In discussing the 1,248-page Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, signed yesterday by President Barack Obama after being rammed through the House and Senate by use of unprecedented parliamentary maneuvers designed to cut off debate, two aphorisms come to…
In between playing at the Lincoln Memorial for Barack Obama’s inaugural concert and performing the half-time show last night at the Super Bowl, Bruce Springsteen got caught in a policy controversy over a promotional deal he made. Springsteen had inked…
When news outlets reported Friday that President-elect Barack Obama had chosen Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to be his Treasury Secretary nominee, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared nearly 500 points. In a…
“The government has to do something to keep markets from falling and the economy from getting worse.” How many times have you heard that mantra this past week from President Bush, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Democrat leaders, the news media,…
They said it was “too big to fail.” This multi-billion dollar firm was now on the brink of bankruptcy. Although not a bank, the firm held complicated financial assets such as derivatives and traded with just about every big bank…
Over the past decade, the Internet has given new life to one of the oldest forms of media: the urban legend. Sometimes an urban legend is complete fiction. More often a story is based on events that may be partially…
Of all the unintended consequences of the housing bill that passed the House on Wednesday, the most ironic and far-reaching may be this: whatever security marginal homeowners have from foreclosures, their homes will be far less safe from being taken…
It’s almost a D.C. truism that anytime Congress creates a “trust fund” for a certain policy issue, the money flowing into the fund will be diverted to something else. Government trust funds are set up with special taxes and fees…
Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation yesterday because of his alleged involvement in a prostitution ring. But this is far from his real scandal. And regardless of what happens in this case, Spitzer has long acted as of he were above…
Mitt Romney’s surprisingly decisive victory in Michigan kept him in the race for the Republican nomination, but he wasn’t the only one Tuesday night to make a comeback. The contest also revived the fortunes of another GOP politician whose message,…