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With so many journalists–and now the Obama campaign–emphasizing McCain’s reported five-million-dollar gaffe at the Saddleback forum, people have ignored the somewhat stranger part of the presidential wannabe’s reply, when he implicitly told Americans that he wanted to make them all miserable. “Some of the richest people I have known in my life are the [...]
Filed under: Economics, Uncategorized
“Are you telling me tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaeda?” … “These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything” — Sen. Patrick Leahy, then-ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 2006, on the news that telecom companies had handed domestic [...]
Andrew Bacevich, a contributing editor at TAC, testified before a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations yesterday. The themes in his remarks are ones he addresses more thoroughly in his forthcoming book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, which we heartily recommend. His testimony is reproduced below:
Thank you for [...]
Filed under: Economics, Foreign policy, Iraq, War, World
When the government first proposed its tax rebate scheme last January, many were quick to point out the money was not ultimately, despite the signature on the check, a payment from the US government, but a loan from abroad, largely from Japan and China. Now that we can confidently anticipate the consensus will quickly form around the presumptive necessity of a bailout of that economically distressed couple Freddie and Fannie, it’s [...]
Filed under: Economics
I recently spoke with a TAC contributor from Maine. The sun is high, the days are long, and the population is enjoying its usual summer boost. But in his hometown, conversations keep circling back to an unseasonable subject: kerosene. In the middle of July, people are worried about winter. Even with demand low, heating oil [...]
Filed under: Economics
As long as government is involved in controlling markets to some extent–regulating, taxing, exempting from taxes, subsidizing–corruption will run rampant. Amid the unfolding controversy over the VIP loans Countrywide Financial extended to powerful lawmakers, people have been missing the real point: Bank of America, who is buying Countrywide and all its crummy loans, stands to [...]
Filed under: Economics, libertarianism
In selecting their nominee, Republicans were willing to forgive countless deviations from conservative orthodoxy because of John McCain’s reliable belligerence on foreign policy. But it’s an uneasy embrace: a new Washington Post-ABC poll shows that just 17 percent of McCain’s supporters feel “very enthusiastic” about him. Last month’s endorsement of cap-and-trade legislation didn’t help.
So McCain [...]
Nearly twenty years ago, Edward Luttwak addressed the issue of American decline, surprisingly enough in Commentary. (Their website is read for pay, so isn’t worth the trouble of linking to). It stirred a medium sized debate, where most conservatives considered Luttwak’s worries (infrastructure falling apart, collapse of the manufacturing economy) overwrought. Luttwak opened [...]
Filed under: Economics
No, not because he’s an “appeaser,” and not because he’s a crypto-Rev. Wright-style racist–the standard Republican charges against Obama are silly. We should be afraid because he is just like most Democrats and some Republicans in that he believes the government should run our health care. Even if you don’t get really upset about government [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Culture, Economics, Election, Religion, libertarianism
Government regulation is often, at heart, state protection of the incumbent businesses. This was a central theme of my book, and is a recurring theme of my column. Radley Balko, at Reason’s Hit & Run blog today, points us to a particularly ridiculous example of this: A guy offers a lady a ride home; she [...]
Filed under: Economics, libertarianism