Housing
Business & Economics
The Nuttiness of Negative Interest Rates
In his April 18 New York Times op-ed, Harvard professor (and Bush adviser) Greg Mankiw calls on the Federal Reserve to promise future inflation, in order to fix the economy. Mankiw’s article beautifully illustrates what is wrong with today’s economics profession: it consists of very sharp guys (and gals) who ...
Business & Economics
California’s ‘Spending Limit’ Is A Sham
The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices. And so the state budget, the utter profligacy of which for years has been papered over with accounting tricks and ...
Business & Economics
Obama Misreads His Mandate
Reagan didn’t assume his landslide was a license for whatever he wanted. President Barack Obama’s honeymoon period seems to have ended quickly. That’s because Mr. Obama doesn’t grasp the essentials of presidential leadership. Rather than making a compelling case for his economic policies, he has resorted to curt rebuffs, such ...
Commentary
Why Anti-Growth Activism Does Not Help the Environment.
Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is closing down an El Dorado county sawmill that has been around since 1889. SPI will also close another sawmill and electric power plant in Tuolome county. Two more SPI mills in Plumas and Humbolt counties will also close, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs. One ...
Commentary
Rush Job
Doctors and students unite against socialized medicine. An NRO Q&A Tonight in New York City, the Benjamin Rush Society will host its inaugural event: a debate on health care before a gathering of medical students and doctors. Under the leadership of Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific ...
Agriculture
The ‘credit crunch’: another Great Depression?
In the first part of his essay on the 1930s and today, Sean Collins puts the case for going beyond Keynesianism and monetarism and the obsession with finance to look at the deeper structural problems of capitalism. Last month Christina Romer, chair of the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, ...
Business & Economics
Putting Women’s History Month to Good Use
It’s Women’s History Month, so let’s take another look at the greatest woman of our time. We recently considered “There is No Alternative,” a book about Margaret Thatcher by Claire Berlinski, who did not know her. In the interest of gender fairness, we turn to Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of ...
Commentary
State-run health care advocates try again
Orange County Register (CA), March 16, 2009 Porterville Recorder (Porterville, CA), March 16, 2009 Desert Dispatch (Barstow, CA), March 16, 2009 Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA) March 16, 2009 Arnold rightly vetoed similar plan last year. This year, who knows? Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto is all that saved Californians from ...
Business & Economics
Prop 1A: Interview with economist Ben Zycher, who says the measure does not deliver on a promise of real spending reform
Ben Zycher, a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute, thoroughly reviewed the text of Proposition 1A before the voters this May, and was underwhelmed by alleged spending reforms, and critical of tax increases in the proposal. FR Publisher Jon Fleischman interviews noted economist Ben Zycher A few weeks ago, ...
Agriculture
Bank Bailout Blues
Undeterred by the failure of the last injection of taxpayer dollars into a bloated banking system, our financial crusaders in DC are scratching their heads over the best way to flush another few hundred billion away. The latest scheme involves the creation of a “bad bank” that would purchase the ...
The Nuttiness of Negative Interest Rates
In his April 18 New York Times op-ed, Harvard professor (and Bush adviser) Greg Mankiw calls on the Federal Reserve to promise future inflation, in order to fix the economy. Mankiw’s article beautifully illustrates what is wrong with today’s economics profession: it consists of very sharp guys (and gals) who ...
California’s ‘Spending Limit’ Is A Sham
The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices. And so the state budget, the utter profligacy of which for years has been papered over with accounting tricks and ...
Obama Misreads His Mandate
Reagan didn’t assume his landslide was a license for whatever he wanted. President Barack Obama’s honeymoon period seems to have ended quickly. That’s because Mr. Obama doesn’t grasp the essentials of presidential leadership. Rather than making a compelling case for his economic policies, he has resorted to curt rebuffs, such ...
Why Anti-Growth Activism Does Not Help the Environment.
Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is closing down an El Dorado county sawmill that has been around since 1889. SPI will also close another sawmill and electric power plant in Tuolome county. Two more SPI mills in Plumas and Humbolt counties will also close, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs. One ...
Rush Job
Doctors and students unite against socialized medicine. An NRO Q&A Tonight in New York City, the Benjamin Rush Society will host its inaugural event: a debate on health care before a gathering of medical students and doctors. Under the leadership of Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific ...
The ‘credit crunch’: another Great Depression?
In the first part of his essay on the 1930s and today, Sean Collins puts the case for going beyond Keynesianism and monetarism and the obsession with finance to look at the deeper structural problems of capitalism. Last month Christina Romer, chair of the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, ...
Putting Women’s History Month to Good Use
It’s Women’s History Month, so let’s take another look at the greatest woman of our time. We recently considered “There is No Alternative,” a book about Margaret Thatcher by Claire Berlinski, who did not know her. In the interest of gender fairness, we turn to Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of ...
State-run health care advocates try again
Orange County Register (CA), March 16, 2009 Porterville Recorder (Porterville, CA), March 16, 2009 Desert Dispatch (Barstow, CA), March 16, 2009 Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA) March 16, 2009 Arnold rightly vetoed similar plan last year. This year, who knows? Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto is all that saved Californians from ...
Prop 1A: Interview with economist Ben Zycher, who says the measure does not deliver on a promise of real spending reform
Ben Zycher, a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute, thoroughly reviewed the text of Proposition 1A before the voters this May, and was underwhelmed by alleged spending reforms, and critical of tax increases in the proposal. FR Publisher Jon Fleischman interviews noted economist Ben Zycher A few weeks ago, ...
Bank Bailout Blues
Undeterred by the failure of the last injection of taxpayer dollars into a bloated banking system, our financial crusaders in DC are scratching their heads over the best way to flush another few hundred billion away. The latest scheme involves the creation of a “bad bank” that would purchase the ...
