The “advance” estimate of third quarter Gross Domestic Product growth, released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Friday, at 3.8 percent, was greeted by the stock market with a huge sigh of relief. It appeared to vindicate the view of market bulls and the George W. Bush administration that the U.S. economy remained in fine […]

President George W. Bush’s selection of his personal lawyer Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court has enthralled the blogosphere for three weeks, peeling off much of Bush’s support from the right. Yet Bush will soon make a selection with even more potential for good or ill in everybody’s lives: that of a successor to Fed […]

President George W. Bush’s Tax Advisory Commission, due to issue a preliminary report November 1, was reported Wednesday to be considering capping the home mortgage interest deduction at $300,000 principal amount, capping corporate tax deductions for employee healthcare premiums at $11,000 and eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax. These proposals and the furore they aroused bring […]

Since 2002, indeed to some extent since 1995, the U.S. economy has been managed on Kamikaze principles. Long term goals and traditional prudential controls have been sacrificed in order to keep the stock and housing bubbles inflated. In this traditionally tricky month of October, it appears that the kamikaze approach to economics may no longer […]

Gordon Hanson, presenting his new book “Why Does Immigration Divide America” at the Institute for International Economics Thursday, referred to a restrictionist policy on illegal immigrants as “politically impossible.” The Wall Street Journal Friday made the same reference in relation to Congress potentially shutting down Fannie Mae’s economy-threatening derivatives operation. Why are apparently plausible policies […]