From today’s House Energy and Commerce Committee report on the Department of Energy’s Solyndra loan guarantee comes this startling revelation: Chris Gronet, the CEO of Solyndra, referred to the federal government as the “Bank of Washington,” adding, “it continues to help us.” The report underscores the degree to which the …
When the Energy Department set out to restructure the federal loan for now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra, White House budget staffers insisted that allowing the company to go bankrupt and liquidating its assets would provide greater returns for the taxpayer than the deal DOE had struck with the company’s private investors. …
Ed DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), got it right by putting taxpayers’ interests ahead of the Obama Administration’s wishes. DeMarco, whose agency controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, says that the anticipated benefits of reducing loan amounts of underwater mortgages “do not outweigh the …
President Obama reportedly has signed an intelligence finding that authorizes U.S. support for Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. It remains unclear what is included in this “covert” aid, publicized in what looks like another leak, or when the finding was signed. But the United States must …
This session, Congress has consistently increased criminal penalties through legislation. In what type of bills are they doing it? In appropriations bills, of course. Where else would Congress increase criminal penalties? For example, in the fiscal year (FY) 2013 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, the maximum penalties for violation of Arms …
Efforts to protect the environment in America have ignored the most powerful force for improving the environment: free people. The results of these misguided policies have been higher energy prices, lower incomes, less access to resources, and technological stagnation—often failing to produce tangible environmental benefits. It doesn’t have to be …
A new Government Accountability Office report reveals that in more than 40 states a growing number of households are able to collect food-stamp benefits simply by receiving a government-issued brochure or accessing a toll-free number. For example, in states like Alabama, Hawaii and Montana, a brochure automatically triggers eligibility in …
This Friday, the government of Argentina will announce with great fanfare the last payments on “Boden” bonds issued during the so-called corralito. That was the decade-long process imposed in response to the 2001 financial crisis that included a freeze of bank accounts and the forcing of those with dollars to …
Last week, Pascal Lamy, chief of the World Trade Organization (WTO), gave a stark warning that rising protectionism is a serious threat to global economic recovery. Indeed, not too long ago, The Heritage Foundation’s Center for International Trade and Economics also counseled that “global trade freedom needs a boost.” We …
