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Commentary

  • Financial Reform: Wrong Diagnosis, Wrong Cure

    John O’Leary | 08/23/2010

    Will the recently enacted financial reform law fix the problems that caused the economic crisis? That’s hard to say, since nobody really agrees what caused the crisis in the first place and the the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was created by President Obama in May 2009,  isn't due to release its findings until December 2010. Read more...


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    Lessons from Germany’s Economic Recovery

    e21 Staff Editorial | 08/16/2010

    After a tepid recovery from a deeper recession, the German economy seems to have achieved an “escape velocity,” which – to borrow a term from Larry Summers – has thus far eluded the U.S. Why has the German (and broader European) economy sizzled at the same time as the much touted “Summer of Recovery” in the U.S. has fizzled? Read more...


  • Taxes Aren’t the Problem, Spending Is

    Jennifer Pollom | 08/12/2010

    Fareed Zakaria had an interesting, but misguided piece, “Raise My Taxes, Mr. President!” in last week’s edition of Newsweek echoing what has become a familiar line from the left.  However, in claiming that current tax rates are most to blame for our disastrous fiscal condition, Zakaria is wrong. Read more...


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    An Underreported Counterview on Fed Policy

    Arpit Gupta | 08/11/2010

    The latest transcript from the Fed reveals a growing concern about the downside risk of deflation. Increasingly, monetary experts are discussing what additional steps the Fed can take to buttress the stalled economy – all while it keeps interest rates low for an extended period of time. Yet, Raghuram Rajan – who is widely known for his prescient warnings on the financial crisis – offers a noteworthy counter perspective. Read more...


  • Federal Stimulus Kicks Costs Down the Road

    Chris Papagianis and Arpit Gupta | 08/10/2010

    Today, the House returns from its six-week summer recess to vote on an emergency spending package for the states. The measure, which includes $16 billion to help states with Medicaid costs and another $10 billion for school districts, has already cleared the Senate. So, here we are again roughly 18 months after the February 2009 "stimulus." States are (still) facing big holes in their budgets. And, Congress is about to pass yet another state patch or bailout. Read more...


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    CMS Medicare Actuary Disavows the Medicare Trustees’ Report

    e21 Staff Editorial | 08/09/2010

    “(T)he financial projections shown in this report for Medicare do not represent a reasonable expectation for actual program operations in either the short range. . . or the long range. . . . I encourage readers to review the ‘illustrative alternative’ projections that are based on more sustainable assumptions for physician and other Medicare price updates.” Read more...


  • Understanding the 2010 Social Security Trustees’ Report

    e21 Staff Editorial | 08/06/2010

    Everything We Know Looks Much Worse

    The Social Security Trustees have finally released their long-delayed 2010 report projecting the program’s future finances.  Our findings: virtually all of the updated hard information in the report looks significantly worse than was projected last year. The effects of this worsening have simply been balanced over the long-term by more optimistic assumptions going forward. Read more...


  • Rates of Deterioration Key to Understanding Budget Projections

    e21 Staff Editorial | 08/06/2010

    Yesterday, the Medicare and Social Security Trustees released their annual reports on the status of these programs’ finances. The Administration cynically used the occasion to tout the benefits of the health care reform bill. Of course, the same funds that supposedly bolster Medicare’s financing were also counted as offsetting the cost of the new health care entitlement. The Administration must choose: they cannot have it both ways. Read more...


  • Should All Tax Cuts Be Paid For?

    Christopher Papagianis | 08/04/2010

    Should extensions of current tax policy have to be paid for or offset in the federal budget? Congressional Republicans don’t think so. Democrats mock this notion that tax cuts “pay for themselves” by generating higher revenues. Read more...


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    A French Voice for Laissez-Faire

    e21 Staff Editorial | 08/03/2010

    In a recent op-ed, European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet called on industrial countries on “both sides of the Atlantic” to end fiscal stimulus programs and reduce budget deficits now. The underlying message has been underappreciated: A French lifetime bureaucrat took to the op-ed page of an English language newspaper to defend free-market capitalism from his American counterparts. Read more...