Eliot Spitzer is writing for Slate after his fall from grace a few months ago. Spitzer says that the Obama government’s stimulus plan should focus not on essential infrastructure refurbishments but rather on “transformative investments” that might springboard the American economy ahead of its competitors. More than that, Spitzer says that it’s incumbent on Obama’s…
Category: Finance
Military Spending as an Economic Stimuli
Martin Feldstein says that the planned budget cuts at the Department of Defense shouldn’t happen. At first read the idea seems ludicrous. The U.S. already has a huge budget deficit caused in large part by excessive military spending. But Feldstein argues that depleted supplies and overworked equipment should be replaced now and that doing so…
Competition No Longer an American Ideal?
Michael Lind says that southern states have waged an economic civil war on the rest of America, the real America, in Lind’s mind, by creating an economic environment in which companies want to do business and bringing jobs from the heavily unionized north of the country and from overseas. This, Lind Says, creates wage competition…
U.S. Automaker Bailout Happening
The Houston Chronicle says that U.S. automakers will be getting $15B in "emergency loans" and a new boss in Washington D.C. in the form of a "car czar" who would have to power to force GM, et al, into bankruptcy if the companies fail to reduce labor and financial costs in a timely manner. Stephen…
GM, the Company No One Wants
GM has a physical plant and inventory assets that exceed its current market capitalization of around $3B. The company would be ripe for a takeover if anyone wanted it. Instead, GM executives want Congress to loan it $18B to stay afloat while they try to whittle away at the mountains of debts and obligations they’ve…
Opposing Bailouts on Principle
Oliver Hart, professor of economics at Harvard, and Luigi Zingales, professor of finance at the Chicago Booth School of Business, say that Bush administration economists have abandoned principle in their rush to bail out financial giants AIG, among others. The government, Hart and Zingales say, should intervene in the fates of companies only when there’s…
Detroit’s Problems and the Left
Perhaps the fundamental problem of our time is that no one wants to tell – or hear – the truth anymore. This has certainly been true in Detroit, et al, where the United Auto Workers has fought off wage and benefit cuts for decades. Now GM is poised at the brink of bankruptcy as a…
I.O.U.S.A. the Movie
To the extent that a slap in the face is ever something to seek out, the free, 30-minute version of I.O.U.S.A the Movie is a must-see. One excerpt has David Walker, Controller General of the United States, saying our current standard of living is unsustainable. Walker: We suffer from a fiscal cancer it is growing…
Obama’s Wealth Redistribution – He Likes It and We Like Him For It
Chris Coffey says, “Of course Senator Obama wants to redistribute wealth. The real story is that Republicans are still trying to convince voters of such an obvious point just one week before the election.” McCain and Palin can try as hard as they want to sell that can of Spam as Grade A Beef but…
What’s $53T Between Cronies?
Former comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office David M. Walker says that the recently passed $700B "Wall Street Bailout" bill is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the federal government’s debt obligations: The ultimate cost of the act should ring up at less than…