Author Archives: Doug Badger

The Next Bailout: Seizing Investments for “Public Use?”

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The government seized Susette Kelo's house for "economic development." Will the next bailout involve government seizure of private property? [Credit: money.cnn.com]

The gov­ern­ment seized the land on which Susette Kelo’s house once stood.  Will the next bailout involve gov­ern­ment seizure of pri­vate invest­ments for “pub­lic use?” [Cred­it: money.cnn.com]

Thought you’d heard the last of gov­ern­ment bailouts? Think again. The Fed­er­al Reserve Bank of New York, which played a cen­tral role in the leg­endary bailouts of 2008 and beyond, has pub­lished a piece call­ing on fed­er­al, state and local gov­ern­ments to join forces in what could be the most far-reach­ing bailout of all time. And here’s the kick­er: it is all ben­e­fit and no cost. No, real­ly. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Can You Hear Me Now? The Limits of Government Power

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The President assures us that no one is listening to our calls, but does that settle the debate?

The Pres­i­dent assures us that no one is lis­ten­ing to our calls, but does that set­tle the debate?

“Progress does not com­pel us to set­tle cen­turies-long debates about the role of gov­ern­ment for all time, but it does require us to act in our time. For now deci­sions are upon us and we can­not afford delay. We can­not mis­take abso­lutism for prin­ci­ple, or sub­sti­tute spec­ta­cle for pol­i­tics, or treat name-call­ing as rea­soned debate. We must act, know­ing that our work will be imper­fect. We must act.”

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Sec­ond Inau­gur­al Address, Jan­u­ary 21, 2013. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Blu-Ray, Netflix and Our Troubled Economy

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Sony prevailed over Toshiba in the shoot-out over high-def DVDs. [Credit: originalprop.com]

Sony pre­vailed over Toshi­ba in the shoot-out over high-def DVDs. [Cred­it: originalprop.com]

Why can’t you stream your favorite movie on Net­flix? And what does that have to do with a scle­rot­ic economy?

Econ­o­mist and invest­ment strate­gist Jef­frey Snider offers an intrigu­ing expla­na­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why It’s a Bad Time to Hold on to Holder

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AG Eric Holder may have to help POTUS dig out from under mounting scandals. Credit: theatlantic.com

AG Eric Hold­er may have to go to help POTUS dig out from under mount­ing scan­dals.
Cred­it: theatlantic.com

May 10 was sup­posed to be about health care and moms.  The White House mes­sage of the day was that the health care law is pro-moth­er­hood. The law’s detrac­tors, with their “polit­i­cal bick­er­ing,” “tall tales,” and “polit­i­cal games,” are, by impli­ca­tion, against motherhood.

The Pres­i­dent deliv­ered this mes­sage two days before Moth­ers Day at a White House event. But his mes­sage nev­er did get out. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

ObamaCare and the Arc of Conservative Wishful Thinking

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HHS simplified the application form, but is the health law still too complicated? [Credit: TakePart.com]

HHS sim­pli­fied the appli­ca­tion form, but is the health law still too com­pli­cat­ed? [Cred­it: TakePart.com]

“The Oba­maCare Blame Game” is the title of a piece by my friend and Hud­son Insti­tute fel­low Tevi Troy that will soon be pub­lished in the June 2013 Com­men­tary [no link avail­able]. Pars­ing the state­ments of Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­ers, Troy observes a curi­ous turn in how they talk about their new health care law: they have begun to admit that it might not work out as well as planned. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Italian Lesson: What the President and Speaker Can Learn about Power from Giulio Andreotti

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Giulio Andreotti (credit: Corriere della Sera)

Giulio Andreot­ti (cred­it: Cor­riere del­la Sera)

“Pow­er only bur­dens those who don’t pos­sess it.”

– Giulio Andreot­ti, for­mer Ital­ian Prime Minister

What would Giulio Andreot­ti make of John Boehn­er and Barack Oba­ma? Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Benghazi, the IRS and the Perils of Power

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Pho­to cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post

What is it that makes sec­ond terms so polit­i­cal­ly treach­er­ous? Received wis­dom tells us that scan­dal is root­ed in hubris – a new­ly re-elect­ed Pres­i­dent, hav­ing stared down the threat of polit­i­cal extinc­tion, now thinks him­self invul­ner­a­ble, and soon enough is caught up in scandal.

But I think some­thing more fun­da­men­tal is at work. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

While the President Slept — New Report Questions President’s Handling of Benghazi Attack

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obama-may-1-2011

Pres­i­dent tuned into bin Laden killing, tuned out of Beng­hazi attack.

Five House Com­mit­tee Chair­men last week released an “Inter­im Progress Report”  on their joint inves­ti­ga­tion into last September’s ter­ror­ist attack on a US diplo­mat­ic facil­i­ty in Beng­hazi, Libya. The report, giv­en lit­tle atten­tion by most major media out­lets, was imme­di­ate­ly denounced by Demo­c­ra­t­ic Mem­bers of those 5 com­mit­tees as a “par­ti­san staff report” that vio­lat­ed “reg­u­lar order.”

They’re right both about the report’s par­ti­san tenor and its depar­ture from reg­u­lar order. The pro­ce­dure for fil­ing com­mit­tee reports is almost as old as Con­gress itself. That process is well-defined and includes, where appro­pri­ate, a sec­tion for the minor­i­ty to state its views. There is noth­ing of the sort in this “inter­im report.” It reads more like an indict­ment than a judg­ment. It presents only one side of the story.

That one side of the sto­ry, how­ev­er, includes a chronol­o­gy that is care­ful­ly doc­u­ment­ed and well-sourced. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Tortured Politics of the Health Care Law

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Boehner and Reid

Putting aside per­son­al ani­mos­i­ty for the greater good.

House con­ser­v­a­tives yes­ter­day scut­tled a bill that would have denied the White House mon­ey it urgent­ly needs to imple­ment the new health reform law. But a promi­nent Sen­ate Demo­c­rat, who helped write the law, maneu­vered to deny the Admin­is­tra­tion those des­per­ate­ly need­ed funds. Mean­while, Speak­er Boehn­er and Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid are locked in qui­et talks to exempt them­selves and their staffs from the new law.

Got all that? Con­tin­ue read­ing →

America’s Shrinking Workforce

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Unemployment officeAmer­i­ca had a bad week. We once again were remind­ed that ter­ror­ism rep­re­sents a con­tin­u­ing threat, that indi­vid­u­als poi­soned by hate­ful ide­ol­o­gy can inflict great harm. We were also remind­ed that we are capa­ble of respond­ing to these bru­tal acts, as Pres­i­dent Oba­ma said, “Self­less­ly. Com­pas­sion­ate­ly. And unafraid.”

Ter­ror­ism presents a chal­lenge to which we’ve yet to for­mu­late a durable response. We remain vul­ner­a­ble, despite the government’s con­tin­ued efforts to keep us safe.

There is anoth­er prob­lem, less hor­rif­ic in its imme­di­ate effects but no less intractable, that also is get­ting the bet­ter of us: the prob­lem of job­less­ness. Con­tin­ue read­ing →