Copyright 2012 The New York Sun Thu, 17 May 2012 15:49:23 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lawrence Kudlow :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Lawrence+Kudlow admin@nysun.net (Seth Lipsky) webmaster@nysun.com en-us LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/a-fell-swoop-is-sought-by-boehner-on-debt/87824/ Thu, 17 May 2012 15:49:14 EST House Speaker John Boehner is playing a heroic role right now. In his efforts to prevent the Bush tax cuts from expiring, Mr. Boehner is aggressively taking on President Obama’s leadership ineptitude on the economy. In essence, Mr. Boehner is pushing a Republican policy to wrap up a debt-limitation bill and extend the Bush tax cuts in one fell swoop before the election — and before all the last-minute, crisis-oriented, political machinations that would come in a lame-duck Congress, threatening... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/danger-sign-for-gop-emerges-as-romneys-margin/87815/ Tue, 8 May 2012 15:17:16 EST While President Obama is out on the campaign trail talking about how bad things were four years ago and how we have to go “forward” to his second term to see just how great things are going to be in the next four years, the biggest problem he’s got is the here and now. Real GDP in the second quarter stalled at 2.2%. There were a paltry 115,000 new jobs in April. The labor force shrank by 342,000 for the month, and the 63.6% labor-force participation rate is now the lowest since 1981. There are... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/geithner-crosses-the-line-into-the-political-fray/87803/ Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:17:01 EST Is Secretary Geithner the most politically partisan treasury secretary in history? Certainly sounds like it these days. As the government’s chief financial officer, he’s spending a lot of time firing campaign barbs at various Republicans and their policies. Mr. Geithner has blasted Mitt Romney by name on several occasions. He frequently attacks Representative Paul Ryan and the GOP budget. He recently fired a broadside at top-Romney economist Glenn Hubbard, who is presently dean of the Colombia... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/romneys-economic-approval-rating-soars-over/87796/ Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:26:14 EST Wall Street headlines are full of fears of a springtime stall for the already subpar economic recovery. If that weren’t bad enough for President Obama’s reelection chances, a spate of new polls show Governor Romney’s economic-approval ratings are far outdistancing the president’s. Even while the headline surveys basically show an Obama-Romney tossup, it will be difficult for Mr. Obama to pull out a victory this fall. Traditionally, incumbents who poll below 50% are in trouble. With Mr. Obama... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloombergs-ambition-to-be-treasury-secretary-seen/87487/ Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:27:37 EST Mayor Bloomberg, in a radio interview on Friday, warned that high unemployment could lead to widespread rioting. That’s right. He actually said that. At a time when European cities have suffered massively from hooliganism, and at a time when U.S. towns like Philadelphia and Kansas City have suffered huge human and commercial tolls from so-called flash riots. For Bloomberg to come out with this statement is irresponsible and incendiary. But you know what? He’s got a personal agenda. This is a... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/a-new-definition-of-chutzpah-emerges-as-obama/87788/ Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:22:54 EST In President Obama’s latest class-war, tax-the-rich gambit, he has stooped to a new low with misleading and out-of-context quotes from Ronald Reagan. Apparently, the president is now trying to use the Gipper for cover while he attacks Mitt Romney with the so-called Buffett Rule. In an address this past week, Mr. Obama cited a couple of Reagan speeches from June 1985, in which the former president quoted a letter from a wealthy executive who grumbled that he paid less in taxes than secretaries... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/americans-will-have-to-wait-until-after/87784/ Mon, 9 Apr 2012 12:21:16 EST Despite the disappointing jobs report for March, it’s difficult to make a realistic case that the economy is falling off a cliff or that some kind of double-dip recession is on the way. Or that a Ben Bernanke QE3 is likely. Sure, the 120,000 gain in nonfarm payrolls — roughly half of expectations — is causing a downgrade in growth psychology. Ditto for the 31,000 drop in household employment. But if you smooth out these numbers over three months, payrolls have averaged a 212,000 increase, while... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/romney-offering-the-right-stuff-on-obama-s-crony/87665/ Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:18:21 EST Let me build on Charles Krauthammer’s great Friday column, “The GOP’s Suicide March.” Mr. Krauthammer argues that just as President Obama’s class-warfare, soak-the-rich mantra started lagging in the polls, some Republicans on the campaign trail started making the case that Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital was involved in nothing more than vulture capitalism, looting companies, and destroying jobs. Keeping class envy alive. I’m not going to name names, because everybody knows who these Republicans are... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/gingrich-has-chance-tonight-to-trump-interview/87661/ Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:55:34 EST Might a strong Newt Gingrich debate performance tonight trump the ABC Nightline interview with Newt’s ex-wife Marianne? Remember, the debate comes before Nightline. And the roughly 5 million to 6 million people who watch the debate will be a lot more than the roughly 2 million folks who turn on Nightline. Plus, the Nightline crowd is largely liberal, and these viewers are not going to favor Newt Gingrich. I’m not saying the ABC Brian Ross interview with Marianne isn’t something. But I’m not... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/one-of-biggest-tax-cuts-in-history-seen/87768/ Sat, 31 Mar 2012 07:17:56 EST As Ronald Reagan famously said, “There you go again.” Reagan was blaming Jimmy Carter for launching false attacks during a debate. And that line was so effective, it not only helped Reagan win the debate, but a presidential election that would change American history. “There you go again” can apply equally to President Obama. Once again this week, the president was out on the campaign trail bashing and oil and gas companies. He continued to spread major falsehoods about this industry, which I... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/romney-would-be-big-winner-if-supreme-court-voids/87766/ Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:40:34 EST If the Supreme Court overthrows the individual mandate, doesn’t Mitt Romney say “I told you so” and emerge as the big political winner? All along he’s been arguing that only states have mandate power, and that the federal government under the commerce clause, or any other law, is guilty of massive regulatory overreach with Obamacare. While fending off criticism from Rick Santorum and others about the Massachusetts mandate, Governor Romney has always said it was a state issue, not a federal one... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/romneys-declaration-of-principles-starts-to-look/87756/ Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:52:47 EST William F. Buckley Jr. naturally put it best when he said, “The wisest choice would be the one who could win. No sense running Mona Lisa in a beauty contest. I’d be for the most right, viable candidate who could win.” Bill Buckley’s Law applies to Mitt Romney today. It’s worth noting Rush Limbaugh’s recent update to the dictum. Following Romney’s terrific Illinois victory speech on Tuesday, Rush said flatly, “A conservative alternative to Romney is Romney.” As the tough primary season ventures... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/ryan-budget-could-get-a-boost-if-next-round/87751/ Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:31:24 EST There are a lot of really good things in Congressman Paul Ryan’s new budget, which is a stark contrast to the Obama budget. Mr. Ryan cuts spending by over $5 trillion, lowers the deficit by over $3 trillion, and brings the debt-to-GDP ratio down to 62 percent. All of these are ten-year totals. Mr. Ryan also cuts back on small entitlements, block-granting them to the states. Then, of course, there’s the new and improved Medicare-reform plan. But what I really like about this year’s Ryan budget... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/best-way-to-conquer-high-gasoline-prices-is/87744/ Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:48:26 EST No matter how much President Obama protests, the simple fact is that he continues to oppose and mock and disparage oil and gas drilling. He is a prisoner of the environmental left, and he remains on the wrong side of energy history. That’s exactly why he has a 59% negative rating on the economy, according to a recent poll, even though jobs and other indicators have actually picked up. It’s about $4 or higher gas at the pump. Polls overwhelmingly show that Americans want drilling in ANWR and... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/bernanke-emerges-as-the-all-time-keynesian/87735/ Thu, 8 Mar 2012 17:24:08 EST The latest cockamamie Fed idea for “sterilized” bond buying shouldn’t pass without a comment. A Wall Street Journal story explained that somehow the Fed will buy more long-term bonds, print new money, and then borrow the money back so it doesn’t cause inflation. It’s all a lot of hooey. Typical Fed tinkering. They can’t seem to help themselves. The dollar has already fallen about 1% since this story broke. Gold has jumped. If you buy into the Fed’s argument, it will inject cash in return for... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/how-romney-snatched-victory-from-jaws-of-defeat/87726/ Sat, 3 Mar 2012 07:08:24 EST Mitt Romney snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Michigan by unveiling a pro-growth, 20% tax-cut plan and by resetting his limited-government spending cuts and entitlement reforms. In other words, he delivered an economic-growth package. It served him well. It may not have been the only factor in his victory last week, but it put him squarely in the voter zeitgeist. It may be apocryphal on Super Tuesday in Ohio, where he has come back to dead even after being down double digits. Now, if... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/romney-tax-policy-speech-bests-not-only-obama-but/87720/ Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:35:10 EST When President Bush cut taxes, including his 2003 reduction in tax rates on investment, he always referred to it as putting more money in people’s pockets. I don’t want to be unfair, because the 2003 tax cuts were his best policy move. But Mr. Bush was never a supply-sider. Putting more money in people’s pockets is a demand-side argument. Contrast that with Governor Romney’s tax-policy speech today at the Detroit Economic Club, where he touted his new across-the board 20% reduction in personal... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/obama-in-a-curious-speech-advances-republican/87719/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:43:16 EST President Obama fought back against rising oil and retail gas prices in a speech in Florida on Thursday. But it was a curious speech. He started out by mocking Republicans, stating that GOP candidates are licking their chops as gasoline prices rocket up. He said, “They are already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas. I’ll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling.” Very clever. It’s kind of what Newt Gingrich said in this week’s... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/obamas-budget-looks-dead-on-arrival-at-the-seante/87704/ Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:18:47 EST If you shake out the Obama budget in terms of bold headlines, it’s really a class-warfare, tax-the-rich budget. Layer upon layer of tax hikes are piled on successful investors, small-business owners, and corporations. The capital-gains tax goes from 15% to 24% (including Obamacare). The dividends tax goes from 15% to nearly 40%, and that’s not including the double tax on corporate profits embodied in dividends and capital gains. The Bush tax cuts for top earners are repealed. There’s the 30%... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/bernanke-emerges-as-an-issue-on-the-campaign-train/87700/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:58:32 EST Out on the campaign trail, Fed head Ben Bernanke is an unpopular guy. Governor Romney and Speaker Gingrich have both said they would replace Mr. Bernanke, not reappoint him. Congressman Ron Paul would swap the whole Federal Reserve monetary system for a gold-linked dollar, making the yellow metal legal tender. It was Governor Perry of Texas, before he dropped out of the race, who said more quantitative easing by the Fed would be “almost treasonous.” Republicans in Washington are equally... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/bernanke-gets-one-thing-right-taxes/87695/ Tue, 7 Feb 2012 16:16:01 EST For one time in a row the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, got the story right. No, it wasn’t King Dollar. It was taxes. Testifying before members of the Senate Budget Committee today, Mr. Bernanke referred to the scheduled repeal of the Bush tax cuts. He said, “If no action is taken by January 2013, there will be a very sharp change in the fiscal stance of the United States government.” Now, lest we give him too much credit, Mr. Bernanke was kind of making a Keynesian point. Why?... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/message-to-mitt-a-rising-tide-lifts-all-boats/87690/ Fri, 3 Feb 2012 20:44:14 EST That great phrase was coined by the late Jack Kemp, who believed that growth and opportunity for all is the answer to poverty. Kemp believed it was the answer to all things economic. And he was right. The best anti-poverty program is the one that creates jobs. The answer to large budget deficits? Grow the economy, create jobs, watch incomes rise, and let the tax revenues come rolling in. Partly from Jack Kemp’s work, and partly from his own experience, Ronald Reagan believed the same thing. He... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/romney-readies-tax-reform-plan-to-deal-with-sub/87679/ Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:31:08 EST One would think that with one of the weakest economic recoveries on record, President Obama would be desperately searching for ways to promote economic growth. It is, after all, an election year. Most pundits and pollsters agree that it’s the economy, stupid. Instead, Mr. Obama used his State of the Union speech to rail on about fairness, inequality, and redistribution. The Obama strategy is simple: Tax the rich because they don’t pay enough. The problem is, they do pay enough. According to the... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/obamas-tax-proposal-is-designed-to-come-at-me/87676/ Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:18:10 EST President Obama's proposal to increase taxes on the rich is “designed to come at me,” GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney told me this morning. In his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Obama proposed a minimum 30% tax rate on Americans earning more than $1 million a year. The proposal — known as the “Buffett Tax” after Warren Buffett famously said his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does — was a key part of the president's populist push for "fairness" in his speech to the... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/is-romneys-bain-capital-type-of-treatment-just/87653/ Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:00:09 EST There’s a troubled company out there called U.S. Government, Inc. It’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. It badly needs to be taken over and turned around. It probably even needs the services of a good private-equity firm, with plenty of experience and a reasonably good track record in downsizing, modernizing, shrinking staff, and making substantial changes in management. Yes, layoffs will be a necessary part of the restructuring. A quick look at the income statement of this troubled firm... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/secret-romney-ryan-entente-bodes-well-for-gop/87647/ Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:38:45 EST While so much attention has been turned to Newt Gingrich’s catastrophically mistaken attack on Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, free-market capitalism, investment, and profits, a potentially much more significant development occurred in the New Hampshire debate Saturday night. For the first time, Mitt Romney embraced a much bolder tax-reform plan. Under pressure from a number of supply-side conservatives (including me, and most especially the editorial-page folks at the Wall Street Journal), Mr... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/gop-beware-economy-is-moving-to-give-obama-a-leg/87639/ Fri, 6 Jan 2012 19:14:28 EST  Message to my fellow conservatives: Please don’t blame the mainstream press for the improvement in jobs, unemployment, and economic growth. Reporters are not making this up. The economy is better. It’s going to give President Obama a leg up on the election. GOP beware, and come to your senses. Take Friday’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nonfarm payrolls gained 200,000, and the unemployment rate slipped to 8.5% from 8.7%. It may well be that a seasonal quirk added 42,000... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/why-art-laffer-finds-newt-gingrich-so-promising/87626/ Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:32:00 EST “The purpose of economic policy is growth, jobs, and prosperity,” supply-side founder Art Laffer told me today. As such, Mr. Laffer has endorsed Newt Gingrich and the Gingrich 15% flat-tax plan, which includes the 12.5% corporate-tax reform. “It’s nothing against the other candidates,” Mr. Laffer said. “But Newt’s plan is right, and therefore endorsing him is the right thing to do.” Mr. Laffer is concerned with the fact that Mitt Romney has no tax-reform plan, and he worries that the former... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/gop-debate-in-iowa-fails-to-deliver-a-pro-growth/87613/ Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:22:43 EST Color me cranky about this week’s Republican presidential debate in Iowa. The headline stories were about whether Newt Gingrich actually lobbied for Freddie Mac, or why Mitt Romney changed his positions on gay rights, guns, and abortion. But a GOP growth message to defeat President Obama was completely missing in this debate. It was a supply-side whiff. This election is principally about the economy and its poor performance. It’s about the slow rate of growth, the high rate of unemployment, and... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/mcconnell-warns-democratic-concessions-on-tax/87610/ Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:40:59 EST The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, is warning that a Democratic plan to concede on a "millionaires’ tax," in order to get Republicans to pass an extension of the payroll tax, likely won't be enough to get an agreement. “The tax they wanted to implement on business owners was something that couldn’t pass the House and couldn’t pass the Senate,” Mr. McConnell said on the Kudlow Report last night. “So if they are giving up on that, they are giving up on something that couldn’t have... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/hard-hat-democrats-could-abandon-obama-as-jobs/87611/ Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:27:14 EST The payroll-tax-cut debate is not really about the payroll tax, which is a weak-kneed economic stimulant and a lackluster job creator because of its temporary nature. Without permanent incentives at lower tax rates, these rebates don’t do anything for growth and jobs. Instead, the key to understanding the payroll-tax debate is to grasp President Obama’s leftist vision of taxing successful earners (the millionaire surtax) and his obsession with clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels. These... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/editorials/why-romney-needs-gingrichs-supply-side-sizzle/87600/ Thu, 8 Dec 2011 20:06:18 EST Say what you will about the former speaker, Newt Gingrich. His philosophy, his policy proposals, his track record, his campaign, and all the rest. But the one thing you have to acknowledge about Mr. Gingrich is that he’s a sizzler. He has a way with words. He’s as good a communicator as anyone in modern politics. In my CNBC interview with Mr. Gingrich this week, he slammed President Obama’s tax-the-rich, class-warfare attack on bank’s and businesspeople. He hammered Mr. Obama, calling him a... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/latest-demarche-of-the-fed-gives-europe-a-tylenol/87585/ Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:26:54 EST  It’s often said that help comes to those who help themselves, but Europe can’t seem to help itself. So on Wednesday, the United States Fed came to the rescue. That rescue triggered a global stock market rally, including a near 500-point gain in the United States.  Basically, the Fed is making it cheaper for Europe to borrow dollars. This dollar backstop symbolically shows that the Fed, the European Central Bank, and other big central banks are not going to permit a 2008-type credit freeze and... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/america-dodges-a-super-tax-hike-as-super/87574/ Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:42:29 EST Didn’t our Democratic friends always intend to derail the super-committee over the top Bush tax rates? You remember that $800 billion revenue number always floating around from the Democratic leaks? Well, that’s the static-revenue estimate of repealing the 35% and 33% Bush rates. Sometimes that Democratic revenue number moved up to $1.2 trillion. Well, that would include the static-revenue estimate of the 5.6% millionaire surtax. Get it? In an important sense, the whole super-committee debate... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/automatic-spending-cut-looms-as-likely-best/87571/ Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:18:01 EST Instead of a super tax hike from the super-committee, a much better option for the economy and budget-cutting credibility would be to implement plan B, which is the automatic spending-cut trigger known as sequestration. The Wall Street Journal editorial on the sequester scenario shows a roughly $70 billion budget cut in 2013 and probably more in the future as the budget baseline is pulled down. A $70 billion cut would be one of the largest on record -- maybe the largest. It would show real... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/data-show-a-stronger-economy-than-the-stock/87570/ Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:08:32 EST You wouldn’t know it from today’s stock market, which as of this writing is off nearly 200 points. But the daily numbers continue to show an economy that is stronger than most folks think. Today initial jobless claims fell to 388,000 — the lowest level in seven months. The Philly Fed manufacturing index, which translates to 53 on an ISM basis, shows a strong employment component. Earlier in the week, the index of industrial production beat estimates with an especially strong reading on business... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/gop-in-danger-of-losing-narrative-on-taxes-as/87569/ Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:43:17 EST It would be a great tragedy if a super tax hike came out of a supercommittee compromise deal. It would do great harm to the economy — just as much harm as President Obama’s various tax-hike threats. On the Republican side, a super tax hike would irreparably split the GOP. Okay. Here’s the good news. In a CNBC interview this week, I asked supercommittee co-chair Jeb Hensarling about an idea of the Democrats to raise taxes by $600 billion to $800 billion. About $300 billion of that might be... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/opinion/gingrich-emerges-as-the-most-interesting-figure/87561/ Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:15:52 EST There were three winners in the CNBC debate: Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich. Governor Perry was the obvious loser because of his memory lapse. The guy with the toughest job on Wednesday night was Herman Cain, who has been hammered by sexual-harassment charges. He needed a strong performance to put him back on message with his 9-9-9 tax plan and pro-business, free-enterprise views. I give him first prize, simply because he performed so well. He had the most to gain and the most to... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/big-question-now-is-whether-bernanke-will-follow/87550/ Thu, 3 Nov 2011 15:38:12 EST Will the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke soon follow the European Central Bank’s Mario Draghi? In his first action as Jean-Claude Trichet’s replacement, Mr. Draghi cut the ECB target rate by a quarter% to 1.25% from 1.5%. It was a surprise. Given the hullabaloo over Greece’s bailout referendum, which is now dead in the water, and the likelihood of a new Greek government, Mr. Draghi’s liquidity addition is a modest but useful antidote to major financial stress and uncertainty in the Eurozone... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/fed-set-to-meet-on-monetary-policy-as-case/87548/ Tue, 1 Nov 2011 03:32:38 EST The Fed is meeting Tuesday and Wednesday on monetary policy. The FOMC statement will be released at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and then Chairman Bernanke will have a news conference at 2:15 p.m. With both real gross domestic product and inflation at 2.5%, there doesn’t seem to be much of a case for new Fed quantitative easing. While unemployment is high, that’s a function of regulatory and tax obstacles — certainly not tight money. Both QE1 and QE2 have failed to bring down unemployment. There’s... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/economic-armageddon-is-dodged-as-europe-forges/87541/ Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:41:06 EST The world economy has once again dodged Armageddon. The European Union finally forged a Greek bond deal, and a rescue fund big enough to ring-fence banks and sovereign debt, in order to avoid a catastrophic, Lehman-like contagion event. At the same time, the U.S. economy moved away from the threat of recession with a third-quarter real GDP report of 2.5%. In response, stocks are soaring. We’ll live to see another day. First the American economy. Led by surging business investment of highly... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/gop-field-swings-to-pro-growth-platform/87534/ Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:43:06 EST The latest Gallup poll pegs President Obama’s approval at a new low of 41%. That adds to the thought that the winner of the GOP presidential-primary sweepstakes is going to be the next president. And inside that Republican contest, the policy pendulum is swinging toward pro-growth, flat-tax reform. A new agenda. With Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan and the announcement of a Steve Forbes-type flat tax from Governor Perry, the GOP flat-tax-reform competition is dominating the headline news. While Mr... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/economic-numbers-turn-better-albeit-only-sightly/87526/ Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:24:53 EST While investors wait to see if the Europeans will agree to a major boost in their rescue fund to backstop sovereign debt and the banks who own it, here at home the economic news has turned slightly more positive. A month ago, significant coincident economic indicators for August for nonfarm payrolls, retail sales, and industrial production all registered zero. It was a bizarre and pessimistic coincidence.  Now, a month later, the September figures are coming in better. Not fabulous, but better... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/art-laffer-calls-cains-tax-plan-far-far-better/87524/ Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:21:06 EST Herman Cain is the only Republican presidential candidate who wants to kill the tax code. That’s right. Put a knife in it. Junk the entire system. And people are cheering as he rises in the polls in his quest for the nomination. Cain’s 9-9-9 plan is not perfect. But then again, the good should never the enemy of the perfect. Congressman Paul Ryan gives the plan a thumbs-up. Supply-side mentor Art Laffer tells me it would be “far, far better than the current system.” And Chris Chocola, president... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/new-model-to-save-european-banks-emerges/87518/ Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:17:18 EST  The 330-point stock market rally yesterday was generally linked to an expected Merkel-Sarkozy summit in a couple of weeks to nail down a new European rescue plan for bad government debt and troubled banks. But I think the more immediate cause of yesterday’s rally was the news that European leaders are rescuing the underwater bank Dexia. This bank-rescue mission looks to me like a new model to save all the European banks from the risk of catastrophic meltdown and contagion. There are some key... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/recession-is-the-outlook-despite-manufacturing/87506/ Mon, 3 Oct 2011 15:46:34 EST  The stronger-than-expected ISM manufacturing-index reading for September might normally suggest that the economy, at least for now, has dodged a recession bullet. After zero jobs and zero real consumer spending in August, which put the stalled economy on the front end of recession, the ISM number is the first major September reading. But economist Michael Darda says hold the applause: Inside the ISM, new orders and order backlogs either flat-lined or declined and remain below 50  —  the DMZ... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/christies-earned-american-exceptionalism-makes/87503/ Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:54:20 EST So just when everyone had concluded the Chris Christie matter — saying “Great speech at the Reagan Library, but he’s not gonna run for president” — the New York Post comes along with a story that says the New Jersey governor is seriously considering a 2012 run. Apparently the Reagan Library experience had a big impact on Mr. Christie, and others. He’s now being urged to go for it by Nancy Reagan, Henry Kissinger, President George W. Bush, and Barbara Bush. According to the Post story, even Mr... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/warning-by-bernanke-of-downside-risk-turns-out/87492/ Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:07:54 EST Stocks collapsed roughly 700 points over two days after the Federal Reserve launched its “Operation Twist.” The market correctly perceives that the central bank’s plan to swap $400 billion of short-term notes for long-term bonds adds no new reserves to the financial system. So it wasn’t QE3, that’s for sure. No stimulus. In fact, with the Treasury yield curve flattening, the Fed’s sterilized asset swap actually tightened financial markets. The Fed should have listened to the GOP congressional... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/force-is-with-the-gop-as-stagflation-overcomes/87486/ Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:26:57 EST Is the economy standing on the front end of a new recession? As IMF executive director Christine Lagarde and World Bank president Robert Zoellick warn that the global economy is entering a new economic danger zone, there’s plenty to be worried about right here in the United States. The August batch of economic stats shows zero jobs and zero retail sales. Industrial production rose slightly to save us from a clean zero sweep, but it was only two-tenths of 1%. However, manufacturing registered by... LAWRENCE KUDLOW http://www.nysun.com/national/perry-romney-swinging-against-bernanke-emerge-as/87482/ Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:14:03 EST Watching the two GOP frontrunners in last night’s debate -- Mitt Romney and Rick Perry -- a couple of policy points jumped out at me. First, regarding the Fed, both candidates strongly supported King Dollar. This is interesting because monetary policy continues to be a GOP campaign issue. That is rare in politics, but it’s a good thing in the context of today’s sputtering economy and failed quantitative easing. For Governor Romney, who said he would not reappoint Bernanke in the last debate...