VIDEO: Economic Blue Smoke & Mirrors? You Decide.


Pinning down economist Jared Bernstein is like trying to grab an oiled pig.
Interviewer Jan Helfeld shows how it can be done.

Shikha Dalmia: Don't Mind The Gap

What matters is income mobility, not income inequality. I hate to be the bearer of good news just as the Occupy Wall Street movement is gathering steam, but protesters can stop worrying about rising inequality and go home. New evidence suggests that the super-rich got hit by the recession much harder than the rest of the 99 percent. This doesn’t mean that they  ... MORE 

BLOOMBERG: More Tax Money Wasted On Green Energy

Another taxpayer-backed company goes bankrupt. Beacon Power Corp., an energy- storage company that received $43 million in backing from the U.S. program that supported failed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, filed for bankruptcy after struggling to raise private financing. The money-losing company, which makes flywheels that manage energy moving through ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Ron Paul's Unusual Path

Substance over style. No one in this year's race has spent more time running for president than Ron Paul, who before entering the Republican primaries in 2008 and 2012 was the 1988 nominee of the Libertarian Party. And no one runs for president quite the way Paul does. His town hall meeting is in an auditorium at the Figge Art Museum, which an audience of some ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas Sowell - That Top 1%



Just who makes up that top 1%?

Cash-Flooded Banks To Impose Fees On Depositors

Interest-earning days will soon be forgotten. This story did not break on some freakishly obscene Halloween website, but last week, CNBC ran the story that banks are now flooded with cash and that depositors are being charged fees just to slow the flood of money into the bank (article here). This means that negative interest rates appear to have arrived. Savers will ... MORE

Spooky: U.S. Debt To Surpass GDP On Halloween

from the Daily Caller. As children across America costume themselves as ghouls, ghosts, goblins and former North African dictators Monday night, they may have missed the most spine-chilling scare of the day. According to calculations based on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, on All Hallows’ Eve the United States’ total debt will surpass ... MORE

REUTERS: Lawmakers Unfazed By Downgrade Risk

Congress fiddles while America's economy burns. A growing number of lawmakers do not think another downgrade of the country's AAA rating will harm America's economy, raising questions about how much pressure Congress is under to fix the intractable budget deficit. Analysts warn, however, that signs of complacency on Capitol Hill threaten efforts to cure America's ... MORE

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - The Virtue Of Selfishness


Thinking about the virtue of acting in one's own rational self-interest.

John Stossel: School Competition Rescues Kids

Government's monopoly over k-12 education has failed. For years, American education from kindergarten through high school has been a virtual government monopoly. Conventional wisdom is that government must run the schools. But government monopolies don't do anything well. They fail because they have no real competition. Yet competition is what gives us ... MORE

BREITBART: Chicago May Decriminalize Marijuana

Freeing up resources for more serious crimes. Chicago pot smokers may soon be able to light up without fear of jail time. Several Windy City councilmen said Thursday they plan to introduce a local law that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana in order to cut costs and free up police to handle more serious crimes. Chicago police ... MORE

GALLUP Poll: Support For Gun Control Lowest In 50 Years

Another manifestation of widespread distrust of government. A record-low 26% of Americans favor a legal ban on the possession of handguns in the United States other than by police and other authorized people. When Gallup first asked Americans this question in 1959, 60% favored banning handguns. But since 1975, the majority of Americans have opposed ... MORE

VIDEO: Gary Johnson Among the OWS Protesters

Ralph Reiland: First Cigarettes, Now Bacon And Eggs

Denmark's central planners lead the way. You knew it was coming. First they came for the cigarettes, then Hank Williams Jr. got knocked off Monday Night Football for being politically incorrect, and now they're coming for the butter. Denmark, on October 1, put a $1.29-per-pound tax on all foods that hit 2.3 percent in saturated fats. That's on top ... MORE

Yaron Brooks & Don Watkins: What We Owe Steve Jobs

First of all, gratitude.  Watching the world mourn Steve Jobs, we are reminded of how massive crowds of Americans used to gather to celebrate the launch of a new bridge or a new railroad. There is a widespread recognition that Jobs was a creative genius who changed our world profoundly and for the better. Even President Obama, not usually given to praising businessmen, said ... MORE

NY Times: New Poll Finds Deep Distrust Of Government

Approval Ratings Of Congress
The public seems to be catching on. With Election Day just over a year away, a deep sense of economic anxiety and doubt about the future hangs over the nation, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, with Americans’ distrust of government at its highest level ever. The combustible climate helps explain the volatility of the presidential race and has ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - 99% Economic Illiteracy


People have taken to the streets mad as hell, but don't seem to understand why.