Free Republic

But Dan Alpert, founder of the boutique investment bank Westwood Capital, thinks CalPERS has a case: “The ratings agencies took liberties here they never should have” when they handed out AAA ratings on securities backed by subprime mortgages, among other other risky housing-related securities, he says. Alpert believes the agencies lost their way as “gatekeepers” during the halcyon days and ignored warning signs the housing bubble was about to burst. “Consequently, they are at risk right now for lawsuits on a whole variety of cases,” he says. The CalPERS suit is “just the tip of the iceberg.” Beyond Moody’s, Fitch...

[snip]An important question about any public provider of health insurance is whether it would have access to taxpayer funds. If not, the public plan would have to stand on its own financially, as private plans do, covering all expenses with premiums from those who signed up for it. But if such a plan were desirable and feasible, nothing would stop someone from setting it up right now. In essence, a public plan without taxpayer support would be yet another nonprofit company offering health insurance. The fundamental viability of the enterprise does not depend on whether the employees are called “nonprofit...

In the national debate over health insurance reform, a key issue is whether the government should offer a "public plan" to compete with private insurers. For example, in today's NY Times, Paul Krugman writes, What’s still not settled, however, is whether regulation will be supplemented by competition, in the form of a public plan that Americans can buy into as an alternative to private insurance. Now nobody is proposing that Americans be forced to get their insurance from the government. The “public option,” if it materializes, will be just that — an option Americans can choose. And the reason for...

[Snip]Free trade has another, less appreciated benefit: It frees domestic resources for use in newer, more productive pursuits. Workers, land, steel, fuel, and other resources in the United States that were once used to make, say, shoes and television sets, are today used to design Web sites, to erect cellphone towers, to carry out research in pharmaceutical labs, to perform Lasik surgery, and to do countless other jobs that wouldn't exist if trade were less open. Trade fuels economic change, precisely what many crisis-wracked countries desperately need. Resources must be reallocated from inefficient activities -- such as the bloated housing...

As the nation's most populous metro area feels Wall Street's pain, the fourth-largest -- Washington -- is barely sensing the recession. In fact, Moody's Economy.com estimates that metro Washington's economy will actually grow 2.5% from mid-2008 through mid-2010. New York's economy is expected to shrink 4.2%. It wouldn't be the first time that Washington benefited from a national crisis. Back in 1930 the District of Columbia was a quiet Southern town, scoffed at by New York sophisticates. But as the federal government ramped up to fight first the Great Depression and then World War II, its population grew 65% in...

[Snip] Critics of China say it is keeping the yuan undervalued to gain an advantage in the international marketplace. A cheaper yuan makes Chinese goods less expensive in the United States and American goods more expensive in China. As a result, American producers find it harder to compete with Chinese imports in the United States and to sell their own exports in China. There is, however, another side to the story. The loss to American producers comes with a gain to the many millions of American consumers who prefer to pay less for the goods they buy. The situation is...

A letter I am drafting currently. If you don’t know how unemployment taxes work, see here. Governor Schwarzenegger: As a business operating in California as well as twelve other states, I have the ability to compare the regulatory and business climate across states. And while I could discuss many issues with the state of California regulatory affairs, I will focus on just one in this letter: administration of the state unemployment insurance program. All the states have an unemployment insurance program with roughly similar rules. The fund will pay workers some percentage of their past earnings if they are terminated...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from "collapse." "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse."

There's a growing anti-trade sentiment in our country. Much of the dialogue is grossly misinformed. Let's try to untangle it a bit with a few questions and observations. First, does the United States trade with Japan and England? Put another way, is it members of the U.S. Congress trading with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet or the English Parliament? An affirmative answer is pure nonsense. When I purchased my Lexus, I had nothing to do with either the Japanese Diet or the U.S. Congress. Through an intermediary, a Lexus dealer, I dealt with Toyota Motor Corp. While it might...

[snip to the end]By the choices we make, we define ourselves and reveal what we truly care about. Thus, consider: We bail out the New York and D.C. governments of Abe Beame and Marion Barry. We bail out a corrupt Mexico. We bail out public schools that have failed us for 40 years. We bail out with International Monetary Fund and World Bank loans and foreign aid worthless Third World regimes. We bail out Wall Street plutocrats and big banks. But the most magnificent industry, the auto industry that was the pride of America and envy of the world, we...

PAY ATTENTION TO BUDGET CONSTRAINTS The nation faces a long-term imbalance between government spending and tax revenue. The fundamental problem is that the federal government has promised the elderly more benefits than the tax system can support. This fiscal imbalance will become acute as more baby boomers retire and start collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits. Yet during the campaign, Mr. Obama promised to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, to vastly expand health insurance coverage and never to cut Social Security benefits or raise the retirement age. The new administration will almost surely have to renege on some...

Dr. Boudreaux, Why are you so bitter about politics? Why so cynical? Why don't you give candidates and office holders the benefit of the doubt when they say they want to help others? Sara This e-mail just appeared in my e-mailbox. I have no idea who Sara is, but rather than answer her privately, I'll answer her here. Dear Sara: Thanks for writing. I often say, quite sincerely, that I'm not cynical about politics; I'm realistic about politics. If a stranger knocks on your door and tells you that he or she is here for the express purpose of helping...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican official has listed drugs, pollution, genetic manipulation and social and economic injustices as new areas of sinful behavior. Sins increasingly manifest themselves as behavior that damages society as a whole, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti said in an interview published Sunday by the Vatican's daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "While sin used to concern mostly the individual, today it has mainly a social resonance, due to the phenomenon of globalization," said Girotti, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican body that issues decisions on matters of conscience and grants absolutions. Catholic teaching distinguishes between lesser venial sins...

With the rise of John McCain, LP offers sympathy for the death of small-government values within the GOP Washington, D.C. - Following a solid McCain victory in the Super Tuesday primaries, the Libertarian Party has sent Republican headquarters a funeral wreath marking the death of limited-government values within the Republican Party. The wreath was hand-delivered to the D.C. offices of the Republican National Committee. "We simply felt the need to express our heartfelt sympathy for the Republican Party as they undergo this tough time within their party," says Libertarian Party National Media Coordinator Andrew Davis, who delivered the wreath. "Given...

To hear the Lou Dobbses and Bill O'Reillys of the world--not to mention politicians ranging from Ron Paul to Hillary Clinton--the middle class of America (however you define that term) has never had it so tough. Between credit squeezes, out-of-control immigration, rising costs of education and health care and everything else, it's all darkness out there for those of us who are neither millionaires nor welfare cases, right? In "Living Large," Drew Carey and reason.tv examine the plight of the American middle class. What do they find?http://reason.tv/video/show/61.html

[snip]...Trade is a good litmus test of statesmanship, since many polls show that voters believe trade with other countries hurts our economy. Which of the presidential candidates will stick up for free trade in the face of doubtful and sometimes hostile audiences? During their debates, some of the Republican candidates expressed more ifs, ands or buts about free trade than others. John McCain says: "Free trade should be the continuing principle that guides this nation's economy." Mitt Romney's position is: "I strongly support free trade, but free trade has to be fair in both directions." According to Mike Huckabee: "I...

With his victory in Florida, Sen. John McCain has become the clear front runner for the Republican nomination. It’s worthwhile, therefore, to take a closer look at what kind of president he might be. The Good: While Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity sometimes portray McCain as a virtual clone of Ted Kennedy, the fact is that he is a true fiscal conservative—certainly more of a fiscal conservative than, say, Mitt Romney. He is well known as an opponent of earmarks and pork barrel spending. But perhaps more importantly, he has long been an advocate of entitlement reform. He was early...

A seven and one half minute explanation of what the Laffer curve is. This is one of three parts; the remaining two have not been posted at YouTube yet. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIqyCpCPrvU

John McCain has a campaign finance problem. When his campaign was down and out, he agreed to take public funding for the primaries. Public funding comes with spending limits overall and by state. Also, a candidate who accepts funding cannot raise money from private sources. Now that it is possible he will be the nominee, McCain will want to be free of those fundraising and spending limits, but he cannot withdraw from the public system. Or perhaps he could but only with the approval of the FEC, which is not operating because of a struggle over its nominees. The FEC...

I’ve just had an amazing experience. I saw a movie where the hero was an honest-to-goodness America-loving, communist-hating patriot! When’s the last time you saw such a thing portrayed on the big screen? Of course, he was also portrayed as a womanizing boozer who loved to party. He enjoyed jumping in a hot tub with two or three naked young ladies. And he wasn’t above doing a little dope from time to time. Worst of all, he was a politician. A member of the U.S. House of Representatives, in fact. Still, as soon as you saw him, you knew this...