Getting to No
Watching the President's press conference yesterday was again desperately dispiriting. The President's supporters say he is "framing" a choice for the country: my way or their way. To support that frame, however, the President needs Republicans to say "NO" to his jobs proposals. The surest way to …
Despite the Downturn, Canada Prospers
In 2007, the line ran down the street, as people queued to get in on the action. Some apparently waited for days hoping to purchase a condo in a building to be built. With such demand, the developers kept upping the unit prices – literally posting the ever-rising prices on a billboard. The …
A Template for a GOP Economic Plan
America is now coping with the debt binge of the past decade and stagnating incomes across the board. Trying to provide some cushion for those left economically behind may be a good short-term strategy. But policy makers also need to work toward a restructuring of America's economic architecture. …
Daniels: Government Faces "Limits" When Helping the Unemployed
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels visited Georgetown University on Friday, September 23rd, for a refreshingly intimate conversation sponsored by the Georgetown College Republicans. Daniels is known for his candor and modesty, and both were on display when I asked him what could be done for the 14 …
The Texas Non-Miracle
About all those new jobs created under Gov. Rick Perry... The Center for Immigration Studies reports some facts that should sprinkle a little cold water on over-heated claims for the low-wage/high-immigration Texas economic model. Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken …
Attack the Plan, Not the Man
In my column for CNN, I explain why the GOP needs to focus on attacking Obama's economic plan, or risk alienating many voters: Republican partisans loathe Barack Obama even more viscerally than core Democrats despised George W. Bush. Yet as with Democrats in 2004, it's hard for Republicans to …
Wanted: Elites Who Care
In the next New York Times Book Review, I review Tom Friedman's and Michael Mandelbaum's That Used To Be Us . Friedman and Mandelbaum at one point praise the beauty of solutions that rise from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. This praise is not consciously insincere, but pretty …
Will Fed Contractors Say "Thank You" for Faster Pay?
How big a deal is the President's promise to expedite federal payments? Just listen to this (small scale) federal contractor: How extraordinary that this subject should come up at this very time; payment was just made today via electronic deposit for a contract I bid on and was issued on 07/14; …
The Two Party System
Comparing and contrasting the jobs speeches of Mitt Romney and President Obama, Americans face an unhappy choice. One political party has decided that the only thing that matters - or anyway, that can be achieved - is to enhance America's long-term growth path by reducing regulations, rationaliz…
Obama's Cunning Speech
First reactions to the president's big jobs speech: 1) Qua speech, it was excellent - clear, focused, unrhetorical. The core concept - stressing past Republican approval of the major elements of the proposal - ingeniously put Republicans into an awkward spot. And in fact, the maneuver has had …
Romney's Plan: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
To read Mitt Romney's economic plan is to join a more elevated conversation. This is a document written by people who value expertise, and it shows. It avoids overstatements and misstatements. It credits Presidents Bush and Obama for pulling the financial system back from the brink in …
Post-Auto America?
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning (in the print edition) that Americans drove 14% fewer miles in June 2011 than June 2010. This marks the fourth consecutive year-over-year reduction in driving mileage. The bad economy explains much of the decline: unemployed people don't commute to …
Will Perry Win With 16% Unemployment?
Into the presidential race rides another man from Texas, Governor Rick Perry. If this election is about jobs, the Republicans would have to be crazy to nominate anyone else. While the Democrats will try to parse and spin the numbers, Texas has done better than the rest of the nation in …
What if it's Perry?
On Election Night 2012, I expect that Republican Presidential nominee Rick Perry will turn into President-Elect Rick Perry. My inbox will fill up with emails from both enemies and frenemies declaring: " Frum Forum Lost! Your cause is doomed and you have failed!" Why do I expect this? First, …
Let's Call it Hurricane Euro
In my Marketplace column , I ask why no one is preparing for the coming collapse of the Euro: But why is it only weather stories that command such breathless attention? Meanwhile, the world's largest currency union -- the euro -- continues to careen toward disaster. The euro's travails …
Huntsman's Great (Pre-Recession) Jobs Record
Jon Huntsman has unveiled his jobs plan and it is accompanied by an impressive web video touting Huntsman's success in job creation. The video argues that Huntsman not only has a good jobs plan, but that his record as governor is also worth running on. The video says that Utah is the "#1 State in …
Reg Reform, Meh.
Eric Cantor has announced that regulatory reform of the Clean Air Act and labor laws will top the GOP agenda when Congress resumes its work. As far as these proposals go, baring the National Labor Relations Board from restricting where employers can locate (a key component of economic freedom), …
Debunking the Payroll Tax Cut Idea?
Over the past 2 years, I've banged the drum for a payroll tax cut as a way to put more money into workers' hands quickly and efficiently, arguing against most other forms of fiscal stimulus as too slow and unwieldy. Bruce Bartlett states the counter-case today in the New York Times : First, …
Can Romney Believe What He Says?
What's Romney thinking? Mitt Romney is hitting President Obama hard on America's weak job performance over the past two and a half years. Yet Romney himself has pledged himself to policies that will squeeze jobs in the near term, at least according to conventional economic theory. He has …