QUOTE OF THE DAY
Bloomberg: Plan to Limit Fed’s Mandate Is Folly
Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, wants the Federal Reserve to be single-minded.
In 1977, Congress required the central bank to serve three masters: It is supposed to promote stable prices, maximum employment and moderate long-term interest rates. Brady, who will be chairman of the Joint Economic Committee in the new Congress, wants to eliminate those last two missions. His “Sound Dollar Act” would make the Fed responsible for price stability, period.
Real Clear Markets: Live Free or Die -- Literally
When Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty, or give me death," it was a revolutionary cry for freedom from British rule. Little did he know at the time that his words were prophetic because there is a strong relationship between economic freedom and life expectancy.
The Heritage Foundation calculates an Economic Freedom Index annually for countries around the world based on ten factors: business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government spending, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption, and labor freedom. With the index, one can compare the impact of economic freedom to quality of life measures.
Bloomberg: 2013 Is the Year to Go to Work, Not Go on Disability
The National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the U.S. recession ended in June 2009, yet 2012 didn’t look like much of a resurgence.
To me, the number that sums up the year’s doldrums is the 1.27 million increase in the number of disabled Americans without jobs from November 2011 to November 2012. This statistic reflects not only the sluggish recovery but also a drifting nation, badly in need of tough medicine.
There are now 8.8 million workers receiving disability payments from Social Security. I find this number haunting.
Investor's Business Daily: Obama's Phony Fannie, Freddie 'Reform'
The White House is taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the wrong direction. Instead of reforming the toxic mortgage twins as promised, it's broadening their role.
Even as taxpayer losses from the failed mortgage giants have hit $187 billion, the administration has done nothing to address the problem except sending Congress a report that pays lip service to reforms.
Steve Forbes: Where is Keynes When We Need Him?
POLITICIANS LOVE the late British economist John Maynard Keynes because he gave intellectual respectability to what politicians love to do: spend other people’s money. Keynes was also an enemy of plying taxes when economies are wobbly, yet his supposed heirs are today crushing consumers and businesses with ever heavier exactions in the face of economic weakness. There hasn’t been such a destructive binge of balancing budgets via taxation since the early 1930s. The results were catastrophic then and won’t lead to a happy outcome today.
SJR: Rutherford has seven on scheduling, event staff
The staff members in this part of Rutherford’s operation combine to have more than $470,000 in salary. They include CURT CONRAD, a former executive director of the Illinois Republican Party, as director, making $99,000. Carlson, officially the manager of logistics, is also paid $99,000.
WSJ: Prospects for Cliff Deal Dim
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to return on Sunday, paving the way for frenzied final negotiations to avoid the tax increases and spending cuts set to take hold next week.
House Republican leaders outlined the schedule in a Thursday afternoon conference call with rank-and-file Republican lawmakers. The plan, as described by people on the call, means that lawmakers would spring back into action just as the country is on the brink of heading over the so-called fiscal cliff.
