For all the talk of class warfare dominating Beltway politics and the popular press an equally important issue seemingly gets little to no mention - war between the generations. No, we're not talking about the old man yelling at the kids to stay off his lawn nor do we mean the teenager who knows everything [...]
"You can't bullshit a bullshitter." A little low brow? Maybe. Wisdom in those words? Absolutely. This sage advice was given to us a long time ago from someone who created brilliance from simplicity - gold from straw if you will. Nope, it's not a Yogi-ism. Close, though, and we like it. It's simple and effective. The [...]
Tom Friedman has teamed with Michael Mandelbaum on a provocative new book. They argue America is failing at what it's always done best: educating its citizens to or above the current level of technology attracting (and retaining) the best and brightest immigrants investing in top notch infrastructure maintaining an atmosphere encouraging capital formation and investment They hypothesize that the [...]
Next week President Obama is set to unveil his latest economic package in a speech before Congress. Originally it was scheduled for Wednesday but was pushed to Thursday so as not to interfere with a previously scheduled Republican debate. It's a conciliatory gesture towards Republicans but a move sure to anger ordinary folks as Thursday [...]
The Wall Street Journal is to thank for this wonderful write-up of the intellectual dishonesty underpinning Warren Buffett's suggestion that the government stop "coddling the rich." A better tax plan comes courtesy of The Onion.
"Mother's gone too far. She's put cardboard over her half of the television. We rented The Man Without a Face - I didn't even know he had a problem!" More important than the humor we find in Principal Skinner's life sharing a house with his domineering mother on The Simpsons is the lesson to be learned - don't live with your mother! OK, [...]
Late Friday Standard & Poor's cut the credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA+. Subsequent events have been as pointless as predictable. We imagine the thinking has gone something like this: WHITE HOUSE: A favorite from our playbook is to demonize through the media. Americans like to blame the messenger. Let's combine [...]
With the unnecessarily painful rhetoric surrounding the U.S. "debt ceiling" subdued we can turn our attention to the revenue increases and spending cuts needed to lower annual fiscal deficits. Spending cuts are a matter of debate (will a government-funded midnight basketball league keep youths off the streets and, thus, lower petty crimes such as vandalism?) [...]
With today's noontime Senate vote providing a veto-proof majority President Obama is sure to sign into law legislation to extend the U.S. debt ceiling. Crisis averted - for now. Next up on the agenda needs to be true reform to restructure an unsound and inefficient economy. Credible plans are needed but where will they come [...]
Step 1: Dig hole in sand. Step 2: Bend over and insert head. As the fight over raising the debt ceiling rages on the rhetoric becomes more inflexible - and stupid! Recently Congressional leadership on the Democratic side of the aisle proclaimed entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have nothing to do [...]