Newsletter

Last week, the White House issued a new “study” on the supposed progress states have made in implementing the “health exchanges” that are central to constructing the Obamacare system. According to the administration’s spin, some 28 states are “on their way” toward establishing the exchanges, so everything is apparently well under [...]

Remember the moment in 2008 when Charlie Gibson of ABC News asked Senator Barack Obama why he would support raising the capital gains tax even though “revenues from the tax increased” when the rate fell? Mr. Obama’s famous reply: “I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes [...]

THE banners at the entrance to the Bank of Greece museum in Athens promise a “fascinating journey through Greece’s modern economic and monetary history”. How could any passer-by resist? Inside the museum ranks of glass cases enclose an array of coins and old bank notes, as well as the paraphernalia [...]

Does Detroit’s fate foretell the end of American democracy? In becoming the first major American city to die before our eyes, Detroit is the prime case study of the destructiveness of the traditional liberal model of governance, public-sector-union rapacity, and the abandonment of any sense of civic responsibility by a [...]

The world economy is slowing sharply, and the euro region is headed for recession this year, the International Monetary Fund predicted Tuesday in a bleak update of global conditions. Overall, the world economy is expected to expand 3.25 percent in 2012 — down from the 4 percent projected by the [...]

Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the naming of balancing the budget, but then watch as deficits rise and your credit-rating falls anyway. That’s been the sad pattern in Europe, and now it’s hitting that mecca of tax-and-spend government known as Illinois. Though too few noticed, this month [...]

Illinois keeps falling farther behind on its debt. As WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, officially, the state has a backlog of more than $4.25 billion in unpaid bills. But Illinois State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka says when one factors in other bills, the figure is closer to around $8.5 billion. Those [...]

Conservatives can be a grudging lot. That’s especially true when it comes to President Obama. Even where he’s been in the right—whether it be killing Osama bin Laden or promoting charter schools—we can be stingy with praise. So let us now, in full public view, credit his greatest public service [...]

Federal Reserve officials are seriously considering giving the US economy—and especially the housing market—an added jolt with more quantitative easing. Fed officials are likely to discuss such a move at their Jan. 24-25 meeting, when the central bank will issue its first quarterly forecast on interest rates under the new communication policy. [...]

Negotiations between creditors and debtors often turn into games of chicken—especially when debtors use the prospect of default to their advantage. That’s certainly been true for Greece, but now the lines are being drawn a little differently. To judge from the tenor of recent news, Athens and its private creditors [...]