repeal child labor laws

Thinking about the merits of regulation and trying to understand those advocating less regulation as a solution to our current economic malaise I came up with this essay.

a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth

One hears or reads the claim that the uncertainty created by high budget deficits and excessive regulation has so frightened businesses that they are afraid to spend and hire. Undoubtedly over the next twelve months this will be repeated more often still. The claim, however, is nonsense. I explain why in this essay.

"Failed" stimulus, businesses strangled by the noose of regulation, and no jobs. Is any of this true?

We are told the 2009 stimulus plan has failed, that the U.S. economy is stagnant, that both monetary and fiscal stimulus have failed to create jobs, and that because of high budget deficits and the current administration's increased enforcement of existing regulations and imposition of a host of new ones businesses are afraid to spend or hire. As I point out in the following, the fact is there has not been -in total- all that much fiscal stimulus applied to the economy, there has been net job growth, and over the course of last year, business investment recovered quite rapidly. I have spent last couple of weeks putting the following together: Several facts, a simple projection, and a few opinions. My plan is to fill this out with more detail and references, as time permits, over the next few weeks. The point remains, coming up with what I have so far was by no means all that tough. Anyone reporting on these important issues or making the sort of claims that are often being made should do no less than what I have done here.

fiscal responsibility

As the debate continues in Washington, I put the following together to see if I could better understand the magnitude of the "problem" we currently face. As the link indicates I am more than bit inclined to argue, as Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research has repeatedly argued, that in terms of real priorities we have really got it all wrong. Fiscal "Responsibility".