Economics, Bailouts, Stimulus 
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Recent Research and Commentary
New At Reason: Treating Wall Street Like the Mafia
November 20, 2009, 2:23pmI have a new commentary posted at Reason Online looking at how Sen. Dodd's new Agency for Financial Stability would be the financial equivalent for the FBI seeking to take down La Cosa Nostra.
Treating Wall Street Like the Mafia
Chris Dodd's Agency for Financial Stability will give too much power to federal regulators
November 20, 2009Dodd’s plan for overhauling Wall Street regulations, released last week, includes a proposed new organization: the Agency for Financial Stability (AFS). This new regulator would be tasked with identifying and addressing “systemic risks posed by large, complex companies as well as products and activities that can spread risk across firms.” This represents one piece of the most extensive proposal to reform financial services regulation—topping even the ridiculousness of the Obama plan and Barney Frank plan. Which is saying a lot.
Don't Let Banks Keep Disguising Risk
November 20, 2009, 10:24amIronically, both ideas for creating a systemic risk regulator are dangerous to the health of the financial sector. For instance, the ABA is attempting to persuade Congress that the safety and soundness of the banking system will be protected if a systemic risk regulator can prescribe accounting disclosures for financial companies. Investors will assume that the accounting standards they employ are designed to mask risks.
Worse Than Taxes
The real burden of government is the spending level
November 19, 2009Hidden taxes are more pernicious because they disguise what we pay for government. We blame merchants, not our legislators, for the high price of gasoline, liquor, cigarettes, and phone calls, but the money goes to the political thieves.
Congress Plans "Too Big To Fail" Witch Hunts
November 19, 2009, 11:18amBefore long, the witch hunts, partially to exact vengeance for the financial crisis, partially out of of political ideology, will start. And the meantime, the threat of having the government gunning for the overly successful will be sure to be a disincentive to growth.
GAO: Stimulus Program Has Significant Reporting Problems
November 18, 2009, 4:30pmThe lack of reporting reliability for the stimulus program points to the fundamental flaw in the program to begin with: no one really knows what a job "saved" or "created" is, let alone how to report it.
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- Nathaniel Branden on "My Years With Ayn Rand"
November 12th, 2009 - Barbara Branden on The Passion of Ayn Rand
November 11th, 2009 - UPS Vs. FEDEX: Ultimate Whiteboard Remix
November 10th, 2009 - Life, Liberty & Viticulture: Bryan Babcock on winemaking, Patrick Henry, & Ayn Rand
November 10th, 2009 - Goddess of the Market Author Jennifer Burns on Ayn Rand
November 6th, 2009 - Reason Foundation Co-Founder Tibor Machan on Ayn Rand
November 5th, 2009 - Reason Foundation Co-Founder Manny Klausner on Ayn Rand
November 4th, 2009 - Reason Foundation Co-Founder Bob Poole on Ayn Rand
November 3rd, 2009 - Budget Deficits For Dummies: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love $1.4 Trillion
October 20th, 2009 - Natural Food Fight: Whole Foods and Health Care
October 15th, 2009 - Realizing Freedom
October 8th, 2009 - A Mystery in Which Everyone is Guilty
October 7th, 2009 - LP Chairman William Redpath Tells All
September 23rd, 2009 - Live From The September 12 Taxpayer March on Washington
September 14th, 2009 - The Flaw of Averages
September 11th, 2009 - Reason.tv on Health Care: Get Some!
September 10th, 2009 - Neuroeconomist Paul Zak on Markets and the "Molecule of Love"
September 8th, 2009 - Too Big To Fail 2.0: This Time It's Personal Finance. And Just About Everything Else.
September 3rd, 2009 - The Next Great Leap Backwards For Consumer "Rights"
September 1st, 2009 - "It's Our Turn To Eat"
August 21st, 2009 - Wayne Allyn Root Wants to Empower "The Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling, & Tax Cuts"
August 20th, 2009 - Economist Richard Vedder on Why College Costs Too Much
August 18th, 2009 - What Do You Get When You Cross Ronald Reagan and Woody Harrelson?
August 17th, 2009 - Matt Ridley on Evolution, Economics, and "Ideas Having Sex"
July 23rd, 2009 - Is Your iPod Unpatriotic?
July 21st, 2009
Featured Research
- Taxpayer's Guide to the Stimulus
Where is all that stimulus money going? - State Governments Face Deficits and Fiscal Trouble Because of Spending
From 2002 to 2007, state spending rose 50 percent faster than inflation - Is America Following the Policies that Caused Japan's "Lost Decade"?
Federal government is repeating many of the same mistakes that created Japan's Lost Decade
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