According to news reports, “Pentagon chief Leon Panetta vowed Wednesday to fight any across-the-board cuts to defense spending that could be triggered in the next phase of deficit reduction that he says could do ‘real damage to our security, our troops and their families, and our ability to protect the nation.” That makes him a hero at the Pentagon, right? And, it puts him on record as bucking his own President, who has long talked about putting big defense cuts “on the table,” right? Probably not. The flimflam man calls … More

Milton Friedman once said that “there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.” For most people in the world, this is a convincing argument. Not, however, for the Peronists who have dominated Argentina’s politics for the past 70 years. Ranked 138th out of 179 countries in The Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Index of Economic Freedom, Argentina’s economy continues to head in the wrong direction. The government’s … More

With Europe facing a massive fiscal mess and the United States buried under $14.3 trillion in debt, one might think that the leaders of the world’s eight major economies would get down to business to talk government overspending. But as Heritage’s Jim Roberts writes in The Christian Science Monitor, President Barack Obama and G8 leaders…

It’s hard to imagine Uncle Sam telling Walt Disney where to make movies or McDonald’s how many hamburgers to make, but if you take a look at the case of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) versus Boeing, you’ll see that the federal government is trying to do just that: dictate where and how private…

A dire prediction hit the news yesterday: A date has been set for the end of the “Age of America,” — i.e., when China’s economy will overtake the United States. The news comes by way of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that shows China’s economy surpassing America’s by 2016. Though there are reasons to question the…

In a speech yesterday on America’s fiscal crisis, President Barack Obama invoked the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and said, “through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves.” Yet since his presidency began, Barack Obama has proven that what he cannot do very well for himself or for the nation…

An editorial headline in today’s Washington Post captured it well: “Late to the Game – Again.” President Obama gave what was billed today as a major speech on fiscal policy. The speech, more a partisan campaign blast than an attempt at non-partisan leadership, comes two months after he released his Fiscal Year 2012 budget, which…

Ireland’s general election last Friday demonstrated, among other things, that Irish voters have been frustrated by the partial takeover of the country’s economic sovereignty by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, and by calls to unwind some of the positive economic reforms of the past. Rejecting a major change of course, the Irish people,…

This week the media’s attention is finally focused on oil prices. After two years of continually rising consumer gas prices in America, the oil futures market has captivated the Mideast storyline. And attention is much needed. December 2010 saw the highest gas prices for the month of December in our nation’s history. This month, we’re…

Deficit reduction is in vogue right now thanks to the recent efforts of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, but Representative Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) “Roadmap for America’s Future Act” started it all as the first proposal to offer comprehensive solutions to the nation’s pending fiscal crisis, balancing the budget and eliminating national debt…