In a survey taken by the Kauffman Foundation to measure the reaction of the public to the recent financial turmoil, 35% of respondents identified Higher Taxes at the the “greatest threat to your own economic situation”.
Link to survey opens new file
Read More...Economics is a big reason why I am a Republican. When they are not demagoguing, Republicans’ principles make more sense to me.
Let’s take a look at our current economy. The two major dislocations come from policy priorities of the Democrats: the mortgage crisis (already discussed) and the energy crisis.
We have an energy crisis for one reason and one reason only: the Democrats have refused to allow us to tap into our incredible wealth of energy resources. Let me be clear, it is not just a matter of reducing our dependence on foreign oil; we have the resources and capacity to be a one-nation OPEC. You probably already know that we have three times as much oil in the form of shale in the Rocky Mountains alone as in all of Saudi Arabia. We have enough proven ... Read More...
I find myself hoping that about 17 days out from election John McCain finds himself trailing by three points in every poll. It’s not that I don’t want a Republican victory; it’s because I do want a Republican victory. McCain is at his best when his back is against the wall – and is absolutely terrible when he is feeling confident.
The meltdown in financial markets triggered by the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should have locked the election away for McCain. It was a cautionary tale of Democratic economics come to life for all to see. The two entities had been run by Democrats under rules championed by Democrats (with only a little help from a few of their ‘moderate’ Republican friends). McCain had even been counted among the Republican leaders who had consistently called for reform, repeatedly warning that if Democrats kept blocking reform, what actually ... Read More...
Obama is flat-out wrong when he frets on his campaign Web site that “the personal savings rate is now the lowest it’s been since the Great Depression.” The latest rate, for the second quarter of 2008, is 2.6 percent—higher than the 1.9 percent rate that prevailed in the last quarter of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
A housing “slump,” a housing “crisis”? A “severe” price decline? According to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, the median price of an existing home is up 8.5 percent from the low of last February. And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median price of a new home is up 1.3 percent from the low of last December. Home prices may not be at all-time highs—and there are pockets of continuing decline in some urban areas—but overall they’ve clearly stopped going down and have started to recover. So why keep proclaiming a ... Read More...
Things are going badly in Springfield, says Rich Miller, who lists problems, including:
“Unemployment is rising, yet a jobs-producing capital construction bill for our roads, bridges, schools and mass transit is stuck in limbo.”
Reading along, I thought he was going to say a tax-reduction bill was in limbo, or such bill is not being discussed. But he refers to state spending that would produce jobs.
Read More...Counting down to the Pennsylvania primary, it surprises me that neither Democrat is hitting hard on the relationship between the two wars we’re fighting on borrowed money, skyrocketing oil prices and our descent into recession and economic turmoil.
True, a month ago, when Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Economist Linda Bilmes published their treatise “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” documenting the real cost of the Iraq adventure, there were a few speeches noting the incredible cost and how better the money could have been spent.
But in Pennsylvania of all places, where town after town has been devastated economically, one would expect either Clinton or Obama to probe more deeply—to rub raw the sores of discontent, to paraphrase Chicago’s own Saul Alinsky.
In interviews, Stiglitz acknowledges that the stunning rise in oil and gasoline prices is due in part to the war—the only issue is how much. ... Read More...
