IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has been talking up the need for greatly expanded resources to bail out ailing European economies. European nations have offered to channel about $200 billion of their own funds to themselves through the IMF (a kind of gentleman’s money-laundering to avoid restrictions in their own treaties). Lagarde wants others to add $300 billion to that kitty. The U.S. Treasury has said no, and rightly so. Replacing current euro-debt with IMF loans, no matter how rigorously structured, will only prolong the agony. The failing euro-zone economies … More

The violent crime rate in Washington, D.C., is up 13 percent since the Occupy D.C. protest began this fall as police officers have been pulled out of local neighborhoods and reassigned to the protest. The chairman of the local police union pinned the blame on the city’s redistribution of resources, noting that on some shifts between two and 18 neighborhood patrol officers have relocated to Occupy D.C. Those protesters are primarily based in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, two downtown locations near the White House. Fraternal Order of Police Chairman … More

President Obama recently lectured Americans on economics during a campaign stop in Osawatomie, Kansas. The New York Times congratulated President Obama’s speech as a potent blow against market economics. Cal-Berkeley professor Robert Reich called it the most important speech of his presidency. The Kansas City Star gushed over his good policy and good politics. In reality, President Obama disastrously misdiagnosed the source of U.S. economic problems: Over the last few decades, huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less, and it’s made it easier for them … More

What do marriage and family have to do with economic growth? A lot, in fact. According to a new international report, there are multiple links between a strong economy and marriage and family. The Sustainable Demographic Dividend—put together by the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project, the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, and other universities throughout the world—highlights these links and argues that “the long-term fortunes of the modern economy rise and fall with the family.” The “great population boom of the last two centuries is waning,” the authors write, … More

Tomorrow, The Heritage Foundation will host a panel of experts for a very timely discussion on recent events in Burma and the proper responses to them. The distinguished panel will include Tom Malinowski, Washington director for Human Rights Watch; Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma; Jared Genser, founder and president of Freedom Now; and Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation. For more information and details on how to RSVP, please click here. A flurry of activity has surrounded the reclusive … More

A pair of years-old anecdotes, recently revisited, show that top economists in the White House and Obama’s cabinet expressed serious doubts about the White House’s emphasis on and approach to green jobs. Three top economic advisers, on at least two occasions, have sounded alarms about that agenda. In October 2010, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and then-director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers warned that the oversight of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee programs – one of which financed defunct solar company Solyndra – was too lax, the Los Angeles … More

Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe Blind to the mullah’s missile menace – Peter Brookes, The New York Post Herman Cain Takes On Morgan Freeman For Calling Tea Party Racist – Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters Obama Lies about the ‘Do-Nothing Congress’ – Deroy Murdock, National Review Online Obama’s Ill-advised NCLB Waivers – Lindsey Burke, National Review Online Congress makes no progress on keeping government afloat – Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Christine Lagarde: IMF may need billions … More

There continues to be a great deal of talk about “the China Model.” It is supposed to be a way to organize an economy, especially a developing economy, that is superior to the American or Western model of competitive capitalism. This debate has many important parts, but it has largely missed one critical point: There are two China models, not one. The first model brought China remarkable economic success and should be emulated in development. It is now largely being ignored. The second model has actually weakened China’s economy and … More

The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan earlier this year did more than destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in northeastern Japan. The March natural disaster significantly impacted the life of one man in particular: Naoto Kan, former prime minister of Japan. Due to the lack of leadership and initiative taken by the Japanese government in dealing with the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami, and radiation leaks, the Japanese public became increasingly disgruntled and distrustful of the Kan administration. Public approval ratings began to plummet, … More

Last week President Barack Obama praised Presidents Yayi of Benin, Condé of Guinea, Issoufou of Niger and Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire as models of Africa’s democratic progress. Since gaining their independence, many African countries have suffered poor governance and widespread instability due, in part, to the unwillingness of African leaders to leave office or support free and fair elections. President Obama’s remarks imply that African leadership has turned a new leaf and that democracy is enjoying wider support among the region’s leaders. This optimism is premature. As measured by Freedom … More