The Postmaster General’s Challenges
In his report to a Senate subcommittee Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe (left) spelled out clearly why the U.S. Postal Service can’t make any money: too many cooks in the kitchen. Hamstrung...
Economic Commentary
UN Bureaucrats Receive Pay Hike
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon believes that there is a global environmental crisis that requires looting the Western economies to the tune of trillions of dollars in coming years. But...
Forget TARP — the Real Bailout Came from the Fed
Since its inception almost a century ago, the Federal Reserve has enjoyed a cloak of secrecy that has grown more opaque over the years. When the economy imploded in 2008, Bernanke’s...
$490,000 Stimulus to Grow Trees in Nev. Yields Just 1.72 Permanent Jobs
The state of Nevada was the fortunate recipient of a $490,000 federal grant to grow trees and plants — and of course, to "stimulate" the state’s economy. The only problem is the...
Fed Chairman Bernanke to Address Jackson Hole Symposium
Wall Street professionals' expectations are modest over Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s highly anticipated remarks at the Jackson Hole symposium this Friday. Unlike last year when the chairman announced the start...
Forbes: Time to Re-open the Gold Window
It is strangely apt that the stock market this week has been experiencing turbulence, in the wake of Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S credit and fears of a double-dip recession....
Stimulus Dollars in Seattle Fail to Create Green Jobs as Promised
Seattle, Washington, is one of 25 communities that received $20 million from the Stimulus program as part of “Retrofit Ramp-Up” — an initiative of the Department of Energy in which stimulus...
Private Contractors Feeding at the Public Trough
The latest ranking of contractors providing services to the federal government reveals that at least nine of the top 10 are tied to the Department of Defense and took in nearly...
Regulatory Agencies Boom Under Obama Administration
While the private-sector is drowning under a perpetual recessionary storm, U.S. regulatory agencies are flourishing. "If the federal government’s regulatory operation were a business, it would be one of the 50...
Ending Ethanol Subsidies Won’t Reduce Food Costs After All
The recent attempt to terminate both the ethanol subsidies of $.45 a gallon and the $.54-per-gallon import tariff on Brazilian sugar-based ethanol by the Senate failed because it was an amendment...
Warren Buffett Wants to Raise Taxes on His Friends
Warren Buffett (left), better known as the Oracle of Omaha, earned $40 million last year and paid $7 million of it in taxes. But in his editorial in the New York...
From the Good News Dept.: North Dakota’s Economy Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You
Finally, some good news about the economy, from an unlikely place: North Dakota. CNNMoney reported that while the United States' economy grew at less than 3 percent last year, North Dakota’s...
Everything’s Made in China? Not Quite.
An analysis just released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco concludes that most of what Americans spend on consumer goods, electronics, clothing, sneakers and the like, stays in America....
The Fed: QE3 Is All but Certain
The latest report from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System confirms what every sentient being already knows: The economy is in the dumper, with little improvement expected. The...
Stock Market Decline Just the Beginning
The stock market is in freefall once again, evoking specters of 2008. As one fund manager told the Wall Street Journal on Monday, “the sense of déjà vu is almost sickening.”...