Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Economics

Peter Schiff provides some fascinating commentary on the American Samoan economy and the assortment of unintended consequences associated with the imposition of the federal minimum wage by the US Congress (recorded January 17, 2010):

Financial Crisis and Public Policy

• The President’s Bank Reforms Don’t Add Up, by Peter Wallison

Wallison’s analysis seems quite clear; specifically, that in failing to properly differentiate between banks and bank holding companies, an unintended consequence of the “Volcker Rule” may be that banks will be incentivized to overinvest again in real estate, thereby virtually guaranteeing yet another bank crisis in the future.

Foreign Policy

• Clinton for Haiti Czar?, by Mary Anastasia O’Grady

“If the country is ever to develop it will need less cronyism and more transparency.”

Health Care Reform

• It’s dead, by Keith Hennessey

Keith Hennessey officially pronounces Obamacare as Dead on Arrival, and also provides a interesting example of Photoshop!:

Humor

• NBC Will Regret Appeasing Leno, by Joe Queenan

“Conan was the Czechoslovakia of late-night TV.”

Politics

• The New Political Rumbling, by Peggy Noonan

“Massachusetts may signal an end to old ways of fighting.”

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Finance

• Restoring Faith in Financial Markets, by John C. Bogle

“It is time institutional investors exerted control over publicly held companies.”

Financial Crisis and Public Policy

• Obama’s Double-Dealing Bank Tax, by Holman Jenkins

“…it’s a formula for turning the banks into what Fannie and Freddie have become: profitless channelers of taxpayer-guaranteed money into whatever loss-making loans politicians happen to want made.”

Foreign Policy

• To Help Haiti, End Foreign Aid, by Brett Stephens

“For Haitians, just about every conceivable aid scheme beyond immediate humanitarian relief will lead to more poverty, more corruption and less institutional capacity.”

Health Care Reform

• Health Care Is Hurting Democrats, by David Brady, Daniel Kessler, and Douglas Rivers

“How can a little known Republican run a competitive Senate campaign in Massachusetts? The culprit is the unpopularity of health reform, and it means that Democrats will face even worse problems later this year in less liberal places than Massachusetts.”

Public Policy

• Missing the Target, by Martin Feldstein

Harvard Economics Professor Martin Feldstein provides a critical assessment of Obanomics…

• The U.S. Isn’t as Free as It Used to Be, by Terry Miller

“Canada now boasts North America’s freest economy.”

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Foreign Policy

• Obama Contra Niebuhr, by Joseph Loconte

“Supporters of President Obama’s ‘moral realism’ are unaware of many elements of Reinhold Niebuhr’s political theology.“

Health Care Reform

• The Health Lady Has Yet to Sing, by Kim Strassel

“ObamaCare is still no sure thing.”

• The High Cost of No Price, by Veronique de Rugy

“Economists have shown that if a good’s price is zero or decreasing, then the demand for this good will likely increase. In 2008, consumers were only directly responsible for 11.9 percent of total national healthcare expenditures, down from 43 percent in 1965, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This means that someone other than consumers pays roughly 88 percent of all healthcare costs, giving consumers little incentive to mind costs and much incentive to over-consume.”

Politics

• Slug the Obama Story ‘Disconnect’, by Peggy Noonan

“He and the public are on different pages, if not in different books.”

• One year out: President Obama’s fall, by Charlkes Krauthammer

“What went wrong? A year ago, he was king of the world. Now President Obama’s approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent — and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president’s second year.”

Public Policy

• The Green Con Job, by Dustin Chambers and Dan Ervin

“The U.S. economy is sensitive to high energy prices. An aggressive push toward green power would result in the net loss of millions of jobs. There is a better way forward.“

Terrorism

• Don’t panic. Fear is al-Qaeda’s real goal, by Fareed Zakaria

“In responding to the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day, Sen. Dianne Feinstein voiced the feelings of many when she said that to prevent such situations, “I’d rather overreact than underreact.” This appears to be the consensus view in Washington, but it is quite wrong. The purpose of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction.”

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Economics

• Secrets of the Economist’s Trade: First, Purchase a Piggy Bank, by Justin Lahart

“Economists are often cheapskates.”

The Economy

• Uncertainty and the Slow Recovery, by Gary Becker, Stephen Davis, and Kevin Murphy

“A recession is a terrible time to make major changes in the economic rules of the game.”

Financial Crisis

• Error vs. Fraud, by Alex Pollock

“How do groups of intelligent, sophisticated bankers, investors, borrowers, entrepreneurs, and traders find themselves caught together in the recurring bubbles and busts?“

Highly Recommended

• Lowlights of a Downer Year: Dave Barry on the money, madness and misery of 2009

“It was a year of Hope — at first in the sense of “I feel hopeful!” and later in the sense of “I hope this year ends soon!””

Public Policy

• Prohibition: A Cautionary Tale, by Thomas Fleming

“America’s experiment with banning alcohol created problems that persist to this day.”

Terrorism

• Intelligence Is a Terrible Thing to Waste, by Gordon Crovitz

“President Obama doesn’t need an investigation to figure out how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab got on a Detroit-bound plane.”