Lawrence Kudlow

KUDLOW: Those outrageous bonuses

This whole AIG fiasco - where the entire political class is suddenly screaming over bonuses paid to derivative traders in AIG's financial-products division - is just a complete farce. What it really shows is how the government has completely bungled the AIG takeover.

March 20, 2009

KUDLOW: Shotgun-marriage over TARP?

Is it really necessary for taxpayers to spend another dime on the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP)? We have already committed $700 billion, half of which was spent under President Bush and half of which is coming under President Obama. And now, as we wait with baited breath for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's detailed plan to purchase bank toxic assets, the TARP could rise by another $1 trillion or more.

March 17, 2009

KUDLOW: Subsidizing bad behavior

President Obama's massive mortgage-bailout plan is nothing more than a thinly disguised entitlement program that redistributes income from the responsible 92 percent of home-owning mortgage holders who pay their bills on time to the irresponsible defaulters who bought more than they could ever afford. This is Obama's spread-the-wealth program in action.

February 23, 2009

KUDLOW: Ready or not?

The day after President Obama's big news conference, and on the day Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveiled his Bank Bailout Nation TARP III Plan, stock markets plunged in a vote of no-confidence, with the Dow dropping nearly 400 points.

February 13, 2009

KUDLOW: Jobs down, stocks up?

How do you explain it when jobs plunge and stocks surge? That's what happened Friday, as the January employment report revealed a disastrous 598,000 drop in payrolls. Actually, the job loss was 664,000, if you count downward revisions to the prior two months. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate moved up from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent. So there's no sugar coating it. It was a terrible report.

February 10, 2009

KUDLOW: Overdose indicators

Last Wednesday night's House tally on the Democratic stimulus package, where not a single Republican voted in favor, was another shot across the bow for this incredibly unmanageable $900 billion behemoth of a program that truly will not stimulate the economy. Sure, the Democrats won on a party-line count. But Team Obama is now regrouping in the face of mounting criticism of this package.

February 2, 2009

KUDLOW: Wounded Treasury chief

More than a third of the Senate voted against Tim Geithner's confirmation as Treasury secretary, though he did pass the test by 60-to-34 early Monday evening. That is the closest post-World War II margin for a Treasury secretary. According to Bloomberg, seven of the last 23 Treasury-secretary nominees - under which actual Senate roll-call votes were taken - were confirmed by an average vote margin of 95-to- 1. (The others were confirmed without an official vote count.)

January 29, 2009

KUDLOW: Solution or problem?

During the week of Barack Obama's Inaugural, with a tough economic downturn and the ongoing threat from global terrorism, perhaps it is useful to recall Ronald Reagan's first Inaugural address, delivered Jan. 20, 1981.

January 22, 2009

KUDLOW: How big-government is he?

Obama spoke Thursday at George Mason University about his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan - a k a the stimulus package. There's an interesting section that would warm the heart of John Maynard Keynes. It goes like this —

January 13, 2009

KUDLOW: Time for choice — not an echo

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is absolutely right to warn against President-elect Barack Obama's gigantic stimulus-spending package. Mr. McConnell says it "will be the largest spending bill in the history of our country at a time when our national debt is already the largest in history." As a result, he says the bill "will require tough scrutiny and oversight."

January 2, 2009

KUDLOW: Shock-and-awe easing

In a monetary version of shock-and-awe, the Federal Reserve unleashed a massive easing move with its Federal Open Market Committee policy announcement Dec. 16 - one that represents a sea change in central-bank operations.

December 19, 2008

KUDLOW: Who’s losing the U.S. car business?

After Chairman Mao's revolution about 60 years ago, people in the U.S. played the blame game by asking, "Who lost China?" Well, following the breakdown of an arduous seven-hour Senate negotiating session the night of Dec. 11, many are asking, "Who lost the U.S. car business?" Right after the United Auto Workers (UAW) vetoed a compromise, bankruptcy-lite, Detroit Little Three rescue plan put together by Sen. Bob Corker, Tennessee Republican, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger played the blame game by blasting Mr. Corker and the Republican Party for "singling out" union workers to shoulder the burden of reviving the U.S. car business.

December 16, 2008

KUDLOW: Where to draw a bailout line?

The bailout-nation saga continued last week, as the little-three carmakers from Detroit drove to Washington to plead for a $34 billion federal package to save themselves from bankruptcy and insolvency.

December 14, 2008

KUDLOW: Pro-growth economic team?

When President-elect Obama had a chance to squash the tax-increase threat once and for all at his news conference Monday, he took a pass and let the question linger for another day. But his new economic Cabinet appointments strongly suggest there will be no tax raises next year.

November 28, 2008

KUDLOW: Tarp the TARP

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has called for a pause in the financing request for the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), halting it at $350 billion. (The original request was for $700 billion.)

November 21, 2008

KUDLOW: Bush shows Obama the way

President Bush came out fighting for free markets with a strong and stirring defense of American capitalism on the eve of the G-20 World Economic Conference. Stocks soared 550 points Thursday as Mr. Bush's luncheon speech was played live on all the major cable networks. It was as though Mr. Bush was trying to leave an economic-primer to his successor-elect Barack Obama. Markets cheered because it's the best thing they've heard in many weeks.

November 17, 2008

KUDLOW: Rehab for recovery

Back in early 1981, when I went to Washington to work for President Reagan, one of the architects of supply-side economics, Columbia University's Robert Mundell, visited my Office of Management and Budget OMB office inside the White House complex. At the time, we suffered from double-digit inflation, sky-high interest rates, a long economic downturn and a near 15-year bear market in stocks.http://www.washingtontimes.com/admin/news/stories/332053/#

October 28, 2008

KUDLOW: Light at the end of the financial crisis

Fear and panic have taken over the stock market, the banking system and the economy. It is one of those moments in history when people feel helpless, frustrated and bewildered about what's going on and why it's happening.

October 14, 2008

KUDLOW: What about investors?

While the presidential candidates debated in Nashville Tuesday night, the Asian stock markets were selling off by 10 percent. Earlier in the day the U.S. market plunged 500 points. These were big-time drops, yet presidential debaters never talk about the stock market. Nashville was no exception.

October 12, 2008

KUDLOW: Our Bair necessity

You know what? Hank Paulson may not be the most powerful financial person in the country right now. That honor goes to Sheila Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

October 3, 2008