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Yesterday I posted and described the draft Kennedy-Dodd health care bill.  Today I would like to do the same for an outline produced by House Democrats. Here is a three-page outline of “Key Features of the Tri-Committee Health Reform Draft Proposal in the House of Representatives,” dated yesterday (June 8, 2009).

This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace moderated a discussion about the auto industry.  One of his guests was Dr. Austan Goolsbee, who is a Member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist on the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. I want to focus on some incorrect and inflammatory statements [...]

I began this blog at the end of March after the stimulus bill had become law.  I had been struck by how much the stimulus debate had focused on whether the bill was efficient.  (It clearly was not.)  There was much less discussion of whether the stimulus would be effective, and of the timing of [...]

Many of you are new to this blog since I wrote extensively about autos six weeks ago.  As background, I coordinated the auto loan process for President Bush last fall as the Director of the White House National Economic Council (the position now held by Dr. Lawrence Summers).  I wrote a series of posts on [...]

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 [...]

This is good language from the President in bold: America’s dependence on oil is one of the most serious threats that our nation has faced. This is not: They’ll be jobs building the wind turbines and solar panels and fuel-efficient cars that will lower our dependence on foreign oil … Nor is this: And just [...]

Each year Congress enacts 12 annual appropriations (spending) bills.  Those bills are the subject of vigorous and legitimate fights about spending priorities. Included in these annual appropriations bills are spending for defense, veterans, military construction, highways, housing, education (except student loans), foreign aid and the foreign service, the FBI, CIA, and Department of Justice, most [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the March employment report at 8:30 am.  Here is the least you need to know: Net payroll employment declined in March by 663,000 jobs. That’s a terrible number, and in line with expectations. The unemployment rate increased from 8.1% to 8.5%. Much of the press coverage talks about “5.1 [...]

The President has arrived in London for the G-20 economic summit.  I have different policy views than the President on some of these issues, but I will not criticize him while he is overseas.  I will attempt to gently highlight a couple of substantive issues that concern me, but at the same time I want [...]

The Obama Administration is beginning to leak to the press their impending decision on loans to U.S. auto manufacturers.  I am writing in parallel to explain how you might think about such a Presidential decision.  There’s an obvious caveat that every President and each Administration are different, but I hope my explanation will at least [...]