Commentary
Business & Economics
President plays high-stakes poker with taxpayers’ money
Like a young, aggressive poker player, President Obama seems to have pushed in all his chips on his budget. The size of the gamble is nearly unprecedented because the pot holds the nation’s economic future for at least a generation. There is agreement across the political spectrum that the president’s ...
Business & Economics
When Economic Stimulus Does Not Stimulate
A majority of Americans now give President Obama’s handling of the economy a negative rating and many economists and city officials are concerned that Obama’s gargantuan stimulus effort has not given the expected quick boost to the economy. Some argue this is because funds have been slow in coming due ...
Commentary
Obamacare
Pres. Barack Obama is on a mission to deliver free health insurance to the uninsured in the name of health care reform. What is in it for you? If you are happy with your health insurance plan, does it matter to you? Can the government afford another budget busting expenditure ...
Business & Economics
Obama’s Stimulus is Proving as Disastrous as FDR’s New Deal
Talking about his first few months in office, President Obama said this at a fundraiser in Los Angeles: We started off in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And so what we decided to do was pass the largest economic recovery package in the history ...
Business & Economics
The Economics of Climate Change
During the last ten years, one of the biggest drivers of public opinion and policy has been concern over global warming or climate change. The economics of climate change uses economic theory and computer models to study the interactions among government policies, the climate system, and the economy. In this ...
Commentary
Don’t mimic the Massachusetts Way on health care reform
The Examiner (Washington, D.C.), July 6, 2009 In 2006, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was hailed as a visionary for signing one of the most expansive health reform bills in the country. “MassCare” aimed to expand health insurance, achieve universal coverage, and bring down costs through a complicated set of government ...
Business & Economics
California Could Add Nearly 180,000 New Jobs at No Cost to Taxpayers
San Francisco, July 6, 2009 – California could add some 180,000 new jobs at no cost to taxpayers if the federal estate tax were repealed, according to research by the former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. The research was conducted for the nonprofit American Family Business ...
Commentary
What really works for schools
Philadelphia Daily News (PA), July 6, 2009 WHEN IT comes to time in school, more is not necessarily better, but more of the same is no solution, either (editorial, “24 Minutes to Better Education,” June 26). The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that increasing school options, not seat time, improves student performance. ...
Business & Economics
Christina Romer’s Faulty Depression History
Romer on the “Mistakes of 1937” Romer worries that President Obama will cave in to political pressures, and cut stimulus efforts before the economy has sufficiently healed. She alleges that this was the same mistake Roosevelt made after his initial (apparent) success in battling the Depression: [T]he recovery in the ...
Business & Economics
Rendell keeps digging deeper hole for Pa.
The new fiscal year for Pennsylvania began July 1. Just one little problem. The state opened the new budget year without a budget. Don’t fret too much. It’s not like we haven’t been down this road before. Ed Rendell has missed the budget deadline every year since taking over as ...
President plays high-stakes poker with taxpayers’ money
Like a young, aggressive poker player, President Obama seems to have pushed in all his chips on his budget. The size of the gamble is nearly unprecedented because the pot holds the nation’s economic future for at least a generation. There is agreement across the political spectrum that the president’s ...
When Economic Stimulus Does Not Stimulate
A majority of Americans now give President Obama’s handling of the economy a negative rating and many economists and city officials are concerned that Obama’s gargantuan stimulus effort has not given the expected quick boost to the economy. Some argue this is because funds have been slow in coming due ...
Obamacare
Pres. Barack Obama is on a mission to deliver free health insurance to the uninsured in the name of health care reform. What is in it for you? If you are happy with your health insurance plan, does it matter to you? Can the government afford another budget busting expenditure ...
Obama’s Stimulus is Proving as Disastrous as FDR’s New Deal
Talking about his first few months in office, President Obama said this at a fundraiser in Los Angeles: We started off in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And so what we decided to do was pass the largest economic recovery package in the history ...
The Economics of Climate Change
During the last ten years, one of the biggest drivers of public opinion and policy has been concern over global warming or climate change. The economics of climate change uses economic theory and computer models to study the interactions among government policies, the climate system, and the economy. In this ...
Don’t mimic the Massachusetts Way on health care reform
The Examiner (Washington, D.C.), July 6, 2009 In 2006, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was hailed as a visionary for signing one of the most expansive health reform bills in the country. “MassCare” aimed to expand health insurance, achieve universal coverage, and bring down costs through a complicated set of government ...
California Could Add Nearly 180,000 New Jobs at No Cost to Taxpayers
San Francisco, July 6, 2009 – California could add some 180,000 new jobs at no cost to taxpayers if the federal estate tax were repealed, according to research by the former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. The research was conducted for the nonprofit American Family Business ...
What really works for schools
Philadelphia Daily News (PA), July 6, 2009 WHEN IT comes to time in school, more is not necessarily better, but more of the same is no solution, either (editorial, “24 Minutes to Better Education,” June 26). The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that increasing school options, not seat time, improves student performance. ...
Christina Romer’s Faulty Depression History
Romer on the “Mistakes of 1937” Romer worries that President Obama will cave in to political pressures, and cut stimulus efforts before the economy has sufficiently healed. She alleges that this was the same mistake Roosevelt made after his initial (apparent) success in battling the Depression: [T]he recovery in the ...
Rendell keeps digging deeper hole for Pa.
The new fiscal year for Pennsylvania began July 1. Just one little problem. The state opened the new budget year without a budget. Don’t fret too much. It’s not like we haven’t been down this road before. Ed Rendell has missed the budget deadline every year since taking over as ...
