Political Economy

Barack Obama’s health insurance reform initiative is clearly foundering. So, his administration has pulled out the big guns. Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius on the Sunday morning talk shows. Obama himself had a prime time press…

This new period of boom-bust makes for some very strange bedfellows.  Below is the video of Henry Blodget, the former Oppenheimer and Merrill Lynch Technology analyst, talking to Eliot Spitzer, the former New York attorney general who…

When the stimulus bill was being crafted, I wrote three posts lamenting the protectionist Buy American provision attached to the bill. ‘Buy American’ will translate into a 21st century Smoot-Hawley The U.S. is exporting unemployment…

From the FT. Iceland’s bid to join the European Union received a boost on Monday when the 27-nation bloc’s foreign ministers agreed without delay to ask the European Commission for its opinion. The swift decision means that Iceland,…

Charlie spoke with Obama’s Director of the Office of Management & Budget yesterday.  The video is below and it runs 30 minutes.  Orszag talks about Obama’s health care reform proposal after the first 11 minutes taken up by…

President Barack Obama was elected last year in a sizable victory over his Republican competitor. Bolstering his position was the huge Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. Given these advantages, combined with intelligence and…

This came in overnight via the FT.  Most of the shortfall in revenue is made up through spending cuts.  Below are the relevant paragraphs: The agreement involves cutting nearly $6bn from schools and community colleges and…

Don't let government misdirect anger to Wall Street so that government gets a free ride. Government is responsible for the lack of criminal prosecutions, the coziness with big business and the dominance of special interests. We need to…

I have highlighted comments by famed Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati before (see “Jagdish Bhagwati: Obama is a protectionist”).  Bhagwati has since gotten with the program and sees Obama in a much more favourable…

The Investors' Working Group, an independent coalition of leading lights in economic policy and finance has issued a final paper of recommendations on regulatory reform in the United States.  They do NOT want the Federal Reserve as…