Governments, ready to spend boatloads cruiseliner-loads of money they don’t have, are trying to borrow it — to the extent possible — from the markets. I mentioned yesterday that the US was starting to print our own money to lend to ourselves. Britain is facing a similar problem — they were auctioning off some bonds, [...]

Believe me, I’m not advocating the following proposed constitutional amendment.  To be sure, I oppose pretty much everything it represents.  However, if we are to follow the rule of law in this country, we should at least go through the effort of ensuring that contemporary political activities and the law are in sync. “Any political [...]

There seemed to be some good news out of yesterday’s oral argument at the Supreme Court in an important campaign finance law case: The Supreme Court yesterday appeared ready once again to trim the reach of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act, this time at the behest of a conservative group that produced a withering [...]

I’m watching Barack Obama’s press conference, and he urged people to remember “their commitments to each other” and our “common goals” as a nation. Collectivist economic actions, by not focusing on individuals and their best interest, actually increase economic inefficiency and destroy wealth. Instead of urging the people to change how they act and to [...]

Just over two years ago, I offered a worst-case prediction of where this economic crisis could lead. Wait, though, it gets worse. America isn’t an empire in the conventional sense of the word, but we are an economic empire. The dollar is the currency of the world, from middle eastern oil to the reserve currencies [...]

Two weeks ago, the Dow hit a major low at 6440, closing slightly higher. This made a lot of sense to me, given the fundamentals of the economy. In fact, I nearly posted a rather snide article on CNBC “calling the bottom” that morning. But then things changed. The Dow has been on a tear [...]

As I have said here before, I am a senior technical executive at a large bank. As it happens, a bank that was forced at gunpoint, by the secretary of the treasury and chairman of the federal reserve, to accept TARP funds (as all the top surviving banks in the U.S were). Let me be [...]

One of my coworkers explained the other day that socialist countries like to wall people in — that way they’re able to enjoy the benefits. America is not quite that way, but it’s getting there — if you’ve got the means, and try to leave, they think it’s to avoid American taxes. And by God, [...]

The following government conference on openness and transparency is CLOSED to members of the public and the press.  The information below comes from this URL:  http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foiapost/2009foiapost6.htm. Upcoming Conference Providing Guidance on President Obama’s and Attorney General Holder’s Memoranda on the Freedom of Information Act On March 26, 2009, the Office of Information Policy (OIP), Department [...]

Today’s New York Times brings news that the Obama Administration is set to unveil a series of unprecedented regulations: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said. [...]

The United States is a banana republic. The Jeffersonian ideal of a series of republics built upon enlightenment values of freedom and reason has died. It wasn’t a sudden death, like that which occurs in a car crash; where one can pinpoint to the second where death occurred. Rather it was a slow lingering death, [...]

Language matters. When you call a gigantic pork sandwich a “stimulus”, it becomes a very difficult thing to oppose. When your version of “campaign finance reform” is a big slap in the face of free speech and only increases the ability for moneyed interests to protect their incumbent investments, it is still seen by the [...]

Compare your bowling skill to a retard, And you’ll be hoisted on your own petard, If you really want to see someone bowl, Special Olympics kids sure can roll, So practice and give your score a push, And maybe you’ll catch their leader, Bush!

(CNN) — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill Wednesday repealing the death penalty in his state, his office confirmed. “Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives [...]

I was talking to a coworker this morning about the stock market and the Fed’s injection of $1.2T newly-printed money into the economy. I made a point that I think bears repeating: The stock market can lose value, while going up. This is the insidious nature of inflation. They’ll inject this money and nominal prices [...]

Those eeevvviiilll capitalists at AIG have been taking quite a beating. Now it’s time to spread the “wealth”: Fannie Mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million to four key executives as part of a plan to keep hundreds of employees from leaving the government-controlled company. Rival mortgage finance company Freddie Mac [...]

The hyperbolic rage against the AIG bonuses has finally transformed itself into legislation: While American International Group Inc.’s chief executive says the firm could recover millions in bonuses via voluntary means, that’s not slowing a legislative effort to recoup the money and shift the incentive-based pay structure traditionally used by financial institutions. The House is [...]

With respect to the story starting to hit both the mainstream media and “the tubes” about the recent US Army deployment in Alabama, the federal government response I’m seeing so far isn’t quite hitting hitting the common-sense sniff test. The abbreviated version of this story is that US Army personnel were sent to assist with [...]