In his article in the Summer 2011 issue of The Independent Review, “The Dilemma of Bailouts,” economist Roy C. Smith (New York University) examines why despite its prohibition of taxpayer-funded bailouts, the Dodd-Frank Act has left the financial system exposed to meltdowns and promotes the shifting of risk from large �systemically important� financial firms…
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With the White House and the House of Representatives still at loggerheads over how to resolve the debt crisis, administration officials are turning up the heat, claiming that Washington has only two choices: increase the government�s borrowing capacity beyond the current $14.3 trillion limit or face a catastrophic U.S. Treasury default. If the latter…
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In a new agreement reported by William Boston in the Wall Street Journal, “Want to Buy a Piece of a Greek Island?”, the government of Greece is taking steps to sell off and privatize a small amount of its enormous holdings of government-owned property. Will this properly begin the process of divesting to the…
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In a January 19th article in the Wall Street Journal, “What Congress Should Cut,” former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey and FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe propose abolishing “the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development, end farm subsidies, and end urban mass transit grants, for starters.” The primary economic challenge today is…
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News item: �California to Sell 24 Government Buildings for $2.3 Billion� (AP, October 12, 2010). As a way of helping plug the State of California�s now-chronic budget deficit, this headline is welcome news. Among the state-owned properties on the auction block are LA�s Ronald Reagan State Building and San Francisco�s Civic Center. I have…
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Far from being an investment program, Social Security is a pay-as-you-go operation where new revenues are spent immediately and future entitlements are funded exclusively through the promise to tax workers in the future, many of whom haven�t even been born yet. It is taxation without representation in the most cynical sense. The program is…
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