By Rick Manning — Here is what Iowa Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin said on Valentine’s Day making one wonder if Cupid’s arrow sapped him of his senses. SEN. TOM HARKIN (D-IA): “Thank you, Madam Chair. I think, first of all, I want to disagree with those who […]

By Rick Manning — Tonight President Barack Obama is expected to declare that the job of debt reduction is almost done in State of the Union speech.  Combined with his campaign arm, slyly called Campaign for America’s Future, sending an email alert out with the subject line, […]

By Bill Wilson — A little discussed impact of sequestration, due to take effect on March 1, is the fact that after 2014, spending will increase every single year in both defense and non-defense categories, reports the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In addition, there are real spending cuts, but they come nowhere […]

By Robert Romano — Why does the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) include government spending as a component of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? The answer may be that’s how economist Simon Kuznets, who developed the measure, saw things. In his 1934 report “Report on National Income” to Congress , he acknowledged there might be skepticism over […]

By Bill Wilson — David Kemper, Chairman and CEO of Commerce Bancshares, had to be kidding. He couldn’t have possibly been serious, when in a BloombergBusinessweek opinion piece, “QE Cubed: A Modest Proposal for More Fed Buying. A Lot More,” he suggested that the Federal Reserve expand its balance sheet by $30 trillion. The proposal, if real, would entail […]

By Rick Manning — One of the advantages of living in the Washington, D.C. area is that occasionally you are privy to conversations by decision makers or news broadcasters which cast a light on how these elites are thinking. I had the good fortune to overhear one […]

By Bill Wilson — To hear the White House tell it , the economy shrank in the fourth quarter by 0.1 percent solely because government spending was cut by $40.4 billion, largely in defense. To be fair, there is a degree of truth to that. If you factor out government spending as a component […]

By Robert Romano — The U.S. is currently at risk for another credit downgrade of its AAA rating, this time by crediting ratings agency Fitch . Except it has nothing to do with any sort of fiscal brinksmanship by congressional Republicans, but because the deficit is not being significantly reduced. In its statement, Fitch […]

By Robert Romano It is up to the House of Representatives to maintain the $85 billion sequester cuts set to go into effect on March 1. Agreed to in August 2011 in exchange for the then $2.1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, these were cuts promised […]

By Bill Wilson — On Jan. 23, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a measure suspending the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling until May 19, 2013 through passage of H.R. 325 . Ostensibly, the purpose is to buy the House time to address the $85 billion of sequestration cuts that […]