Article Archive
What Would Churchill Do?
November 6 was an electoral setback dealt to those of us who believe in capitalism and limited government. What can we learn from Churchill, who was no stranger to setbacks?
Sound Money vs. Stable Money
'Stable money' policy has not fulfilled its promises anywhere it has been implemented. It’s time to renew the debate.
The Tea Party and the Debt Ceiling vs. Economic Growth
By focusing on the debt limit, Tea Partiers are wasting valuable time on the wrong issue. What matters most is the size of our economy. We should be focusing on economic growth, not the debt ceiling number.
The Risky Mortgage Business: The Problem with the 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage
One would not be troubled by the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage if it were an emergent property of free markets. But it is not.
The Left’s Flip-Flop on the Bush Tax Cuts
Opponents of the Bush tax cuts have done a silent flip-flop on whether those cuts helped the middle class.
The 1930s All Over Again?
Then, as today, societies were uncertain about which model of society to strive for and how to repair monetary systems. Societies bet on the wrong ideas; we may be committing similar mistakes now.
Does Interest Rate Risk Matter If You’re the Fed?
Holding a mortgage investment portfolio bigger than Fannie Mae’s or Freddie Mac’s, along with a massively expanded government bond portfolio, puts the Federal Reserve into uncharted waters of interest rate risk.
Lenders and Spenders: Confronting the Political Reality of Debt
Is federal debt really nothing more than money ‘we owe to ourselves’? No. It frays the political fabric, and we are feeling its effects already.
How to Fix the Debt Ceiling (A Bigger Threat Than the Fiscal Cliff)
A default by the U.S. government is more potentially damaging than the fiscal cliff — and more easily avoidable, if Congress modernizes the debt ceiling.
Let’s Raise Taxes on the Middle Class
Serious base-broadening will require a net increase in the tax burden on the middle class, which benefits hugely from the biggest tax breaks.
Reforming the Housing Transaction
If policymakers truly want to make things better for home buyers, they should look for ways to streamline and modernize the housing transaction itself.
8 Things to Know about the Candidates’ Tax Policies
It behooves voters to see through the Obama campaign’s political games and understand a few basic facts about the president’s record on taxes and about the impact of Romney’s tax plan.
Understanding Romney’s Approach to Taxes: ‘Lower the Rates, Broaden the Base’
Here’s a clarification of the concepts behind the Romney-Ryan proposal for tax reform.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Fatal Flaw
Can the FSOC point out that its own members are creating potential instability and systemic risk? If it cannot, it is constitutionally incapable of carrying out its statutory assignment.
It’s Past Time to Stop Blaming Bush
The Obama campaign blames today’s economic doldrums on past Bush policies. But this rhetoric doesn’t square with the record.
Don Quixote Is Alive and Well and Living in Spain
Spain is the euro area’s fourth-largest economy. Bad government policy threatens the whole euro project and the global economy.
A Son of Europe Reflects on the EU’s Nobel Prize
The Nobel Committee should have named the U.S. and NATO as equal co-recipients for their role in transforming Europe ‘from a continent of war to a continent of peace.’
Obama’s Big Tax Increases on Small Business
It is quite a stretch for President Obama to argue that he wants to cut taxes for small businesses. In reality, he is proposing to increase taxes on small businesses by around $49 billion.
The Romney Tax Plan: Not a Tax Hike on the Middle Class
A report by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC) has been used to claim that Romney will hike taxes on the middle class. A closer look, however, and the TPC report falls apart.