TARP Didn’t Work

Three weeks ago, while announcing the Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, President Barack Obama described the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as “a distasteful but necessary thing to do.” Although most of the money had been recouped already, the administration promised to get back “every single dime” the banks owed the American government. A few days […]

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.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Obama the Jeffersonian

The only constant about President Obama’s foreign policy so far seems to be its reception. Conservatives dread the end of American ascendency and wonder out loud whether Obama is projecting weakness while the Europeans are supposedly upset about the current administration not paying them enough attention. The truth is that a series of early hiccups […]