Republicans Should Get Behind Ryan's Roadmap

I am highly supportive of Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for America." This is a plan that the nation can get behind. It fixes the problems of entitlement sustainability, while protecting the entitlements that people are dependant on.

Here, Fred Barnes writes a very good, supportive piece. He says the Republican Party should do more than support it--they should make it their platform. I agree.

Click for the story here.

Click here for my page on entitlement reform.

5 Problems With the Financial Reform Bill (Frank/Dodd)

It is no surprise the Sen. Chris Dodd is authoring this new financial reform bill. First, he has a long history of being a corporate tool, who passionately bad-mouth's (what he calls) "corporations." Dodd had no chance of winning reelection in Connecticut, so he has no accountability for what he does this year. Its hard to believe he didn't really want to run again, considering he just ran for President two years ago.

As for Rep. Barney Frank, you have someone who fundamentally disagrees with the very concept of a free market, and he is not shy about it.

Alas, we get the Frank/Dodd financial reform bill. And again, this legislation is toxic. In this article, you have a good, logical case laid out against it by a respected scholar. I also suggest reading Posner's follow up, which is on the same feed.

Click here for the full story.

School Finds Economics of Success

Ever since I had my first economics class, I've thought it should be taught at the elementary level along with reading and arithmetic. If our school system was competitive and students had choices, every school would be like the one in this story: click here.

The reason so many children (especially boys) are so turned off by school is because it is so painfully academic. Boys don't like sitting in classrooms, listening to someone talk. They especially don't like it when they become adolescents, and start wanting to do things with their lives.

At the school in this story, we see the difference between a government mandated, monopolistic school vs. a competitive charter school.

In 1959, the Premier of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev, asked U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon why a nation needed 60 different kinds of washing machines.

If you know the answer to this question, then you know why conservatives are right about free choice in education, and why progressives are wrong. Click here for my page on this issue.

Art Laffer: Unemployment Benefits Are Not Stimulus

Amazingly good article by Art Laffer, who is a renowned economist, famous for the "Laffer Curve."

Here, he lays out a logical argument for why Democrats are backwards in much of their thinking on unemployment benefits. I love writers who use strong examples and logic to support their points, rather than relying on political rhetoric.

The point Laffer misses here is glaring though: that the US economy is not a zero-sum game. The amount of money in the economy grows and shrinks, as does supply and demand of virtually everything. His examples are a little over-simplified because of his reliance on a static money-supply and labor supply. The Democrat's argument is that taking from one person, and redistributing to another "stimulates" economic growth. Thereafter, the beneficiary of the redistribution invests his money and ultimately produces more, hence, lessening the need for redistribution.

However, Laffer's overall point remains exactly correct. There is no evidence that redistribution stimulates at all. In fact, the exact opposite is true: redistribution actually creates an incentive NOT to engage in economic activity (i.e. to work or invest). This is especially true when the benefits are reliably forthcoming.

On my regular blog, I have written two recent posts discussing this issue further. As I stated there, unemployment benefits are necessary to ease the transition between jobs. Such transitions are important to growth, and accommodating them is a good idea. However, it can easily get out of control, and it certainly is not "economic stimulus" as Nancy Pelosi recently argued.

See Laffer's article here.

See my own writings on this subject here and here.

Why Obama-nomics Has Failed

In this article, the author lays out a great case for the problems with President Obama's approach to the economy.

Basically, the problem is an activist government that thinks it knows better than 310 million people.

Click here for this article.

Hypocrisy of the Court's Progressives

This is a series of recent articles which expose the hypocrisy of the Supreme Court's progressives, which has been further exposed by the recent gun case, McDonald.

When it suits them, they are all about federalism and democracy. However, when it does not suit them, they are against it. This is not to say the Court's conservatives are never hypocritical, however, even at their worst, the conservatives are not even comparable to this.

I've come to believe the confirmation process should be entirely based on the past record of the nominee. The hearings themselves should be meaningless. This article points out that nominees flatly lie to get on the court, knowing that the public would never accept liberal/progressive approach to jurisprudence.

Gun Shy - Reason

Sotomayor and the 2nd Amendment - Reason

Kagan's Kabuki Theatre - Washington Times

David Souter's Whitewashing of Jim Crow - Richard Epstein - Forbes

David Souter, Jim Crow & The Living Constitution - Damon Root - Reason

The Trouble With Progressives - Richard Epstein - Forbes

Americans Relate to Founders; Not Progressives

In this article, Michael Barone lays out some history of the progressive movement. I agree very strongly with his assessment of how property ownership and politics are very intertwined. Because of this, progressive are at a disadvantage in America, in the long run.

See the story here.