A Victory for the Laffer Curve, a Defeat for England’s Economy

A new study from the Adam Smith Institute in the United Kingdom provides overwhelming evidence that class-warfare tax policy is grossly misguided and self-destructive. The authors examine the likely impact of the 10-percentage point increase in the top income tax rate, which was imposed as an election-year stunt by former  Gordon Brown and then kept [...]

‘Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?’

Ronald Reagan’s poignant question to then President Jimmy Carter during a debate in 1980 clinched the presidential election. Carter presided over one of the worst economies. The economy had tanked and inflation had skyrocketed. Additionally, Iranian radicals had held 52 Americans hostage for almost a year. But that’s nothing compared to our nation’s economic malaise [...]

English Riots, Faux Austerity, and Krugman’s Fairy Tale

London was just hit by heavy riots as part of a protest against the “deep” and “savage” budget cuts of the Cameron government. This is not the first time the U.K. has endured riots. The welfare lobby, bureaucrats, and other recipients of taxpayer largesse are becoming increasingly agitated that their gravy train may be derailed.

The [...]

Walmart Sees Rapid Inflation on the Horizon

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the latest jobs numbers, Walmart’s inflation prediction and another NYSE merger bid.
We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do [...]

Stimulus Disconnect: White House (Again) Calls it a Success, yet There are 7 Million Fewer Jobs for Americans

THEN (January 2009)
“Without stimulus” there would be about 134 million jobs in the U.S. by late 2010:

Source: Administration’s January 2009 Romer/Bernstein Report.
NOW (March 2011)
Without stimulus, there would have been 127 million jobs in the…

The 99ers: Addicted To Unemployment

I’m in favor of a social safety net. My position on this is liberal, not libertarian. I’ve never personally taken a dime in unemployment benefits but I don’t judge people who lose their job and have to get public assistance.

But here’s no contradiction in being in favor of benefits for the jobless and also acknowledging [...]

The Minimum Wage and Job Loss from 2006 through 2010

In 2006, the last full year in which the U.S. federal minimum wage was a constant value throughout the whole year, at least before 2010, approximately 6,595,383 individuals in the United States earned $7.25 per hour or less.
For 2010, the first full year in which the U.S. federal minimum wage was a constant value through [...]

Bernanke’s Macroeconomic Errors

Despite the astonishing flood of more than a trillion dollars in new commercial-bank reserves that the Fed created in late 2008 and early 2009, when it undertook to rescue the big banks and other institutions from the consequences of their boom-time mistakes, Ben Bernanke has insisted that the Fed can and will contain this inflationary [...]

The Fed’s Spin on Inflation and the Fall of the Dollar

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the reality of inflation vs the Fed rate, the latest unemployment numbers and the fall of the dollar.
We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. [...]

Cavuto to IN Gov. Daniels: Did You Get ‘Punked’ by Big Labor?

Great question by Fox News’ Neal Cavuto to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels: “I am wondering if you just got punked?”  Daniels responded that he did not understand the question, and then proceeded to answer his own question. (transcript)
Yes, the governor and Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma were punked by Big Labor Democrats in several ways:

The [...]

One Chart that Tells You Everything You Need to Know about State and Local Government Pay

The showdown in Wisconsin has generated competing claims about whether state and local government bureaucrats are paid too much or paid too little compared to their private sector counterparts.
The data on total compensation clearly show a big advantage for state and local bureaucrats, largely because of lavish benefits (which is the problem that  Governor Walker [...]

Private Business Net Investment Remains in a Deep Ditch

If any one thing estimated in the Commerce Department’s National Income and Product Accounts may be described as the engine of economic growth, private domestic business net investment is that thing. This variable has such tremendous importance because, if accurately gauged, it tells us better than any other measure how many resources are being devoted [...]

The Real Way to Express Solidarity with Union Workers in Wisconsin – Let Them Choose

After seeing the tactics of the left-wing and their Siamese twin union leaders in Wisconsin on full display over the prospect of still getting a better retirement deal than we taxpayers do, I call for a National Strike Day for every single non-public sector union member. They seem to think we can’t live without them, [...]

Wisconsin: Free and Fair Elections-A President Objects

It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s foreign relations or domestic disputes, President Obama is always on the wrong side of history.  Millions took to the street during Iran’s Green Revolution that protested a patently phony election which declared Ahmadinejad the president within an hour of the polls closing.  That mind blowing speed is not [...]

California’s Delta Smelt is Raising Your Food Prices

The Commerce Clause that regulates interstate commerce is at issue in the legal battle of Obamacare.  Can the federal government tell individuals that they must buy insurance?  Not as well known is how the same commerce clause is destroying farms and raising food prices by stopping the flow of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers [...]

Democrat Unions Protest in Wisconsin

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the labor protests in Wisconsin, unemployment and the Anna Nicole Smith opera in London.
We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do [...]

To Fix the Budget, Bring Back Reagan…or Even Clinton

President Obama unveiled his fiscal year 2012 budget today, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that there’s no major initiative such as the so-called stimulus scheme or the government-run healthcare proposal. The bad news, though, is that government is far too big and Obama’s budget does nothing to address this [...]

Mitch Daniels, President of the United States?

Not likely if he continues to squash freedom in the form of Indiana’s Right To Work law.  

Governor Daniels is in an enviable position sitting atop two strong Republican legislative majorities after the numerous 2010 Tea Party victories in his state.  The Republicans control the state House and state Senate with solid majorities.  A similar [...]

January’s Jobs Report Was a Snow Job

The January employment report was a complete snow job. Abominable winter blizzards across the country caused 886,000 workers to report “not at work due to bad weather,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is 600,000 more than the normal 300,000 not at work for the average January of the past decade.

So the bad [...]

What Does the Administration Think about the SHRINKING Labor Force?

THEN (April 4, 2010):
Administration officials say growing labor force is “a great sign”

Behind the high unemployment rate, “there’s just been a tremendous increase in the labor force,” Christina Romer, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’  “Over the last three months, we’ve added more than a [...]

Minneapolis Fed Data Compares Reaganomics and Obamanomics

Ronald Reagan would have been 100 years old on February 6, so let’s celebrate his life by comparing the success of his pro-market policies with the failure of Barack Obama’s policies (which are basically a continuation of George W. Bush’s policies, so this is not a partisan jab).
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has a [...]

What Will Obama Do if Egyptian-Style Crisis, Unrest and Revolt Hits America?

Barack Obama and the U.S. government have called for a “peaceful transition” in Egypt, in response to massive protests, riots and escalating anarchy. But I wonder if President Obama is taking notes? I wonder if he realizes just how close America is to facing a similar crisis that could result in riots, revolt in the [...]

Guaranteed Income (Part II): A Real End to Illegal Immigration

In my last post, I explained the best way to end unemployment is an Ebay / Paypal style solution to auction off the “Man Weeks” of our unemployed:

All registered workers are guaranteed an income of $10,400 per year, at least $6 per hour.  The minimum bid is $1, and the government uses current Unemployment Insurance [...]

Debating the Great Depression: The Failure of Keynesian Economics

The Great Depression has been a deeply contested subject from the very beginning. After John Maynard Keynes’s General Theory became sacred writ for most mainstream economists, Keynesian interpretations generally prevailed, notwithstanding pockets of resistance among older economists, in general, and Austrian school economists, in particular. Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz’s monumental Monetary History of the [...]

President Obama, the Bankrupt Do Not Invest

In the State of the Union speech, President Obama called for numerous “investments.”  Most Americans, especially fiscally conservative tea partiers, fully realize “investments” translates from DemocratSpeak to English as “spending.”

In his speech, the President called for additional deficit spending towards renewable energy, spending on infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and additional funds for education. [...]

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