Steyn: The Brokest Generation

March 14, 2009

Just between you, me, and the old, the late middle-aged and the early middle-aged: Isn’t it terrific to be able to stick it to the young? I mean, imagine how bad all this economic-type stuff would be if our kids and grandkids hadn’t offered to pick up the tab. Well, OK, they didn’t exactly “offer” […]

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A New Strategy on the Economy: Blame the Last Guy

March 14, 2009

In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.” It hasn’t taken long for the recriminations to return — or for the Obama administration to begin talking about the unwelcome “inheritance” of its predecessor.

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Klein: White House's Favorite Columnist is David Brooks

March 14, 2009

This is a bit of an inside baseball observation, but it’s becoming clear that the columnist with the best access to the White House is, improbably, David Brooks.

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Ginsburg Hints at New SCOTUS Opening

March 14, 2009

BOSTON – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told law students there could be an opening on the Supreme Court soon but didn’t hint at who might be leaving. Ginsburg spoke Friday at New England Law’s annual “Law Day.”

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Stimulus: A History of Folly

March 14, 2009

James Glassman breaks down the lack of historical solutions to the worst downturn since the 1930s. “For three-quarters of a century, economists have been studying it diligently. And even now they cannot come to a definitive conclusion about the cause of that depression, the reasons for its severity and duration, or what cured it.”

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What Would Smith, Keynes, Marx & Schumpeter Say?

March 14, 2009

In moments of crisis, skip looking to the Great Men, and look instead to the great economists. Paul Kennedy suggests looking to Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter, and John Maynard Keynes. But of course, they didn’t agree about much of anything – and even Keynes would have question marks about Obama.

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Don't Watch the Spreads

March 14, 2009

Don’t make the same mistake the non-market focused media makes: tracking the daily movements of the stock markets to track the direction of the economy. Daily fluctuations almost always only serve to confuse. “Focus instead on credit-market indicators: LIBOR and its cousin, the TED spread.” Everyone has their focus.

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"Enemy Combatants" No More: Obama's New Standards for Detainees

March 13, 2009

Different in justification, but surprisingly much the same in the end result. “While the memo gives nods to international law, quoting passages of the Geneva Conventions, it argues that the president’s authority to detain suspected terrorists is primarily rooted in Congress’s 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force.”

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The New Politics of Fundraising in the Think Tank World

March 13, 2009

The AEI gala being open to the public was a sign of the right being out of power completely for the first time since 1993. But there’s more going on here than that: foundation money is drying up, philanthropic investment in thinktanks are down, and there are few positive results after years of legislative effort.

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Seems to be a Lot More Infighting in Brave New Monopartisan World

March 13, 2009

John Avlon maintains that the GOP will seem like scared little puppies when President Obama clashes with his own party – as he already has on guns, nominees, and the stimulus, and is about to do on Iraq, health care, and entitlement reform. What to do? As a rule, hyper-partisanship is a fine solution.

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