No Bank “Too Big To Fail”
Kevin Warsh of the Federal Reserve warns that by bailing out banks, government has only strengthened moral hazard in the financial sector.
Nick Ottens
Nick Ottens writes about American and European politics for Atlantic Sentinel and Wynia’s Week. He specializes in the politics of France, the Netherlands and Spain, and is interested in Catalan separatism, drug, energy and housing policy, the future of farming and food, health care and multiparty democracy. He has been published by the Atlantic Council, EUobserver, Spain’s The Corner and World Politics Review.
Nick grew up in the countryside of North Holland and lived in New York and Barcelona. He wrote opinion columns about Catalan politics and the region’s attempted breakaway from Spain for De Standaard of Belgium, the NRC newspaper of the Netherlands and The National Interest. He worked for three political-risk consultancies and a non-profit, XPRIZE, where he designed multimillion-dollar prize competitions to accelerate innovation, including in health care and meat alternatives.
In his spare time, Nick edits the online (alternate) history magazine Never Was and writes about the making of Star Trek for Forgotten Trek. He is a member of the Netherlands’ liberal party, VVD, and its Liberal Green network.
Nancy Pelosi: Modern-Day Trust Buster
Health reform has not even been enacted yet the Democratic leader is already contemplating the next step.
A Little Atlantic Discord
President Barack Obama snubs Europeans by skipping a summit.
There Is No “Secret War” in Pakistan
Those who say America hasn’t been upfront about its role in Pakistan haven’t been paying attention.
Palin’s Smear Tactics
Sarah Palin is no asset to the Republican Party. Behind the image of no-nonsense folksiness she so likes to project, the former Alaska governor hides no intellectual depth whatsoever. She owes her popularity to her fierce criticism of the Obama Administration which has propelled her into the position of something of a spokesperson for the […]
Reid: Republicans Undermining National Security
By filibustering administration nominees for top-level jobs, Republicans are playing “games” while the nation is under threat.
Obama Privatizes Space
That’s right. As much as this (and the last) American administration has nationalized entire industries and promotes the overregulation of others to such a degree that the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom warns of “concerns about expropriation and violation of the contractual rights of shareholders and bondholders,” President Barack Obama seeks privatization in perhaps rather […]
The Assault on Industry
The environmentalist gospel is heard evermore louder in public discussions today as governments the world over move to impose restrictions and regulations upon businesses for the sake of protecting the Earth. Products that are supposedly harmless to nature are quickly becoming the norm while companies happily promote themselves as “green” and ecologically responsible. Industry, meanwhile, […]
Volcker Wants Smaller Banks
Paul Volcker, former head of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987), currently serves as chairman of the Obama Administration’s newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Volcker is widely credited with ending the stagflation crisis of the 1970s through aggressive government action and was allegedly fired by President Ronald Reagan when he refused to go along further with […]
The American Dream Lives
The American experience proves that openness toward the world brings prosperity.
The Enforcement of Education
In many developed nations, education is one of the greatest expenses of government. In Great Britain, for instance, about £88 billion was spent on education last year, ammounting to 17 percent of the kingdom’s total budget. In the United States, where education is partly privatized, the federal government still intends to invest over $46 billion […]
Obama Fires Back
Speaking to House members of the Republican Party in Baltimore, Maryland this Friday, President Barack Obama defended the measures which his administration has enacted over the past year as cameras rolled. The president took questions, corrected misstatements and blamed Republicans for distorting the true intentions and effects of his policies. So successful was his performance […]
Sarkozy Bids Farewell to Capitalism
Government intervention in the economy is something of a tradition in France. As the the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal noted, French business “remains curtailed by the pervasive presence of the state in economic activity.” Government spends more than half of GDP and owns […]
Obama Champions Small Business
One of the stated goals of President Obama’s Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee is to reduce the size of financial institutions. Ideally, his administration would like to do some modern trust busting to make sure that banks won’t ever be “too big to fail” again. Who decides when a bank is “too big”? The same government […]
Bailing Out Bernanke
In the coming days, the United States Senate will vote on whether or not Ben Bernanke will go on to serve as Chairman of the Federal Reserve for another term. Some legislators are skeptical. Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky said Tuesday on CNBC that Bernanke’s own staff recommended against bailing out insurer AIG in September […]