When Crony Capitalism Goes Bad

The government has finally found someone to blame for the mortgage meltdown: S&P, a ratings agency. But the accused says the government has other motives. [Credit: Boston Globe]

The gov­ern­ment has final­ly found some­one to blame for the mort­gage melt­down: S&P, a rat­ings agency. But the accused says the gov­ern­ment has oth­er motives. [Cred­it: Boston Globe]

What hap­pens to crony cap­i­tal­ism when things go bad­ly? Every­body lawyers up and charges and coun­ter­charges fly hard­er and faster than in a nasty divorce. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Richmond Seizure Program: Dangerous Idea From a Dangerous City

Richmond (CA) has a dangerous idea: unconstitutionally seizing private investments.  (Credit: popphoto.com)

Rich­mond (CA) has a dan­ger­ous idea: uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly seiz­ing pri­vate invest­ments. (Cred­it: popphoto.com)

Rich­mond (CA) once was ranked among the nation’s most dan­ger­ous cities.  If city fathers have their way, it will become the most dan­ger­ous city for res­i­den­tial mort­gage investors. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Republicans Getting Deficit Reduction, But President Getting His Way

The President and Speaker are headed for another budget confrontation.  [Credit: Fox News]

The Pres­i­dent and Speak­er are head­ed for anoth­er bud­get con­fronta­tion. [Cred­it: Fox News]

Con­gress is on hol­i­day, rest­ing up for the next round of bud­get wars that will resume after Labor Day. The issues they will face when they return are famil­iar: the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is about to lose author­i­ty to do what it does best (or, at least, most nat­u­ral­ly) – bor­row and spend. Con­tin­ue read­ing →