These days it seems that a mysterious group called "the CBO" rules the world, or at least Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, it's not very good at predicting things, and its bad calls can lead to bad policy results.
In one of the most convoluted lawsuits of all time, a cabal of state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission are now accusing financial firms BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard of monopolistic behavior. The complaint asserts that these firms bought coal stocks and then helped impose radical environmental restrictions on the companies they partially own so that coal output would fall and the price of coal would rise. The lawsuit alleges that this strategy generated "supra-competitive" profits for those investors.
Here's an economics lesson that belongs in the textbooks.
As the late senator from Washington state, Warren Magnuson, who served for more than 30 years in Congress, once said, "All that each industry seeks is a fair advantage over its rivals." Wilt Chamberlain had a fair advantage on the basketball court because he stood 7-foot-1. It allowed him to score 100 points in a single game.
Situated on the outskirts of Sacramento is California's largest master-planned community, McClellan Park. It has homes, offices, restaurants, a hotel and even a 2-mile-long runway that serves jets. But 30 years ago, the location was a starkly different story: an Air Force base that had just been shuttered, costing 11,600 jobs.
President Donald Trump's record as the deregulation president is nearly unparalleled. In his first 100 days in office, he has already identified hundreds of billions of dollars of potential deregulation savings in the areas of energy, education and housing.
Anyone remember back in 2008 when the housing market collapsed and the stock market crashed, with many tens of millions of Americans seeing their lifetime savings nearly wiped out?
The PE and VC track records in funding small businesses and turning them into the future gazelles is almost a uniquely American success story.
President Donald Trump has predicted that his tariffs could raise as much as $6 trillion over the next decade in federal tax collections. These include up to 104% tariffs on China, plus the combination of reciprocal tariffs -- we charge them whatever they charge us. Also, don't forget the protectionist tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, lumber, etc.
If you haven't watched the Bret Baier interviews on Fox News with Elon Musk and the other executives who have given their time and expertise to exposing the rampant fraud and inefficiency of our federal government, I urge you to do so.
President Donald Trump has promised to create millions of new high-paying jobs. One easy first step to doing that is to repeal Biden regulations on America's 4 million business partnerships (sometimes known as S corporations) that are prolific job creators. The latest estimates find 10 million Americans employed by these business partnerships, with $800 billion paid in worker salaries and benefits.
For decades, the United States has led the world in pharmaceutical innovation -- developing drugs that combat cancer, heart disease, AIDS, diabetes and other killer diseases. One recent study found that "in health-sciences output in the Nature Index, the United States' Share is almost 8,500, higher than the next 10 leading countries combined."
Republicans are searching for ways to "pay for" their tax cuts. Democrats want the rich to pay more tax. Here's a solution that should make everyone happy.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith is suggesting a tax on the $840 billion college endowments. These endowments will soon eclipse $1 trillion in size -- more money than the entire GDP of many countries.
One of the more baffling lawsuits in the final days of the Biden administration was the complaint against Zelle, the popular money transfer network. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau argued that, despite Zelle's service being free, the network's users were being ripped off.
All in Washington are acting like their hair is on fire in response to the Department of Government Efficiency requirement that federal employees list what they accomplished last week. Many are acting like they can't think of anything, like they may need to "phone a friend" to get an answer.
The spectacular dominance of America's Magnificent Seven tech firms -- with $1 trillion-plus market caps -- has been a marvel to behold and a genuine source of American pride. This is a theme that both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have in celebration of American business prowess.
Just how much longer will American parents, their kids, business leaders
The federal government owns multiple trillions of dollars of federal assets -- from land, to buildings, to patent rights, to mineral rights, to immigrant visas, to oil fields to trucks and trains and unused office furniture equipment.
Envy is an ugly thing -- one of the seven deadly sins.
Shortly before Milton Friedman's death in 2006, I had the privilege of
