October 2009

The House of Representative’s version of health-care reform will cost more than the $894 bn 10-year price tag cited by the Congressional Budget Office. That’s because the CBO and Congress do not address human responses to legislation. Tax something more, you ultimately take in less in taxes. Penalize a company, and it finds ways to dodge the penalty. And lawmakers have put in this ... read more

Is the U.S. now trapped in a zombie decade much like what Japan endured in the ‘90s? Answer: Yes, and the government will be conducting fiscal stimulus and deficit spending for up to 10 years to revive the economy. And did you know that seven out of eight U.S. banks were actually bankrupt due to the Latin American banking crisis of the early ‘80s? And that printing money won’t fix the ... read more

A general consensus is forming in the music industry: Country music is displacing rock ‘n roll as America's most popular brand of music. “One thing is for sure: if country is not the new rock ‘n roll, it's getting close,” says Thomas Valentino, founder and head of The Counsel, a law firm that represents top music industry artists including Kid Rock, Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson and ... read more

Fox News analyst James Farrell caught this one: The Wall Street Journal has a good summary article about the testimony of Treasury's inspector general about fraud in the first-time homebuyer tax credit. However, it missed a big footnote in the discussion by the Treasury IG about people who had previously bought homes fraudulently claiming the "first time" credit.  The IG's written ... read more

It’s so easy to do big bold, after-the-fact refereeing to capture splashy headlines, gutsy raps with the ruler on the knuckles of Wall Street as the midterm elections approach, instead of the real, tough legwork that would prevent another catastrophic banking crisis. A crisis many economists say would be larger than what we’ve ever dreamed of, as banks have gotten even bigger by buying ... read more