Political Economy

Amity Shlaes has a good column over at Bloomberg News. Her post today is about the likely rise in taxes we are going to see in 2009 and beyond. She admonishes the Democrats for being overly complex when it comes to taxes. She says:"The…

The FT reported today that Brazil, fattened by newly found oil reserves and a sky-high oil price, is getting into the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) game. They are ready to fund $200 billion toward this project and have built up the currency…

I am a Euroscpetic. I admire the political will of Europe's grand designers in creating the Euro, but I have always felt that harmonisation would be a painful process fraught with tension - especially during economic downturns. And so it is…

Because of the potential end to the long Democratic primary season, a monster admission is getting zero play in the press: Bush spun climate findings. After Scott McClellan's damning allegations on Iraq, this seals the deal, showing the…

This article speaks for itself.Bill for taxpayers swells by trillionsDeficit far bigger than government estimateBy Dennis CauchonUSA TODAYThe federal government's long-term financial obligations grew by $2.5 trillion last year, a reflection…

This past week, I attended an Investment luncheon to hear Greg Valliere, the chief political strategist with the Stanford Washington Research Group. He had a number of important things to say regarding the economic implications of…

I happened upon an article at "The Moderate Voice" about "Conspicuous Consumption" originally posted on UPenn's Wharton Business School's website. It's a great piece of research which explains nicely in part why Blacks and Hispanics tend…

I caught an interesting letter to the editor at the New York Times. We really need to think about which alternative energy sources we use and this letter highlights the fact.Re “Bring On the Right Biofuels,” by Roger Cohen (column, The New…

I am wading into this debate over whether or not the U.S. government should temporarily suspend the federal tax on gasoline this summer. I come down on the side against the tax break. Here's why?In a post about Windfall taxes on Tuesday, I…

Today, I read an article by Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post advising that the U.S. allow drilling for oil in previous no-go drilling zones because the cost of oil is rising. Originally, I agreed with his assessment. Today, I have…