INTERMEX POWER

“Not to Be Used Externally, but Also Harmful if Swallowed”

Richard W. Fisher

“Not to Be Used Externally, but Also Harmful if Swallowed”: Projecting the Future of the Economy and Lessons Learned from Texas and Mexico
Remarks before the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce
Dallas, Texas
March 5, 2012

I have been asked to speak about the economy. I am going to take a different approach than is typical for a Federal Reserve speech. I’ll eschew making the prototypical forecast, except to note that from my perch at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, I presently see that: a.) On balance, the data indicate improving growth and prospects for job creation in 2012. However, the outlook is hardly “robust” and remains constrained by the fiscal and regulatory misfeasance of Congress and the executive branch and is subject to a now well-known, and likely well-discounted, list of possible exogenous shocks—the so-called “tail risks”—posed by possible developments of different sorts in the Middle East, Europe, China and elsewhere. And b.) While price stability is being challenged by the recent run-up in gasoline prices—which has yet to be reflected in the personal consumption expenditure and consumer price indexes but may well make for worrisome headlines when February data are released—the underlying trend has been converging toward the 2 percent long-term goal formally adopted by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at its last meeting.[1]

What a Koch Takeover of Cato Would Mean for the Foreign Policy Debate

By Justin Logan |

Many bytes have already been spilled over the effort by Charles and David Koch to take over the Cato Institute, but I am writing this for the information of those who have particular interest, favorable or otherwise, in Cato’s output on foreign policy issues. I am also writing to register my own views on the issue. For those who are not familiar with the details, I will give a brief recap.

Cato, Koch, and Ron Paul

Daniel McCarthy

A high-powered D.C. think tank is, among other things, an administration-in-waiting. There’s a reason people like Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton get parked at AEI between Republican administrations. Plenty of high-ranking Democrats have found perches at Brookings or other liberal policy shops while waiting their next turn, too. Think tanks serve not only as boarding houses for top officials, but even more importantly as incubators for future mid-tier and entry-level staffers, while the white papers these institutions produce can become the basis for legislation once their team returns to power. Even the more broadly educational undertakings — speakers and books with less direct policy applications — help lay down narratives and communications angles for future policy battles.

Posted by Walter Williams

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 2011 manufacturing output grew by 11 percent, to nearly $5 trillion. Were our manufacturing sector considered a nation with its own gross domestic product, it would be the world’s fourth-richest economy. Manufacturing productivity has doubled since 1987, and manufacturing output has risen by one-half. However, over the past two decades, manufacturing employment has fallen about 25 percent. For some people, that means our manufacturing sector is sick. By that criterion, our agriculture sector shares that “sickness,” only worse and for a longer duration.

By Josh Rogin

The Obama administration is moving to provide direct assistance to the internal opposition in Syria for the first time, marking a shift in U.S. policy toward a more aggressive plan to help oust President Bashar al-Assad.
Last week, a group of senior Obama administration officials met to finalize a package of options for aiding both the internal and external Syrian opposition, to include providing direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition, two administration officials confirmed to The Cable. This meeting of what's known as the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council set forth a new and assertive strategy for expanding U.S. engagement with Syrian activists and providing them with the means to organize themselves, but stops short of providing any direct military assistance to the armed opposition.

The president is far more vulnerable than he thinks on foreign policy.

BY KARL ROVE AND ED GILLESPIE

In an American election focused on a lousy economy and high unemployment, conventional wisdom holds that foreign policy is one of Barack Obama's few strong suits. But the president is strikingly vulnerable in this area. The Republican who leads the GOP ticket can attack him on what Obama mistakenly thinks is his major strength by translating the center-right critique of his foreign policy into campaign themes and action. Here's how to beat him.

Bipartisan apathy

Obama doesn’t have the support he did in 2008.

Jonah Goldberg

There’s no disputing that Republicans are surly these days.

With the exception of South Carolina, turnout among GOP voters has been tepid. Hordes of commentators, me included, have argued at length that this apathetic grumpiness reflects a deep dissatisfaction with the Republican field.

Don’t light your hair on fire, Mitt

Marc A. Thiessen |

Why won’t Mitt Romney let me like him? Every time I start to make peace with the idea of a Romney nomination, he goes and says something like this: “You know, it’s very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments. We’ve seen throughout the campaign if you’re willing to say really outrageous things… you’re going to jump up in the polls. I’m not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support.”

The case for arming the Syrian opposition

The U.S. secretary of state should have more to say than simply that anti-Assad forces will 'somewhere, somehow, find the means to defend themselves'

Paul Wolfowitz, Mark Palmer

While the slaughter continues in Syria, the U.S. is in danger of repeating the mistake made 20 years ago when we refused to arm the Bosnians. We left them at the mercy of Serb militias for three horrendous years with well upward of 100,000 deaths, until finally—after the massacre at Srebrenica and thousands more dead—NATO was forced to intervene directly and send 60,000 peacekeepers.

There may be a way to avoid such a scenario in Syria. Yet today, while Iran, Russia and China—the new authoritarian capitalists—solidly support Bashar al-Assad's brutality, the U.S. seems capable of nothing more than rhetorical condemnations and sanctions, neither of which can possibly persuade the Syrian regime to surrender power. Apparently that's why Burhan Ghalioun, the leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, declared that the recent "Friends of Syria" conference in Tunis did "not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people."
Although the U.S. has concluded that the viciousness of the Assad regime toward its own people exceeds anything that we can tolerate, we are paralyzed by fear that intervening to strengthen the opposition will escalate the violence and leave post-Assad Syria even more devastated and fragmented.
The full text of this article is available via subscription to The Wall Street Journal. It will be posted to AEI.org on Monday, March 12.

US needs to lead from the front on Syria

Danielle Pletka

Article Highlights

The next president will need to contend with a freer, messier Arab world @dpletka Tweet This
America benefits from being on the side of right against wrong, unequivocally, leading from the front and not behind Tweet This
So far, Obama has been unmoved by the murder of 3000 Syrians @dpletka Tweet This

It didn't take much conviction to decide Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had to go after the Egyptian military turned on him. Ditto for Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi, once large portions of the country had freed themselves from his rule and our European allies were clamoring for military intervention. But when the outcome is in doubt, as in Syria, Barack Obama is sitting on the fence.

Why There Is No Human Progress without Capitalism. by Jim Powell

President Obama is on the warpath, attacking capitalism, but Republican candidates haven’t offered much of a counter-attack. This is a bit of a mystery, since the case for capitalism is overwhelming.

For thousands of years, there was virtually no such thing as human progress. The great French historian Fernand Braudel observed, “Peasants represented immense numbers of people, the vast majority of human beings... constant poverty... For century upon century, clothing remained unchanged... the general rule was changelessness.” In Europe, peasant possessions were generally limited to little more than a shirt, a pair of pants, perhaps a simple jacket, a bench, a table and a straw-filled sack that served as a mattress. In India, there were hardly any chairs or tables to be found. There were few chairs in Islamic lands. Multitudes perished because of famines — France alone had hundreds of famines before 1800. Famine undermined the ability of people to resist common deadly diseases like typhoid fever, purple fever, whooping cough, sweating sickness, diphtheria, smallpox, influenza, syphilis and the plague.

Trade Policy Priority One: Averting a U.S.-China "Trade War." by Daniel J. Ikenson

Introduction

An emerging narrative in 2012 is that a proliferation of protectionist, treaty-violating, or otherwise illiberal Chinese policies is to blame for worsening U.S.-China relations. China trade experts from across the ideological and political spectra have lent credibility to that story. Business groups that once counseled against U.S. government actions that might be perceived by the Chinese as provocative have changed their tunes. The term "trade war" is no longer taboo.

The media have portrayed the United States as a victim of underhanded Chinese practices, including currency manipulation, dumping, subsidization, intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, discriminatory "indigenous innovation" policies, export restrictions, industrial espionage, and other ad hoc impediments to U.S. investment and exports.

It's Not Obama's Fault That Crude Oil Prices Have Increased. by Peter Van Doren and Jerry Taylor

Is President Obama responsible for spiraling price of gasoline? Republicans say yes, but the facts say no.

Why have gasoline prices increased since the start of the year? The simplest explanation is that the price of crude oil has increased. Specifically, the spot price for Brent (North Sea) crude has increased $16 a barrel since January. Given that there are 42 gallons to a barrel, that works out to a 38 cent increase in the price of a gallon of oil. Spot prices for gasoline trade in New York have increased about 41 cents per gallon over the same time frame. So there you go.

Once-Loud Opposition to Gay Marriage Has Quieted. by David Boaz

That sound you don't hear is social change happening.

Even as the Republican candidates fight to see who can get furthest to the right, acceptance of gay people and gay marriage in the United States is moving briskly along. Gallup finds support for same-sex marriage now at 53 percent, up from 40 percent in 2008.
In February alone, a federal appeals court ruled California's gay-marriage ban unconstitutional; Washington state legalized gay marriage; New Jersey's Legislature passed a marriage law (vetoed, though with a caveat, by Gov. Christie); and a marriage-equality law passed the Maryland legislature and became law on
Thursday.

Protect All Human Life

The heated debate about abortion is filled with emotional arguments that usually center on considerations such as sexual morality, religious beliefs, women’s rights, or purely on pragmatic reasons: if abortion were made illegal it would still take place – under unsanitary conditions that would endanger additional lives.
However, a rational evaluation of abortion must be built upon one single question: When exactly does human life begin? At conception, at birth or somewhere in between?

Honest Money. Ron Paul

Henry Ford once said, “It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Are you confused by all the talk about monetary policy, fiat money and inflation? You’re not alone. Bankers and politicians have worked hand in hand for many decades to obscure their activities from the public. They hide behind elaborate structures designed to inflate the money supply while creating the false impression that they are looking out for our best interests.
Inflation is a very simple concept to understand: More money = less value. It may seem contradictory but it’s very straightforward.
For illustration purposes, join me on a brief journey of the imagination. One beautiful morning, you wake up and realize that you own twice as much cash as you had just last night. Magic money elves entered your home and bank account and simply doubled your entire cash assets. You’re now twice as wealthy (or half as poor as the case may be).

Mitt Romney

2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul was endorsed today by several members of the Romney family, indeed those related to fellow Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Ty Romney is an attorney handling property and liability claims for State Farm Mutual in Great Falls, Montana and received his Bachelors of Arts Degree from the University of Utah and his Juris Doctorate Degree from Seattle University School of Law. He is an active member of the Idaho State Bar Association.
Ty said, “Ron Paul is honest. It’s time to take a stand for honesty. It doesn’t matter whether the truth is popular or not, I know that Ron Paul will always maintain a true principle and I endorse that degree of integrity.”