(John Hinderaker) Growth of the national debt has accelerated to proportions that would have been unthinkable not many years ago. And yet, liberals keep telling us not to worry, and that raising the debt limit is the only “responsible” course. Debt apologists like Barry Eichengreen. A very smart friend takes Mr. Eichengreen to task. What follows is by him, I have left it in plain rather than italic type for the sake
Category: Power Line Blog
Thought for the Day: Woodrow Wilson, Supply-Sider?
(Steven Hayward) It is not very often that I have anything favorable to say about Woodrow Wilson, arguably America’s worst president. But like the blind squirrel finding an acorn or a stopped clock being right twice a day, once in a while you find something unexpected. In a message to Congress in 1919, Wilson wrote: “The Congress might well consider whether the higher rates of income and profits tax can in peacetimes
The Daily Chart: About Those Russia Sanctions
(Steven Hayward) It is generally understood that economic sanctions are seldom very effective in stopping aggression or deterring bad behavior. Decades of sanctions haven’t slowed down Iran or North Korea, and our sanctions on Russia seem not to be delivering the crippling blow we were promised. But the foreign policy experts and planners love them anyway. Bloomberg reports today: Russia Did Most Oil Drilling in Decade Even as Sanctions Hit Russian companies
VIP Live Tomorrow!
(John Hinderaker) Tomorrow at 7 p.m. Central time (5 Pacific, 8 Eastern) we will do a VIP Live show. We will be talking about the events of the day, and also, I hope, making an exciting site announcement or two. If you are a VIP member, you will get an email with a link to a live address where you can watch the event and submit your own comments and questions. [NOTE:
The attack on Steven Koonin
(Scott Johnson) Reason has posted statistician Aaron Brown’s excellent column “The shameless attack on a climate change dissenter.” The “dissenter” is Steven F. Koonin, a University Professor at New York University with appointments in the Stern School of Business, the Tandon School of Engineering, and the Department of Physics. He served in the Energy Department under the Obama administration (“where his portfolio included the climate research program and energy technology strategy”) and
Clapper’s claptrap
(Scott Johnson) Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is one of the Deep State 51 who lent his credibility to the open letter to the castigation of the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. According to Clapper et al., the emails reported by the Post “ha[ve] all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Given to Natasha Bertrand, the letter was published by Politico in conjunction with the
It came out of the sky
(Scott Johnson) White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declared at yesterday’s press briefing (transcript here) that they have no indication of alien involvement in the recent proliferation of “objects” over the United States and Canada. “I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity — (laughter) — with these recent takedowns,” KJP told reporters. What’s so funny ’bout
La-la means I love you
(Scott Johnson) Written by William Hart and Thom Bell, produced by Thom Bell and Stan Watson, “La-La (Means I Love You)” is a classic of Philadelphia soul, vintage 1968, and a memorable hit for the Delfonics. What a beautiful pop song. Hart sang the shimmering falsetto lead on the hit single. Do they make them like this anymore? Laura Nyro responded deeply to the song. As she did with so many of
Announcement: PLU Class Session 8: The Federalist on the Judiciary
(Steven Hayward) We’re going to hold our eighth Power Line University class session on The Federalist tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon at 3 pm Pacific time, where Lucretia and I will turn to the treatment of judicial review in The Federalist, which chiefly means papers 78 – 84. If you are able to join us live, here’s the Zoom link to use. The scope and nature of the judicial power was as uncertain and
The Biden docs, round 2
(Scott Johnson) NBC News broke the story that a second set of classified documents were found in Joe Biden’s possession at an undisclosed location this past November. The NBC News story is here. The story has now been confirmed and reported roughly everywhere. Among the many accessible stories are those by the AP here and the Washington Post (via JWR) here. I cant’ get enough of it. Here are a few facetious