Executive Action on Dangerous Pointy Corners

In an impassioned yet highly controversial speech, President Obama insisted that if Congress did not act soon that he would use his executive authority to end the scourge of excessively pointy corners in kitchens and living rooms throughout the country. 

Econ 101 and the War on Poverty

With the midterm elections approaching and the Democrat’s War on Poverty revving up there is no doubt that distinguished economists of all stripes will weigh in on how the war should be waged.  Expect a complete lack of consensus.

2012 Election Special

Several months ago the Obama narrative coalesced around some version of how Governor Romney wants to take us back to “the ruinous policies that got us in to this mess in the first place”. One can only assume that what the Obama camp is referring to here is the policies of President George W Bush. Assuming that’s the case, it’s worth taking a look at the key tenets of the Bush Presidency so that we may better understand the risk that we might somehow return to those policies. There were four defining pillars of the George W Bush Presidency. (1) an adventurous foreign policy (2) an unprecedented amount of government spending (3) crony capitalism, or favors and favorites in government (4) controversial tax cuts.

Not Everyone is a Winner

In an address Saturday at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA, President Obama replayed one of his favorite exhortations about economic growth. He described the virtue of more taxpayer and deficit spending on investments "from clean energy to advanced manufacturing".

The Dark Days of 2005?

The Democratic narrative is coalescing around the idea that Republicans want to undo all of the progress made during the past two and a half years and go back to the dark days of the Bush White House.

Who is Really Hurting Seniors?

As soon as Paul Ryan's budget plan was rolled out, Democrats immediately got busy explaining how this will lead to seniors sleeping in bus stops and eating out of trash cans.

Sloan Research Project - Debt and Spending as Constraints on Economic Growth

The following was an Independent Study conducted at the MIT Sloan School of Management and was supervised by Professor SP Kothari.