Reforms

In An Age Of Unsustainable Global Debt, How Should You Invest?

Is there a global debt bomb waiting to be detonated? If so, will it create rampant anarchy in America? Maybe in Great Britain, too? Does an apocalyptic world await? Is the coming world worth fighting for? Increasingly, people believe these questions are worth exploring, evidenced by the size and nature of audiences generated by writers like Marketwatch’s Paul Farrell.

Is America's Addiction To Debt Like Its Civil War Era Addiction To Slavery?

Several prominent economists continue to support economic recovery ideas that increase government debt. Dr. B. shows the hazard of these ideas, and draws the link between the United States' toleration of slavery in the 1800's and its dependence on unsustainable government debt today.

Darrell Delamaide argues that President Obama must stimulate the U.S. economy sufficiently to boost employment figures in the near-term, otherwise Democrats will court a political disaster next year. However, the idea of America is far more consequential than today’s interest group driven party goals. In reality, Delamaide is not arguing for stimulus as much as he is arguing against the GOP. A better argument is to replace both reckless, feckless political parties and get the nation’s budgetary affairs in order.

Free Money From The Federal Reserve Fuels Dangerous New Wall Street Bubble

Hazardous speculation on Wall Street is growing because of the Federal Reserve's easy money policies. This article provides alternatives to current Fed policies -- alternatives that could help the American economy in coming years.

Is irrational exuberance making a comeback at the Fed’s invitation? Irwin Kellner thinks so, arguing that the “humongous volume” of Fed injected liquidity invites a speculative fever. The Fed’s bogus money has not produced consumer price inflation because the wealthy beneficiaries of the liquidity are keeping it engaged in speculative pursuits, with little trickling down to consumers.

Reasons For Optimism In The Face Of A Future Economic Crisis

Dr. B. Responds to Paul Farrell's Marketwatch.com article titled "America has lost its soul and collapse is inevitable" by not only analyzing the likelihood of Farrell's claims, but also sharing real reasons for discerning readers to be optimistic about the future that follows.

Has America lost its soul? Is America too immoral and shortsighted to allow prudent capitalism to work properly? (Yes.) Is the Canadian hedge fund manager, Erick Sprott correct that the U.S. government is now a “dead man walking,” with central bank intervention the main dynamic that allows the U.S. Treasury to roll over government debt at low interest rates? (Marketwatch, Oct. 20, 2009).

'Bipartisan' Special Interests Infect U.S. Health Care Reform

National expenditures on health care as a percentage of GDP and as an outright expense will rise with the reforms President Obama signs into law. Choices will decline and coercion will climb as bureaucrats struggle to contain soaring costs. As pending health care reforms swell our medical expenditures bubble, the nation’s slide will accelerate.

Wall Street Gets Protection From Itself In Proposed New Rules

It is important for Americans to discern the difference between what the Obama administration says and Wall Street hears. Dr. B. helps us understand that while new financial regulations sound good on the surface, they really serve to preserve Wall Street's dominance at the expense of the American people.

Purportedly, President Obama may attempt to shift the focus of the G20 summit from banking improprieties to a rebalancing of trade. While a restructuring of trade is important, Obama is out-of-step with the American public if he diverts attention from the need to cap bank bonuses, heighten scrutiny of hedge funds, and corral the shadow banking system. Recent reports of a power regrowth in the investment banking sector lend support to this concern.

The Wall Street 'Beast' Recovers, Scoffs At Obama's Reform Plans

Did Wall Street quake when President Obama recently addressed its elites on the one year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse? Hardly. If anything, some on Wall Street were heartened by discrete assurances that reforms would not go deeply into the evolved architecture of capitalism.

Proposed Regulatory Reforms Are Just Window Dressing, But Could Be So Much More

Dr. B. compares Teddy Roosevelt's bold and even-handed management of a 1902 economic crisis against the unfortunate mishandling of economic issues by all the presidents from Reagan through Obama. President Obama would do well to use his position to make real, systemic changes, but he would need the motivation of what is unfortunately a largely uneducated, distracted public.

In September, 1901, Vice-President Teddy Roosevelt uttered his memorable adage, “speak softly but carry a big stick.” Shortly thereafter, President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist, making TR at age 42 America’s 26th president. As president he failed to speak softly at times but did carry an executive bludgeon. His legacy still shines because he swatted at the insolence of his own party as well as Democratic interests. Our current president would do well to consider Teddy Roosevelt’s example in matters of economic justice.

Obama's Health Care Plan: Way Too Good To Be True

President Obama’s national health care agenda is big, bad, and bold. It is also better in various important respects than what we have currently. However, it is fatally flawed. The seriousness of the flaws outweighs the plan’s efficacies and virtues. As a result, the U.S. Congress should reject this legislation and address the fact that the nation consumes too much expensive but ineffectual health care.

Obama's Financial Regulatory Reforms Should Include Return To True Capitalism

In this important, foundational article, Dr. B. contrasts the difference between America's warped flavor of capitalism -- one based on price speculation -- with a much better form of capitalism that he calls the "public participation" model. Calls for regulatory reform will fall far short if changes to the underlying architecture are not a part of the plan.

President Obama's financial regulatory reforms will bring positive, meaningful changes to the way Wall Street does business. For this he should be commended. Nevertheless, the reforms fail to do enough, are not suitably instrumented, and sidestep systemic change. The reforms serve to affirm Wall Street's position, increasing the odds that Wall Street's grip over America will continue. This means more elitism and less true justice. The wealth and power gap between working Americans and the privileged elites of Manhattan Island will remain unjustifiably wide.

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