Lawrence Kudlow from Creators Syndicate

Three More Years of Goldilocks? for 12/01/2007

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

There was some revealing information in the three-year forecast published by the Federal Reserve last week. It looks like Ben Bernanke and Co. are dissing high oil and gold prices and the sagging dollar as influences on future inflation. Instead, they basically see 2 percent inflation — both headline and core — in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The Fed also sees Goldilocks-type economic growt ...

Updated: Sat Dec 01, 2007

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Bush Boom Continues for 12/10/2007

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Following last week's solid jobs report, The New York Times got back to its Bush-bashing recession mantra with the front-page headline: "Slowing Job Growth Seen as Ominous Sign for Economy."

This chant has been going on for quite some time. Doom and gloom from the economic pessimists has been political sport for seven years, even though the Bush boom just celebrated its sixth a ...

Updated: Mon Dec 10, 2007

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Bernanke Blows Smoke for 12/20/2007

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Ben Bernanke's Federal Reserve blew smoke at the markets last week, and markets blew smoke right back. Nothing was solved in terms of the growing global credit crisis, the result of a sub-prime virus that continues to infect money and capital markets everywhere.

Instead of taking aggressive action with a half-point shock-and-awe rate cut, the Fed opted for a timid quarter-point cut. The ...

Updated: Thu Dec 20, 2007

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The New Fire in Fred's Belly for 12/22/2007

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

An energetic and forceful Fred Thompson sat down with me last week on "Kudlow and Company" to talk politics and the economy. The former Tennessee senator was in good form — more animated than I've seen him and definitely a different person than the one I interviewed six months ago.

I asked him about Dick Armey, the former Republican House majority leader. Armey recently p ...

Updated: Sat Dec 22, 2007

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Bush's Very Good Year for 12/27/2007

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Against all odds, and despite the usual drumbeat of criticism, President George W. Bush has had a very good year. The troop surge in Iraq is succeeding. America remains safe from terrorist attacks. And the Goldilocks economy is outperforming all expectations.

At his year-end news conference, President Bush stated with optimism that the economy is fundamentally sound, despite the housing ...

Updated: Thu Dec 27, 2007

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Goldilocks Needs Tax-Reform, Not Populism for 01/05/2008

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Yes, corporate profits are slowing and jobs are softening. Despite 52 months of ongoing jobs gains and 1.3 million new payrolls in the past year, December jobs registered only 18,000 and the unemployment rate ticked back up to (a still historically low) 5 percent. Despite years of gains from a booming business sector, corporate profits are in fact falling at about a 6 percent clip.

But t ...

Updated: Sat Jan 05, 2008

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GOP Candidates Go Supply-Side for 01/12/2008

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The New Hampshire primary may not have confirmed who's going to win the GOP nomination (or the Democratic nomination, for that matter). But it just may have told us where voting Republicans stand on the economy and supply-side policy.

Exit polls in New Hampshire reveal that the most important issue for Republican voters is the economy, at 31 percent, trailed by the war in Iraq, at 24 per ...

Updated: Sat Jan 12, 2008

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Capitalism Doesn't Work, Mr. Gates? for 01/25/2008

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Bill Gates, bloviating at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is issuing a clarion call for a "kinder capitalism" to aid the world's poor. Gates says he has grown impatient with the shortcomings of capitalism. He thinks it's failing much of the world. This, of course, from a guy who's worth around $35 billion (give or take a billion).

Don't you just love it?

...

Updated: Fri Jan 25, 2008

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Bernanke's Next Challenge for 02/08/2008

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Charlie Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, warned this week about the risks of inflation, overly aggressive interest-rate cuts and further damage being done to the Fed's credibility. I agree with Plosser.

I say this as a supporter of the "shock and awe" Fed policies that brought the fed funds target rate down from 5.25 percent to its present 3 percent. ...

Updated: Fri Feb 08, 2008

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The Case for McCain for 02/14/2008

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Some things in life are quite simple. Here's one of them: Sen. John McCain is going to be our next president.

How do I know?

For starters, McCain will have a unified Republican Party — conservatives and all — working hard for him. He's also going to win over the Reagan Democrats, the Bush Democrats and the Perot independents. These folks demand a strong milita ...

Updated: Thu Feb 14, 2008

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It's Over for 02/21/2008

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Allow me a dose of hardened market realism concerning Barack Obama's landslide victory in Wisconsin. The race is over. Hillary Clinton is over. Her electability is over.

Bill Clinton's political invincibility is over. The Clinton Restoration is over.

It's over.

Obama got to the far left faster than Hillary did. He out-organized her, out-fundraised her, out-speechified her, ...

Updated: Thu Feb 21, 2008

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Obama's Big-Government Vision for 02/28/2008

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Sen. Barack Obama is very gloomy about America, and he's aligning himself with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in hopes of coming to the nation's rescue. His proposal? Big-government planning, spending and taxing — exactly what the nation and the stock market don't want to hear.

Obama unveiled much of his economic strategy in Wisconsin this week: He wants to spend ...

Updated: Thu Feb 28, 2008

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Resurrect King Dollar for 03/06/2008

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

If Sen. John McCain wants to run as a candidate of change, and if he's interested in distancing himself from President Bush on some issues, he should reverse the declining fortunes of the Bush wartime dollar. America's prestige is on the line.

With inflation spurting in the United States, the sinking dollar is being ridiculed both at home and overseas. The falling dollar is perceived as ...

Updated: Thu Mar 06, 2008

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Was Bear Stearns the Sacrificial Lamb? for 03/20/2008

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Did Bear Stearns really need to go down in flames? It's a question that needs to be asked, and my answer is no.

Of course, I don't know the value of Bear Stearns's assets, and whether they could have served as collateral for private or government loans. So I cannot be entirely certain that my answer is correct. But here's how I see it:

Since the elimination of the Glass-Steagall A ...

Updated: Thu Mar 20, 2008

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Why Not Optimism? for 03/26/2008

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

What exactly is wrong with an optimistic president who has confidence in the long-run future of the American economy?

President Bush took this stance in a recent interview with me and at the Economic Club of New York. He told me: "Like any free market, there's also downturns, and we're in one. But I am confident in the long-term strength of our economy."

Optimism, after ...

Updated: Wed Mar 26, 2008

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Ben Bernanke Is My Kind of Guy for 03/27/2008

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I have really learned to like Ben Bernanke. He's the man. And his interest-rate cuts are vastly more effective than the so-called economic-stimulus rebate plan coming out of Congress and the White House.

Why do I say this? Simple. I just got my latest adjustable-rate mortgage statement from the bank. When I originally refinanced this loan, it was 5.75 percent. And last summer my ARM soar ...

Updated: Thu Mar 27, 2008

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The Cleansing Power of Recessions for 04/10/2008

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Recessions are part of capitalism. They happen every so often. We've had two in the last super-prosperous 25 years. And it looks like we're entering a third one after Friday's jobs-loss report.

The unemployment rate went up to 5.1 percent, which is still a low number in historical terms. But the March labor report showed a loss of 80,000 payroll jobs, while payrolls in the prior two mont ...

Updated: Thu Apr 10, 2008

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What Price Freedom? for 04/17/2008

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Surprise, surprise. Having failed to puncture Gen. David Petraeus' story about great improvements on the ground in Iraq, liberals are now saying the cost of the Iraq war has somehow undermined the economy — even caused the current slowdown. What complete nonsense.

First point: The United States has spent roughly $750 billion for the five-year war. Sure, that's a lot of money. But t ...

Updated: Thu Apr 17, 2008

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Why Not Blame Obama? for 04/24/2008

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's rather amusing watching the liberal media launch a full-scale attack on George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson, with Gen. Tom Shales of The Washington Post leading the charge. ABC's Stephanopoulos and Gibson had the audacity to ask Obama some tough questions during the Democratic debate Tuesday night. Challenge Obama with well-informed questions on tax policy and politics? Wound the medi ...

Updated: Thu Apr 24, 2008

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Bush's "R" Is for "Right" for 05/03/2008

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

President George W. Bush may turn out to be the top economic forecaster in the country.

About a month ago, he told reporters, "We're not in a recession — we're in a slowdown." At a White House news conference a few weeks later, despite the fact that reporters pressed him to use the "R" word, Bush refused.

And on Friday, after the most recent jobs report & ...

Updated: Sat May 03, 2008

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