KeithHennessey.com

I attempt to summarize the President’s 5,000+ word economic speech last week at Carnegie Mellon University.

I generally stick to pure economic policy issues, but will stray a bit to discuss the 2016 Olympic bid.  I am a bit of an Olympics nut, and the intersection with the Washington debate interests me. I attended two Olympics, the Barcelona ‘92 games and the Atlanta ‘96 games.  I worked as a volunteer at [...]

The President is in a tough spot. In December he will send his representatives to the global climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, and the American delegation is likely to disappoint those who advocate for a global agreement pricing carbon. I don’t think the President can deliver the U.S. Senate to set a national carbon price. Copenhagen is going to be uncomfortable for U.S. negotiators whose body language suggests they are sympathetic to the views of European Greens.

Yesterday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appointed me to be a member of a new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

The President’s new message is: No second stimulus. This one will work. Ride it out and be patient.

Sometimes it helps to zoom way out. Here is a summary I would give to someone who had missed the past six months, including the good, the bad, the non-existent, the uncertain, and the too-soon-to-tell.

I wrote last Friday about the China/India hole in the American climate strategy: America appears to lack a high-probability strategy for how to get China, India, and Russia to agree to self-impose a significant positive carbon price. The Administration and its Congressional allies are trying to impose a significant carbon price in the U.S. through [...]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade climate change bill this week.  Much of the discussion focused on the domestic impacts of the legislation, and how the policy design would affect various American constituencies.  I would like to zoom out and think about how a policy like Waxman-Markey fits into a [...]

Let’s look at three factories, each of which produces $100 of income. Your factory A is in the U.S.  Your corporation pays a 35% U.S. corporate income tax rate ($35). Your factory B is in China.  Your corporation pays a 15% Chinese corporate income tax rate ($15).  You owe the U.S. government $35 in taxes, [...]

I would like to compliment and thank President Obama for saying this in Strasbourg, France last Friday: As we take these steps, we also affirm that we must not erect new barriers to commerce; that trade wars have no victors. We can’t give up on open markets, even as we work to ensure that trade [...]