Lawrence Kudlow

Keep faith in free market

Despite the historic expansion of the federal government's involvement in, intervention in, and control of the economy - including Bailout Nation; takeovers of banks, car companies, insurance firms, Fannie, Freddie, American International Group Inc., General Motors, Chrysler, and GMAC; large-scale tax threats; overregulation; an attempted takeover of the health-care sector; ultra-easy money; a declining dollar; and unprecedented spending and debt creation - despite all the things that would be expected to destroy the economy - all this socialism lite and the degrading of incentives and rewards for success - despite all this, the U.S. economy has not been destroyed.

December 31, 2009

Bernanke should withdraw

Helicopter Ben S. Bernanke passed his reconfirmation vote in the Senate Banking Committee this week. But he passed by 16 to 7.

December 19, 2009

Bernanke and golden rule

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke got hammered during his reconfirmation hearing in front of the Senate Banking Committee last week.

December 8, 2009

Vision of American decline

President Obama took his declining dollar to the Asia-Pacific economic conference, and he added to it a declinist opinion of America's economy. His big message? Don't count on American consumers to lead the world from recession to recovery and beyond. His second big message? In the United States, we must save more and spend less.

November 20, 2009

The economics of a GOP resurrection

Against the backdrop of high unemployment and a public revolt against a Democratic health care bill - which would significantly increase taxes, slash Medicare spending and massively raise health care spending elsewhere in a government takeover of our leading growth sector - Republicans scored two dramatic victories on Election Day.

November 6, 2009

Freedom fighters, unite

It must be something in the water. The ruling Democrats know their tax-increasing, re-regulating and big-spending policies have failed to rejuvenate job-creation or reduce the unemployment rate. Yet they persist in trying more of the same.

October 30, 2009

Clouds amid Dow gains

Dow Jones 10,000 arrived on Wall Street Wednesday for the first time in a year. It's a milestone of sorts, and it certainly represents a vote for investor confidence in economic recovery. Blowout profit reports from Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. helped fuel the day's 145-point gain. So did a retail-sales report that - excluding "cash for clunkers" - was actually quite strong.

October 19, 2009

The Mundell-Laffer solution

Team Obama is in economic trouble on two fronts right now: The dollar could be headed toward its demise while the jobs and unemployment numbers have gotten worse. (The unemployment rate is up to 9.8 percent as of the September report released last week.) However, there's a simple policy mix the White House could adopt to fix this. It could enact the Mundell-Laffer supply-side approach of a steady King Dollar for price stability and low marginal tax rates to spur jobs and economic growth.

October 9, 2009

End ‘easy money’

Attendees of the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh and members of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington should carefully read a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed column by Fed governor Kevin Warsh. In a piece titled "The Fed's Job Is Only Half Over," the former Wall Street investment banker sends a shot across the global economic bow. He says the Fed's job will not be done until it removes the easy-money policies put in place over the past year. In other words, an exit strategy.

October 1, 2009

Hey, conservatives, we’re recovering

Believe it or not, sometimes good news on the economy can be bad news for stocks.

September 4, 2009

Robert Novak, top gun

Today, the day of his funeral Mass, we say goodbye to Robert Novak, who passed away early Tuesday morning at age 78. Yet another conservative icon has left us. He was a good friend and an amazing reporter. In fact, I believe he was the best reporter of his generation, which spans all the way back to the Eisenhower years.

August 21, 2009

Obama’s secret, private side

It's hard to know why President Obama said what he said at Tuesday's health care town hall meeting in New Hampshire. He actually stated, "If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

August 14, 2009

Bad news on job front

After nine months of explosive monetary and fiscal stimulus, you would think economic recovery would be upon us. But the June jobs report tells a much different story.

July 6, 2009

KUDLOW: ‘Green’ cars will go flat

Get ready, folks. America has bought a car company. As of Monday, we, the taxpayers, own a majority stake in General Motors Corp. Whether the company will be formally renamed Government Motors remains to be seen. But that's what it will be.

June 2, 2009

KUDLOW: A ‘cure’ that will worsen our ills

Does anybody really believe that adding 50 million people to the public health care rolls will not cost the government more money? About $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion more? At least.

May 15, 2009

KUDLOW: Lurching to the left

In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan's popularity and policies moved American politics firmly to the right. In only 100 days, Barack Obama's politics and policies shifted America way to the left.

May 1, 2009

KUDLOW: Death of democratic capitalism?

How far will the Obama administration move to assert regulatory control over key sectors of the economy? Are we moving away from democratic capitalism and toward some sort of corporatist state-directed economy? That could be the biggest stock market and economic-growth issue facing us today.

April 24, 2009

KUDLOW: Enough is enough!

Is bailout nation about to strike again? Sure looks like it. According to a bunch of Page One news stories, life-insurance companies are about to get TARP'ed. This is nuts.

April 15, 2009

KUDLOW: A ‘truly breathtaking’ departure

Team Obama fired General Motors' Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner on Sunday afternoon, just a short time after Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told the television talk shows that some banks will need large amounts of new government assistance - even though the bankers don't want it. Does this smack of big-time government planning and industrial policy? Another lurch to the left for economic policy?

April 2, 2009

KUDLOW: Agenda behind 90 percent take

Taking advantage of the populist revolt against Wall Street and the American International Group Inc. bailouts, House Democrats have passed a vengeance tax on TARPed financial firms that amounts to a 90 percent marginal tax rate on bonuses.

March 24, 2009