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Oracle at Delphi predicts early Greek exit from euro-zone
The International Monetary Fund has now poured cold water on Greece’s bailout focusing attention on excessive optimism about economic growth. This fundamental error caused other serious misjudgments –...
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Illinois at last moves to control state pensions
Illinois has the dubious reputation of the worst state pension deficit in the United States: $98.6 billion.In part because of this, Standard & Poor’s gave Illinois the lowest credit rating in the...
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Stockton, CA declares bankruptcy in order to stiff bondholders
On Monday April 1, 2013 federal bankruptcy judge, Christopher Klein allowed Stockton, California to proceed with Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The profligate San Joaquin Valley city of 300,000 is the largest...
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British government rolls back the welfare state
During World War II, William Beveridge – a naive social reformer – published a report suggesting that the state must provide ‘cradle to grave’ protection from want, disease, ignorance, squalor and...
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Obama makes overtures to GOP
Since the November 2012 elections, President Obama’s popularity has declined across the United States. He won the election with 51 per cent of registered votes. Immediately following the election polls...
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Obama throws the GOP into the sequester- patch
“Well, I got you now.” Brer Fox said when he was able to catch his breath. “You floppy-eared pom-pom-tailed good-for-nothing! I guess you know who’s having rabbit for dinner this night!”…”I guess I’m...
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Jeffrey Sachs identifies Obama’s federal budget hypocrisy
Jeffrey Sachs, in yet another excellent column in the Financial Times, pin-points the hypocrisy in President Obama’s approach to the U.S. debt problem. While Obama criticizes the sequester that he...
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Bob Woodward calls out Obama on his sequester lie
All politicians circumnavigate the truth – that is one political disease that will never be eradicated. It comes with the territory. When a president of the United States engages in blatant lying,...
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This time the law favors the G.O.P.
The law governing the fiscal cliff at the beginning of January 2013 favored President Obama and the Democratic Party. If nothing new was legislated the Bush tax cuts would be rescinded in their...
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Obama’s sequester law should remain in place
In 2011, President Obama proposed a spending cut sequester to Congress. Congress complied with his request. And the President signed the bill into law. So the sequester that confronts the nation on...
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US tax reform
Although President Obama is unlikely to make this the centerpiece of his State of the Union address, an overhaul of the complex US federal tax system should form a key component of any growth-oriented...
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The sequester is the only feasible way to cut federal spending
President Barack Obama suggested the sequester in 2011, as a means to lever a reluctant Congress to increase income taxes on high-earners if a grand bargain could not be forged. Obama then reneged on...
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Economic freedom on the wane in the United States
‘Land of the Free‘ It is right up there in the national anthem. And it is surely treasured by many Americans. But economic freedom is just as surely on the wane during the early years of the 21st...
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Barack Obama seeks second-term dictatorship
In these columns, I have long suggested that Barack Obama is intellectually-challenged. When low intelligence combines with personal vanity in the head of state of a nation, it becomes a blend toxic to...
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If the U.S debt ceiling is not increased?
This column identifies three fallacies about the technical consequences of any failure to increase the federal debt ceiling in the United States: 1. Failure to raise the debt ceiling will generate a...
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Politics without Romance
Obituaries published by the press tend to pick up on one column. In the case of James M. Buchanan the key column is that published by The New York Times. Since that Obituary focused on Buchanan’s...
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In Memoriam: James McGill Buchanan (October 3, 1919-January 9, 2013)
James Buchanan, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences 1986, passed away today after a short illness. He was 93 years of age. He spent much of his career building Virginia Political Economy into a leading...
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Cellophane president bears ill fiscal fortune for his country
Throughout the fiscal cliff debates, President Obama performed in full conformity with rational expectations. A man who clearly possesses no diplomatic skills once again is sidelined while smarter...
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Left uppercut followed by right cross from Jeffrey Sachs
In a second hard-hitting round, the ‘born again’ Jeffrey Sachs leaps out of his ring corner with a powerful left-right assault against two slow-footed opponents. His ring performance is reminiscent of...
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President Obama frustrates budget deal: he should rot in a debtor’s prison
If the House of Representatives signs off on the budget squib that trickled through the Senate on New Year’s Eve, Washington will have reduced the 2013 budget deficit from a little over $1 trillion to...
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