Washington do-goodism almost always fails to help the people it is supposed to because politicians ignore the Law of Unintended Consequences. Nowhere is that more evident than when it comes to a congressional plan to put payday lenders and other short-term lending institutions, such as the burgeoning online lenders, out of business.
The Federal Communications Commission has thrown a curveball into the global race for deployment of 5G -- the much-anticipated fifth generation of cellular and wireless technology. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced his support for a government-run auction of an underutilized 500-megahertz space on the electronic spectrum that cellphone carriers like AT&T and Verizon need to deliver 5G wireless services.
Every single plausible Democratic candidate for president has endorsed tax increases as a centerpiece of their economic agenda. Think about what we are hearing from Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and the rest of the "Punch and Judy" show: new wealth taxes, carbon taxes, energy taxes, higher death and income taxes with rates up to 70%. Payroll taxes would rise to pay for Social Security benefit expansions and Medicare for All.
First, a full admission about this article: I originally sent a version of it to The Washington Post for publication, but for reasons that will become obvious as you read on, they rejected it.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if for one brief shining moment in Washington, Congress put good policy over politics -- and passed a bill that would benefit American workers, investors and businesses?
Joe Biden is at it again -- living in his own parallel universe. The same former vice president who says that his son Hunter was hired by a Ukrainian oil and gas company because of his expertise in energy policy is now claiming that President Donald Trump has "squandered" the strong Obama economy he inherited.
Last week, the lobbying arm of the wind energy industry made an unsurprising, though somewhat embarrassing, announcement. It wants a longer lifeline with federal subsidies. So much for wind being the low-cost energy source of the future.
How much of the monetary gains from the Trump economic speedup have gone to the middle class? If you ask Democratic senators and presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, the answer to that question is ... almost none.
While running for president in 1960, John F. Kennedy campaigned against the moderate growth economy (2.5% annual GDP rise) in the last years of the Eisenhower administration. He appealed to Americans' highest aspirations by saying in his typical Boston drawl: "We can do bettah." JFK promised 4% and 5% rates of annual economic progress for the nation -- and he delivered.
A friend of mine's third grade daughter came home from school a few weeks ago with tears streaming down her cheeks. "My teacher says we only have 10 years before the oceans rise and we are underwater," she moaned. "Are we all going to die?"
The decline of American mining and production of critical minerals in recent decades is a self-inflicted wound that could imperil our economy and national security.
The recent threats by Beijing to cut off American access to critical mineral imports has many Americans wondering why our politicians have allowed the United States to become so overly dependent on China for these valued resources in the first place.
Is the left once again embracing Malthusian population control in order to save the planet?
One of the many idiocies of the "Green New Deal" and other such anti-fossil fuel crusades is that all of this arrives on the political scene at a time when the price of producing energy from fossil fuels is lower than at any time before in human history.
Last week, I gave a talk to high-wealth investors in San Francisco -- not exactly an audience of left-wing activists -- and people kept asking me the question of the day: "Will there be a recession?" My reply: I'd never say never, but I don't see a recession in 2020. And if we get a trade deal with China, the economy is going to soar.
Recently, two major railroad operators, CSX and Union Pacific, reported a significant drop in earnings, in part due to declining rail shipments. This was partially due to the impact of ongoing trade disputes. While we generally support a better trade relationship with China (hopefully with fewer tariffs and nontariff barriers), we need to see strong freight rail traffic if the economic expansion is going to roll on.
To keep the economy from a further growth slowdown, the Fed must inject more dollar liquidity into the global economy -- immediately.
Do we want the U.S. Federal Reserve Board to operate as a commercial bank -- and compete with our private banking system? The Fed apparently wants to, and it's a policy shift that could greatly expand the mission of the Fed.
Suddenly, nearly everyone wants the Federal Reserve Board to cut interest rates. I've been arguing for this for nine months, so it's nice to see the economic intelligentsia is finally persuaded. The Fed has become a restraint on growth since last August thanks to ill-advised interest rate increases (and promises to raise rates more in 2019), which slowly squeezed out of the economy dollar liquidity and tanked the stock market.
Finally, we seem to have a bipartisan consensus in Washington. Both parties are terrified of new private money, and they want to regulate it out of existence. The near universal fear and loathing by government officials of these so-called cryptocurrencies is all the more reason they should exist.
