Greenspan

John Maynard Keynes once suggested that the government could create jobs by burying bottles full of money in coal mines, covering them with trash, and encouraging people to dig them up.

Greenspan Says Surge in Government `Activism' Is Hampering U.S. Recovery

By Scott Lanman - Mar 3, 2011 5:06 PM ET

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said a surge in U.S. government “activism,” including fiscal stimulus, housing subsidies and new regulations, is holding back the economic recovery.

Increased bond issuance by the Treasury Department crowds out borrowers with the weakest credit ratings, Greenspan said in an article in International Finance, published on the Web today. At least half of the shortfall in companies’ capital spending “can be explained by the shock of vastly greater government- created uncertainties embedded in the competitive, regulatory and financial environments” since the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ) in 2008, Greenspan said.

Greenspan’s conclusions fit with his long-held free-market ideology and may aid Republican lawmakers who argue that cutting federal spending now will help spur job growth. Critics including members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission have said Greenspan’s failure to regulate the mortgage market last decade helped fuel the housing bubble whose bursting precipitated the financial crisis.

“Much intervention turns out to hobble markets rather than enhancing them,” said Greenspan

Kliphnote: This is what I've been saying since the beginning.  

Why is Greenspan so late? It didn't work for FDR, it hasn't worked 

in Japan. It sounds nice. But it doesn't create any wealth.

You're just spending. Period!

Bush Doctrine: OK For Libya But Not Iraq?

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Posted 06:51 PM ET

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Voices around the world, from Europe to America to Libya, are calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gadhafi. Yet for bringing down Saddam Hussein, the U.S. has been denounced variously for aggression, deception, arrogance and imperialism.

 

 

Attention: This House Is Gun-Free

 Posted 06:51 PM ET

Self-Defense: Illinois' attorney general wants to publish the state's list of gun-owners, placing the lives and safety of non-gun-owners at risk. It's a list for criminals of the best potential victims.

Report: Union heads make six figures By: Jennifer Epstein March 3, 2011 09:45 AM EST

As the standoff between unions and Wisconsin Republicans wages on, an analysis of the nation’s 10 largest labor unions shows some top leaders — who are being derided as “union bosses” — make six-figure salaries funded by members’ dues. Leaders earned between $173,000 and $618,000 at major unions, the Center for Public Integrity found in examining 2009 tax records, with some groups paying dozens of employees in the six figures. At the three major unions , which together represent more than 5.6 million public workers, presidents’ salaries in 2009 ranged between $400,000 and $500,000. March 3, 2011, 4:09 pm Lawmaker Withdraws Bike-License Bill By ANDY NEWMAN Jodi Hilton for The New York Times In Nantucket, bikes need license plates. In New York state, they won’t anytime soon. A state Assemblyman has quickly withdrawn a bill that would require paid registration and license plates for all bicycles in the state, whether ridden by adult or child. The Assemblyman, Michael G. DenDekker, Democrat of Queens, said he had been flooded with complaints from people who lived outside the city that they were being taxed and regulated to address concerns about unsafe cycling that existed largely in New York City. The measure had also drawn fire from cycling advocates in the city and elsewhere. Help Us, Obi-Wan Bush! You're Our Only Hope! As Qaddafi bombs protesters and oil fields, Libyans cry out for help from George W. Bush: Opposition activists called for a no-fly zone, echoing a demand by Libya's deputy U.N. envoy, who now opposes Gaddafi. "Bring Bush! Make a no fly zone, bomb the planes," shouted soldier-turned-rebel Nasr Ali, referring to a no-fly zone imposed on Iraq in 1991 by then U.S. President George Bush.

March 3, 2011

Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment Hitting 10.3% in February

Underemployment surged to 19.9% in February from 18.9% at the end of January

by Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist

PRINCETON, NJ -- Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, hit 10.3% in February -- up from 9.8% at the end of January. The U.S. unemployment rate is now essentially the same as the 10.4% at the end of February 2010.

Obama – We Need “To Live Within Our Means”…As He Spends Like A Drunken Sailor

By: Curt

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