News reports indicate that the G-20 pledged an additional $1.1 trillion in financing for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other global institutions so that they can help countries cope with the global economic crisis. The details of the proposal are virtually non-existent, i.e. exactly who will be responsible for what portion of the pledge, what exactly the money is supposed to be used for, and when it will be delivered. It’s clear that much of the money was already in the pipeline in one form or another. …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoGaHAgLwvQ[/youtube]Yesterday, The Foundry announced the premiere of Explorer: Inside Guantanamo Bay on the National Geographic Channel, this Sunday night. Charles “Cully” Stimson, Senior Legal Fellow in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation was instrumental in granting National Geographic the access they needed to produce this one-of-a-kind documentary when he was Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Detainee Affairs prior to joining Heritage. Tune in Sunday at 9 pm EST. Check local listings for channel information.
Barring a sudden change in weather, sometime tonight North Korea will likely launch a multistage rocket over Japan, far into the Pacific Ocean. The Kim Jong Il regime is claiming the launch is a test of their civilian satellite program, but it is widely understood that this claim is just a pretext for testing their Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile. A 2001 National Intelligence Estimate by the U.S. Intelligence Community assessed a two-stage Taepo Dong-2 could target Alaska, Hawaii, and the western United States while a three stage missile could threaten …
First, we should thank all of the members of the Heritage Foundation, and our readers, followers and friends at The Foundry, Twitter and Facebook for the tremendous response to our contest. Clearly, America is not happy giving Her Majesty, the Queen of England, an iPod. We had over 500 entries in less than 36 hours, and most submissions were either really funny, or really thoughtful. So we had to pick two winners, to represent both types of responses. Each winner will receive a copy of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution …
For days, President Obama and 19 other world leaders have been meeting in London — with an occasional side visit with the Queen — to discuss the world’s finances. But today, the real action was in the implausible city of Norwalk, Connecticut for a meeting of the Financial Accounting Standards Board – the private organization that sets accounting standards This gathering of accountants may have lacked the celebrity appeal of the London to-do, but may do more to ease the financial crisis than any communiqué out of Europe. At issue …
Add together NASA since its inception, the cost of Hurricane Katrina and spending on the New Deal. Adjust for inflation. What do you get? Not quite the amount of money a cap and trade program would generate in energy taxes on consumers. The $1.9 trillion generated over eight years from a cap-and-trade bill would still be larger than the $1.5 trillion from NASA, the New Deal, and Hurricane Katrina. Granted, this is comparing apples to oranges to lemons as NASA and the New Deal are government spending projects, Hurricane Katrina …
It was bad enough that the federal government utterly failed to enforce our interior enforcement immigration laws during the Clinton years and during the first term of George W. Bush. It was only after Michael Chertoff arrived as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and started taking a tough stance on illegal immigration that Immigration and Customs Enforcement began enforcing the laws on the books. Part of this get-tough approach included ending the self-defeating policy called “catch and release” where illegal immigrants were caught, but then released …
The G-20 summit communiqué has been released. As we predicted, it has something for everyone, though rather more for the Europeans than the Americans, and even less for the Chinese. And there are constructive points in it, though whether they will amount to much remains to be seen. But by and large, the communiqué marks a large step in the wrong direction for the U.S. and the world. First, the summit has agreed to treble the resources of the IMF to $750 billion, to support $100 billion in funding for …
While 77% of Americans say the quality of their own health care is excellent or good, access to and rising costs of health care remain fundamental problems with our health care system. As conservatives we believe a better functioning, more competitive, and transparent marketplace would cover more people and deliver the higher-value care we seek. Judging by his policy proposals, it appears that President Barack Obama has a different vision. Yesterday, the the Health Policy Consensus Group, a coalition of experts from market-oriented think tanks (including the American Enterprise Institute, …
One of today’s great Chicago architects likes to critique buildings by asking: “If this is the answer, what was the question?” It cuts to the chase. Imagine standing before this…thing and applying the above critique. The question becomes: “Can you build me a poorly lit maximum-security prison tower to live in? Absurd, right? Just like the result. Similarly, to properly understand the absurdity of the U.S. Government backing car warranties, we must ask ourselves what the objective is regarding the auto industry. Improved sales? Economic viability? Something along these lines, surely, …
