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“Adding More Bureaucrats Won’t Solve the Problem”
I explain to a CNBC audience that government mistakes largely caused the financial crisis and that more government is not the answer. My debating opponent, Christian Weller, makes a jaw-dropping...
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Blank-Check Bailout for Fannie and Freddie Means Taxpayers Get a Lump of Coal...
Even though politicians already have flushed $400 billion down the rathole, the Obama Administration has announced that it will now give unlimited amounts of our money to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie...
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You and I Pay while Fannie and Freddie Play
The Wall Street Journal has more details about the sordid redistribution of our money to the insiders at Fannie Mae and Freddie mac: …there’s still some ugly 2009 business to report: To wit, the...
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Government-Subsidized Risk Is a Bad Idea
Kudos to Nicki Kurokawa, a former Cato employee, for this short but substantive video explaining “moral hazard.” She notes that government-subsidized risk played a pernicious role in the housing bubble...
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Higher Bank Fees Are Part of Washington’s “Corrupt Version of Recycling”
For a change of pace, I get to debate a leftist other than Christian Weller. As always, feedback would be appreciated. What parts of the interview went well? What opportunities did I miss?
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Excellent Primer on the Financial Crisis
Russ Roberts of George Mason University has written a very good article for the Mercatus Center explaining – for economists and non-economists – how government intervention created distortions in the...
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The Dodd-Frank Bailout Bill and the Looming Red-Tape Nightmare
The Wall Street Journal opines about the number of new regulations that will be generated by the so-called financial reform legislation that has been approved by Congress. The big winners will by...
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Alan Greenspan Should “Man Up” or Drop Out of Sight
John Stossel appropriately scolds the former Federal Reserve Chairman for blaming the financial crisis on the free market. I’ll go one step farther and say that Greenspan’s behavior is a reprehensible...
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Bashing Corrupt TARP Bailouts
Appearing on Fox Business News, I summarize the many reasons why the Bush-Paulson-Obama-Geithner TARP bailout was – and still is - bad policy. I’m sure I have plenty of flaws, but at least I am...
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“Dump Fannie and Freddie in the Potomac”
I appeared on CNBC earlier today to explain why a stake should be driven through the heart of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. My debate opponents seems to be somewhat on the right side and admits that...
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Great Moments in Government Stupidity and Incompetence
For those who favor truth in labeling, the housing meltdown and related financial crisis and economic downturn should be brightly stamped with the phrase, “Made in Washington.” Here are two good pieces...
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A Wide-Ranging Interview Covering Everything from the Gold Standard to the...
The Free Market Mojo site asked me a number of interesting questions about public policy. I’m not sure all of my answers were interesting, but here are some snippets that capture my curmudgeonly...
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Fannie, Freddie, Basel, and the Fed
George Melloan’s column in the Wall Street Journal discusses the new Basel capital standards and correctly observes that 22 years of global banking regulations have not generated good results. This is...
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The GOP “Pledge” Doesn’t Go Far Enough: There Should Be No Federal Government...
Considering they could have sat on their hands and relied on unhappy voters to give them big gains in November, I’m not too unhappy about the House GOP’s “Pledge to America.” Yes, it’s mostly filled...
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The Second-Nicest Thing Ever Written about Me
In the “Five Things About Me” section of the blog, I included this blurb: A left-wing newspaper in the U.K. wrote that I’m “a high priest of light tax, small state libertarianism.” I assume they meant...
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Some Fannie-Freddie Political Humor for the Weekend
This cartoon is not new, but it succinctly captures what happened with that part of the TARP bailout. The only thing missing is some way of showing the government officials and political insiders who...
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Obama’s Column against Over-Regulation: Insincere, Inaccurate, and Hypocritical
The President garnered some attention for his January 18 column in the Wall Street Journal, in which he said we need to control the regulatory burden. Let’s start with the insincere part. He praised...
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What Caused the Financial Crisis: Private Greed and Criminality or Government...
Here are two superb articles on the financial crisis. First, from Peter Wallison at the American Enterprise Institute, we have a piece on the role of government housing subsidies. Since he warned, in...
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If Truth-in-Labeling Is Important, the Housing Crisis Should Be Stamped:...
Welcome Instapundit readers. Here’s a related link if you want to get even more depressed about politicians digging the debt hole deeper. =========================================================== If...
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Perpetual Bailouts for the Fiscal Black Holes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Here’s a recent interview with Neil Cavuto about bailouts for Fannie Mae, one of the government-created entities used by Barney Frank, et al, to subsidize housing (and line the pockets of...
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