The New Public-Private (Mostly Public) GM
Weeks before it was supposed to happen, a bankruptcy judge has approved the restructuring of large portions of once-mighty GM and the liquidation of the automaker’s remaining assets. Under the plan,...
About: Charles Scaliger
Posts by Charles Scaliger
Obama Wants Consumer Financial Protection Agency
The Obama administration on June 30 unveiled its latest attempt to put an end to the free market in financial services in the United States. ...
Gov. Mark Sanford and Fidelity
The story is becoming painfully routine: powerful, charismatic, widely-admired politician and family man admits marital infidelity and is pilloried by the press and by his colleagues. From Gary Hart and Bill...
Whither the Dollar?
As the fallout from the global financial crisis continues, the burning question in international financial circles is whether the U. S. dollar, the world’s reserve currency since the Second World War,...
Freedom and Progress
For more than two centuries, freedom has been the catchword of Western Civilization. What began as an abstraction from the pens of Locke, Sidney, Montesquieu, Beccaria, and others has become, in...
Cap and Trade Passes House Committee
Climate-change legislation has now officially become part of Washington policymaking with the approval on May 21 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee of a new bill designed to curb “greenhouse...
Credit Card Legislation Clears Congress
Credit card reform legislation that President Obama is expected to sign sometime over the Memorial Day weekend is a mixed bag, to say the least. Offsetting the deluge of new regulations...
Credit Card Meltdown Hits Banks
Next up for ailing mega-banks: a credit card meltdown. No surprise here, really; Americans have overused credit cards for years, trusting always in unending economic expansion and plentiful employment to guarantee...
Social Security, Medicare Running Out of Money Faster Than Expected
Social Security and Medicare, Big Government’s two most cherished social-welfare programs, are running out of money far faster than expected, thanks to the persistent economic downturn. Medicare, which is already running...
Another Record-breaking Deficit Looms
It’s official: this year’s budget deficit will be one for the record books. The latest figures released by the Obama Administration contemplate a $1.8 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009 as the...
“Prosperity Is Just Around the Corner.” Really?
Back in the bad old days of the Great Depression, the breezy assurance of the Hoover Administration that “prosperity is just around the corner” became, as the years of depression dragged...
Ron Paul’s Influence Grows
Although he officially abandoned his presidential bid last summer, Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s star continues to brighten. Once shunned by the mainstream media and marginalized by the national leadership of the...
Duffy Is New Poet Laureate, but No Tennyson
Alfred Lord Tennyson may be turning in his grave. The author of some of the most exalted poetry in the English language, such as “Crossing the Bar” and “The Charge of...
North Korean Threat Grossly Overblown
In the midst of an economic crisis and worries over a global epidemic, North Korea’s creaky totalitarian state continues to occupy headline news. North Korea, arguably the last Stalinist regime on...
Demise of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers May Be Near
The long-running war in Sri Lanka, the impoverished Indian Ocean nation suspended like a tropical teardrop below India’s southern tip, appears to be near an end. The secessionist war between the...