will be classified as junk by a key ratings agency. Why? There’s some risk GM will go…
Blog
Say Goodbye to Free Checking
“Say goodbye to traditional free checking, as banks feel squeeze from new regulations,” reads the AP headline. “Free checking, a mainstay of American banking…
Blog
Your Shriveling 401(K): Thank Financial Red Tape and the Foreclosure Furor
If your 401(K) has shrunken recently, it may be due to falling bank stocks, like Bank of America stock, which has fallen from over $19…
Blog
Killed by Pension Accounting
Think accounting rules are a boring topic? You wouldn’t if the fate of your business rested on it. Indeed, a rule change may be coming…
Blog
Stop Coddling Mortgage Deadbeats
Right now, there’s a big manufactured outrage over the fact that at a few banks, paperwork errors occurred in foreclosures. The Wall Street Journal…
Blog
Jobs: Created, Not Made
Welcome to October, the start of a new government fiscal year. 2010 was the year of “jobs created or saved.” Bank and business bailouts may…
Blog
Economic Illiteracy and Stopping Foreclosures
Express, a publication of The Washington Post, notes that as a result of a stoppage in mortgage foreclosures: “Prices might stabilize because so many homes…
Blog
Timothy Geithner, Political Strategist
The TARP bank bailout program polls poorly. Timothy Geithner, in recent remarks, subtly reminded voters that the hated bailouts were originally a Republican proposal. It's…
Citation
GM Admits to No Repay of Bailout
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Union Shutting Down GM Plant
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how the UAW chose to shut down a GM plant in Indiana instead of accepting a…
Blog
General Motors Now Admits It Didn’t Repay Bailout Money
Contrary to its claims in TV ads earlier this year, General Motors has now admitted that it did not repay…
Comment
Supplement to Complaint of Deceptive Advertising Against General Motors Company
Full Document Available in PDF After General Motors admitted in the news media that the…
Blog
Obama’s Broken Pledge to Cut Wasteful Spending
When Obama was elected, he claimed he would “go through our federal budget– page by page, line by line–eliminating those programs we don’t need.”…
Blog
Obama Administration Mandates More of the Risky Loans That Spawned the Mortgage Crisis
The federal government is now expanding the affordable-housing mandates that helped spawn the mortgage crisis by goading mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to…
Op-Eds
Stimulus without Spendulus: A How-To Guide
This week brought more Subprime Stimulus from an administration attempting to ignite the economy with a burnt-out match. The Obama proposal to allow the expensing…
Blog
America Declines in Property Rights, Rule of Law
The World Economic Forum says that property rights are deteriorating in the United States, to the point where America ranks behind third-world countries…
Blog
New Stimulus Plan Gets Skeptical Response, Even From Democrats
Obama’s plan for $50 billion more in stimulus spending is getting a skeptical response even from some Democratic lawmakers. (We explained earlier why…
Newsletter
Bailouts, Wind Energy, and Credit Card Regulation
Hans Bader argues that the new bailout makes responsible citizens "Suckers." Myron Ebell thinks it is doubtful that wind farms will survive Hurricane Earl. John…
Blog
You Were a Sucker If You Were Responsible, Thrifty, and Saved Money for a Down Payment
The Obama administration will launch today a new $14 billion program to bail out some people who are underwater on their mortgages. During the…
Blog
Unemployment Jumps to 9.6%, 54,000 More Jobs Lost
Unemployment went back up to 9.6%, as the nation shed 54,000 jobs in August. Yet Obama calls this “Recovery Summer.” This is…
Blog
Record Federal Spending Increase Due to Wasteful Spending Like the Failed Stimulus Package
Federal domestic spending increased by a record 16 percent this year, thanks to wasteful spending by the Obama administration, such as its “huge economic…
Citation
John Berlau discusses the General Motors IPO
Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau discusses the General Motors IPO. Will investors have any recourse to sue?…
Blog
GM IPO Buyers Beware: Filing Asserts Exemption from Anti-fraud Laws
General Motors filed paperwork last week to launch its much-anticipated initial public offering. It could be the biggest IPO in U.S. history, raising up to $20 billion,…
Op-Eds
Fannie and Freddie Must Go
After ramming through a “financial reform” bill that increases government controls on such ”ants” (hat tip to House Minority Leader John Boehner’s comments — distorted…
Citation
Government watchdog group calls White House Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Summit a “sham”
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio argues against union pension bailouts.
Blog
Fannie-Freddie White House Sham Summit Produces Short-Sighted Solutions
After ramming through a “financial reform” bill that increases government controls on such “ants” (hat tip to House Minority Leader John Boehner’s comments–distorted by the press–in full context) as orthodontists…
Citation
Ewanick safe under new GM CEO
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains potential union pension bailouts.
Blog
Yandle: Everyman’s Deficit
Clemson University economist Bruce Yandle has published a new paper that compares the federal government’s spending habits with that of the average family. Yandle…
Blog
Government Spends Billions Bailing Out Foreign Firms and Countries, and Replacing American Jobs With Foreign Green Jobs
Our government spent as much money bailing out foreign firms as some countries spent on stabilizing their entire financial system. Much of the money…
Blog
Government-Sanctioned Lying and Reparations Increase National Debt: The Pigford Class Action
There are only 36,697 black farmers in the entire country, but in a class-action lawsuit, more than 86,000 African-Americans claimed to have suffered…
Blog
Around the Country with Public Sector Unions
It’s often a sign that a problem is turning into a crisis when the public outcry over it becomes ubiquitous. That seems to be the…
Blog
House Approves Obama’s $26 Billion Public-Employee Bailout By a Vote of 247-161
The House has just approved President Obama’s $26 billion public-employee bailout by a vote of 247 to 161. Billions will now go disproportionately to…
Blog
Oh, the Horror! Budget Cuts Mean Pampered Artists Get Less Government Money to Insult Taxpayers
Thanks to budget cuts under England’s new Conservative coalition government, “London may no longer be ‘a beacon for controversial pieces’ such as last year’s…
Blog
Why Mortgage Giant Freddie Mac Is Getting a Bailout: Costly Obama Policies and Giveaways
Earlier, I wrote about mortgage giant Freddie Mac’s demand for $1.8 billion more in bailouts. Why does it still need more bailout money, when…
Blog
House Panel Releases Ethics Charges Against Rep. Maxine Waters
A House ethics panel has released the charges against left-wing firebrand Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) arising out her shady dealings with OneUnited Bank. (Her…
Blog
Government-Sponsored Mortgage Giant Seeks $1.8 Billion More in Bailouts
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac is seeking $1.8 billion more in bailouts from the federal government. This mortgage giant, and its sister company, Fannie Mae,…
Newsletter
Kagan Confirmed, Ford Motor’s Finances and Critiquing Obama’s Economic Policy
The U.S. Senate confirms Elena Kagan to be the next member of the Supreme Court. President Obama announced a $250 million government loan to Ford…