Overview for News

Geithner's Power Grab: Not All Bad

Testifying before the House of Representatives today, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asked for vast new powers to oversee banks, investment houses, hedge funds, and insurance companies. Although most media attention will focus on proposals to create clearer lines of regulatory authority for …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Thursday March 26, 2009

In Memoriam

March 26 is the date of the death of my mother, Barbara Frum. It is a date not easily passed for me or anyone in my family. I have found on YouTube one of my mother's very last TV appearances: It is featured in our WatchNow box. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offers a small public video …

Written by David Frum on Thursday March 26, 2009

There Will Be Blood

One of the grimmer jokes of the Democratic Congress has been the long pretense that the Senate wants to pass a card check law to help unions organize workplaces. "Of course we all fiercely want to ... but if we encounter even the slightest glitch or difficulty of course we'll have to give the …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday March 25, 2009

Apology Unaccepted, Mr Gutfeld

When I got an email the other day from Bill Graham – not the former Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham, but one at the Canadian Forces Base in Edmonton – asking “can anything be done?” about “comedian” Greg Gutfeld’s witticism on Fox News about the …

Written by Peter Worthington on Tuesday March 24, 2009

The State We're In

Take a look at where we are today: A) Taxes are going to confiscatory rates. Examine the bill written by tax cheat Charlie Rangel, the Democrat Chairman of Ways and Means. Under his bill, the tax on any bonus paid to a New York City resident by a TARP recipient bank would be 102 percent for any …

Written by FF Street Scene on Tuesday March 24, 2009

Is It "un-american" To Enforce The Immigration Laws?

In a speech last week in San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that raids on large employers of illegals by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were "un-American." Her predominantly immigrant audience applauded loudly. What were they cheering for? Illegal aliens apprehended …

Written by Howard Foster on Tuesday March 24, 2009

Leon Kass Selected To Deliver Jefferson Lecture

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced that Leon Kass will deliver its 2009 Jefferson Lecture. This is the highest honor in the humanities bestowed by the federal government. Leon will deliver his lecture, entitled, “‘Looking for an Honest Man’: Reflection…

Written by FF Washington Insider on Tuesday March 24, 2009

Chinas Warning

The FT reports that China is calling for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar . Theatrics or something foreboding? Both. It is theatrics because it simply cannot happen in the foreseeable future. It is foreboding because China is (again) sending the clear message that they are …

Written by Douglas Holtz-Eakin on Tuesday March 24, 2009

A War On Wealth?

The Obama administration is often accused of waging class warfare. But an early look at their new TARP plan - massive government loans to investors willing to wager a comparatively small amount of money sifting through bad assets in search of good - suggests that the plan will probably end by …

Written by David Frum on Monday March 23, 2009

Against The Aig Lynch Mob

Jared Bernstein, chief economist to Vice President Cheney, signaled on ABC's "The Week" that President Obama would not sign the House bill to impose a special tax on AIG's executive bonuses. I think the president would be concerned that this bill may have some problems in going too far -- the …

Written by David Frum on Monday March 23, 2009

A Trillion Here, A Trillion There

... and pretty soon you're talking real deficits. http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/ 100xx/doc10014/03-20- PresidentBudget.pdf These terrifying numbers from CBO do help to explain why President Obama would contemplate the otherwise reckless step of cramming through his health and enviro plans via …

Written by David Frum on Saturday March 21, 2009

John Demjanjuk And The Amazing Hypocrisy Of German Justice

Last week, the Munich district attorney’s office announced that it was charging the 88-year-old John Demjanjuk with some 29, 000 counts of accessory to murder for his alleged activity as a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp during the Second World War. Germany is seeking the long-time …

Written by John Rosenthal on Saturday March 21, 2009

Happy Nowruz

Watching President Obama's Nowruz greeting gave me a pang of sadness and nostalgia. Seven years ago, I tried to sell the idea of President Bush doing a Nowruz speech. Nowruz is a pre-Islamic holiday that Iran's religious authorities disapprove - and often try to suppress. Nowruz greetings could …

Written by David Frum on Friday March 20, 2009

Athwart History

The current issue of National Review features a symposium on the continuing relevance of Bill Buckley's famous 1955 editorial in which he pledged to stand athwart History shouting "stop." The editors invited me to contribute: my response follows below. It’s a memorable phrase. But …

Written by David Frum on Thursday March 19, 2009

Tear Down This House

It was a long time coming, but the Rust Belt and Northeast – once the home to working class Reagan Democrats – are now solidly blue. Republicans seeking to retake some of this ground would do well to address the plague of abandoned properties in these regions. There are between …

Written by Henry Clay on Thursday March 19, 2009

Honor Murtha?

Congressman John Murtha was recently awarded the Department of the Navy's highest public service award for non-employees by the Secretary of the Navy. This is an outrage. As you probably know, John Murtha has been the worst of a bad lot in Congress who exploited those serving in combat for …

Written by Gabe Ledeen on Thursday March 19, 2009

Ten Thoughts On Aig

1. If I worked at AIG, I'd be ashamed to take a bonus, and I am dismayed that anybody there could feel otherwise. 2. The evidence is accumulating that the Obama administration has been much, much less than candid about its AIG decision-making. In particular: for the president to argue that Tim …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday March 18, 2009

Don't Fix What Ain't Broken: The Israeli Electoral System "As Is" Helps - Not Hinders - Peace

Every time Israelis go to polls, and this time is no exception, the local political system falls into "goalitzia", a word coined by Yitzhak Rabin from "goal", or disgust, and "coalitzia", or coalition. While voters may feel frustrated, since they can never be quite sure who the winner is, even …

Written by Jean Granville on Wednesday March 18, 2009

A Republican Looks At His Party

I am a 41-year-old small business owner in the financial energy space. I went to the University of Illinois, started as a clerk on the Chicago Merc and now am a well to-do-businessman (I even appear on Fox Business every Tuesday as an oil analyst of sorts). My father was a wounded Marine …

Written by Brad Schaeffer on Wednesday March 18, 2009

Political Thought For The Day

The Republican nomination for the ballot line opposite Chris Dodd in 2010 suddenly got a lot more valuable.

Written by David Frum on Wednesday March 18, 2009