by Paul R. Gregory During the French presidential campaign, pundits assured us that Francois Hollande was simply playing to his socialist base. Once in office, he’d prove to be a pragmatist. All his talk of 75 percent income tax rates, wealth surcharges, infrastructure banks, new taxes on dividends, hiring more public employees, not giving an inch on entitlements, and punishing the financial sector was just talk. Two months later, we know...
American Exceptionalism: Obama’s Achilles Heel?
by Paul Gregory American exceptionalism is the notion that the United States occupies a unique position in the world, offering opportunity and hope to others by its unique balance of public and private interests and constitutional ideals of personal and economic freedom. The phrase, often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835 Democracy in America, offers Romney an opening wide enough for a truck: If America is exceptional, why...
Should The New York Times Investigate Wal-Mart Or Carlos Slim?
by Paul Gregory The New York Times’s Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Struggle suggests that Wal-Mart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The smoking gun: Seven years ago, Wal-Mart de Mexico hired two outside lawyers for $8.5 million to “facilitate” store permits. The lawyers were effective: “Legal and bureaucratic obstacles melted away after payments were made to minor officials who could thwart...
Look To Sweden! Obama’s High-Tax Gurus
by Paul Gregory Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez (Wall Street Journal High Tax Rates Won’t Slow Growth) offer a beguiling Leftist narrative: The 1% will cough up incremental tax revenue up to a 70 percent rate without cutting the things they do to generate economic growth. We can then use their money to fund “higher-return public investments” (such as Solyndra and the public-education black hole?) without cutting back the entitlement...
French Socialists Test Ride Obama Platform
by Paul Gregory French voters went to the polls today to winnow a ten-candidate presidential field down to the “right-of-center” incumbent (Nicolas Sarkozy) and his socialist challenger (Francois Hollande). The two will face each other in a runoff election on May 6. A Sarkozy loss would be the first of an incumbent French president in thirty years. It would threaten the German-French sponsored European Union rescue package. It is no...