Banking's Past, Present, and Future
Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, WSJ op-ed board member Stephen Moore offers a variety of dubious–and at least one outrageous–opinion on the economy and economic policy. (1) The economy would be in better shape today in the absence of the economic stimulus. No, it wouldn’t. Even fellow WSJ contributor Ed Lazear believes that the … Read more
Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, “…brought the Fed directly into the campaign debate Monday night by saying it would be ‘almost … treasonous’ for the central bank to play politics by expanding the money supply. “‘If this guy prints more money between now and the election,’ Mr. Perry said in Cedar Rapids … Read more
In case you have been asleep for the last couple of days, the sovereign debt rating of the United States was downgraded on Friday has been downgraded by the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) from AAA to AA+. This has not made S&P too popular in some quarters, particularly in the US government. President Obama and … Read more
Apparently, the editors of the Wall Street Journal have a rule about the number of op-eds each week that praise Ronald Reagan. I haven’t figured out the exact count yet, but Robert Barro’s piece in Monday’s Journal gets the paper off to a nice start on their weekly quota. It’s a pity that there are … Read more
Writing in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Stanford professor Edward Lazear argues that the real danger to the American worker is too much government–in other words: too many taxes and too much spending. Prof. Lazear writes: During the debt-ceiling debate, President Obama characterized his push for higher taxes and less aggressive budget cuts as being helpful … Read more
Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, John Taylor argues that “…the best way to understand the problems confronting the American economy is to go back to the basic principles upon which the country was founded—economic freedom and political freedom.” Taylor’s argument is based on assertion, rather than fact. For example, he is a little vague … Read more
Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, Stanford economist Michael Boskin warns that the specter of “growth-destroying confiscatory” tax rates looms if the Obama Administration has its way. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Or maybe not. The Administration’s proposed changes to the tax code are neither as dramatic not as alarming as Boskin presents. During the … Read more
Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal today, Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) tout their support (along with their 45 Republican Senate colleagues) for a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. This is a bad idea for three reasons. First, it is bad economic policy. Second, if passed, it would likely make the … Read more
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Seth Lipsky argues that we need fewer economists and more constitutional scholars at the Federal Reserve. Lipsky’s column was inspired by Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R-AL) move to block the nomination of Peter Diamond, an MIT professor and 2010 winner of the Nobel prize in Economics, to the Board of … Read more
Writing in today’s Financial Times, Glenn Hubbard argues–correctly–that the debate over the debt ceiling in Washington is misplaced. Rather than focus on the debt ceiling, he suggests that Congress and the Administration ought to consider the deficit. Or, as he puts it: “My wife and I don’t vote on whether we will pay our bills. … Read more