Larry Kudlow
L
awrence Kudlow is CNBC’s senior contributor. He was previously host of CNBC’s The Kudlow Report.
He is the host of The Larry Kudlow Show, which broadcasts each Saturday from 10 A.M. – 1 P.M. on WABC Radio, and is syndicated nationally by Cumulus Media.
Kudlow is a contributing editor of National Review magazine, as well as a columnist and economics editor for National Review Online. He is the author of American Abundance: The New Economic and Moral Prosperity, published by Forbes in January 1998.
During President Reagan’s first term, Kudlow was the associate director for economics and planning, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, where he was engaged in the development of the administration’s economic and budget policy.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Extraordinary Commitment Award from St. Patrick’s Church of Redding, Connecticut; the Bishop’s Humanitarian Award from the Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens; the Humanitarian Award from the Pregnancy Care Center of New Rochelle, New York; the Distinguished Communicator Award from the Brooklyn Diocese; and the Ambassadors for Mission Award from the Pontifical Mission Societies of the United States.
In addition, Mr. Kudlow received the Spirit Award from Hazelden Foundation of Center City, Minnesota; the Exemplary Achievement Award from Covenant House of New York; the Ethical Angel Award from the Guardian Angels of New York; the Reagan Great Communicator Award from the New York Young Republicans Club; the Discovery Award from Sacred Heart University; the Visionary Award from the Council for Economic Education; the Community Recognition Award from Positive Directions; the Reflection Award from Good Counsel; and the President’s Award from Silver Hill Hospital.
Kudlow received an honorary degree (Doctor of Laws) from Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, in 2009 and an honorary degree (Doctor of Laws) from the University of Rochester in 2013. He was a 2014 Media Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
He is presently on the board of directors of the Catholic Cluster School of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a member of St. Patrick’s Church parish council, and a former Fordham University board of trustees member.
Kudlow is CEO of Kudlow & Co., LLC, an economic research firm (www.kudlow.com).
He was formerly chief economist and senior managing director of Bear Stearns & Company. He started his professional career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he worked in open-market operations and bank supervision.
Kudlow was educated at the University of Rochester and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
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‘Drain the swamp.” It was one of President Trump’s most powerful messages on the way to victory. Shake up Washington. Break a few eggs to create a new omelet. Overturn the establishment. Well, hats off to Senate Majority Leader ... -
To Make the AHCA Better, the GOP Has to Practice Bipartisanship within Itself
The good should never be the evil of the perfect. The Paul Ryan health-care bill is a very good first step. Massive repeal of Obamacare tax hikes will be great for the economy. Getting rid of the Affordable Care Act ... -
As Trump Unmuzzles the Economy, Rosy Scenario Will Become Economic Reality
Virtually the whole world is beating up on the Trump administration for daring to predict that low marginal tax rates, regulatory rollbacks, and the repeal of Obamacare will generate 3 to 3.5 percent economic growth in the years ahead. In a CNBC ... -
‘We Must Think Big and Dream Even Bigger’
In all the media back and forth over President Trump’s inaugural speech, most have missed a central point: His address was infused with a wonderful sense of optimism. As an old Reagan guy, I have learned through the years ... -
Why Not 100-Year U.S. Treasury Bonds?
If President-elect Donald Trump’s economic growth plan — slashing business and personal marginal tax rates and rolling back costly business regulations — is achieved next year, the economy could break out with 4 to 5 percent growth. And that means much higher interest ... -
Just the Facts, Ma’am
We knew there could be a big October surprise before this bizarre and unpopular election finally came to an end. But who knew it would come from e-mails found on a device used by former Rep. Anthony Weiner that was ... -
Finding Strength in Melania Trump
When the now-infamous Donald Trump/Billy Bush audio feed was released, my confidence in Donald Trump all but evaporated. The so-called locker-room conversation — about kissing, groping, and fondling women — was worse than locker room. It was vile, vulgar, and inexcusable ... -
Tax Cuts, King Dollar & Growth: From JFK to Reagan to Trump
Fifty-four years ago, at the Economic Club of New York, President John F. Kennedy unveiled a dramatic tax-cut plan to revive the long-stagnant U.S. economy. He proposed lowering marginal tax rates for all taxpayers and reducing the corporate tax. ... -
Insanity Once More: The Hillary Clinton Economic Plan
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, when in fact the results never change, is one definition of insanity. That definition works for economic insanity, too. Over the past seven-and-a-half years, President Obama has maintained ... -
The Hillary Recession
This economy may be perilously close to recession. That was the message of the second-quarter real-GDP report and its meager 1.2 percent growth rate. Over the past year, real GDP has slipped to a paltry 1.2 percent. Business investment continues to fall. ... -
Trump’s Two Homers: Pence and a Promise for a Declaration of War
Donald Trump hit two home runs this week. The first, immediately following the horrific terrorist truck attack in Nice, was his statement in a media interview that if elected he would ask Congress for a declaration of war to combat ... -
Overthrow the Establishment to Fix the Economy
Famed investor Wilbur Ross recently told CNBC that “Trump represents a more radical new approach to government that the nation’s economy desperately needs.” He’s right. Trump seeks an overthrow of the establishment. He’s a disrupter. Just what ... -
Are the Clintons the Real Housing-Crash Villains?
We are going to reveal the grand secret to getting rich by investing. It’s a simple formula that has worked for Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, and all the great investment gurus over the years. Ready? Buy low, sell high. ... -
Trump the Disrupter
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the GOP House leadership member from Washington state, finally uttered the words I’ve been waiting to hear with respect to Donald Trump’s march on the nation’s capital. In an NBC News interview with my ... -
Obama Suffocates Business Investment and Growth
GDP for the first quarter of 2016 came in at a paltry one-half of 1 percent. That sorry showing follows growth of 1.4 percent and 2 percent in the previous two quarters. If such a thing is possible, the already anemic economy is actually ... -
Not Just a War on Tax Inversions, but a War on the Middle Class
Does the U.S. government want to help American business or not? Does the administration want to help middle-income wage earners or not? Does Team Obama want to grow the American economy at its historic 3.5 percent long-term trend or not? ... -
A Response to Jonah Goldberg on His Mistaken Claim of My Pauline Conversions on the Road to a Trump Presidency
My friend Jonah Goldberg has written a column entitled “Conservative Purists Are Capitulating with Support of Trump.” In this piece, Jonah goes after me and Stephen Moore for allegedly giving up our free-market principles for what he calls “purely consequentialist ... -
A Growth Message, Not Catfights, Will Propel the GOP to November Victory
In the week leading up to the New Hampshire primary, a few GOP candidates put forth a strong, positive, optimistic message of economic growth. Donald Trump did it, and it contributed to his landslide. John Kasich did it, and he ... -
The Fed Is Freaked Out about the Financial Markets
Early in the new year, on Sunday, January 3, Federal Reserve vice chair Stanley Fischer delivered a hawkish speech to the American Economic Association. Completely misreading the economy, which is woefully weak while inflation is virtually nil, Fischer strongly hinted that ... -
Taxes Chased GE Out of Connecticut
GE’s decision to leave Fairfield for Boston is another sad marker in the downhill slide brought about by Connecticut’s high-tax, high-regulation, anti-business policies of the last 25 years. Governor Dannel Malloy (D.) accelerated the state’s economic freefall with ... -
Show Me the War: That Will End ISIS Money
By all accounts, ISIS is the wealthiest terrorist organization in the world. By far. In round numbers, ISIS is said to have a $2 billion stash, which is keeping it afloat. Most of it comes from oil sales. Much of it ... -
Will Janet Yellen Sabotage Hillary?
A 211,000 jobs increase for November will finally push the Fed over the line and into a quarter-of-a-point rate hike later this month. The question is, how much and how fast will the central bank raise its target rates? My advice ... -
GOP Not Yet There on Growth
The singular economic issue of our time is the quest for more rapid economic growth. In the past century the American economy grew at roughly 3.5 percent per year. That included huge booms and even worse busts, such as the Great ... -
Ryan and Reconciliation Is a Powerful Combination
As of this writing House Ways and Means chairman Paul Ryan has not decided whether to run for speaker. He has been bombarded by all the Republican factions. Even Mitt Romney says the Wisconsinite can unify the Republican conference and ... -
Why Don’t the Candidates Ever Talk about Money?
While there were some great moments in the latest GOP debate, and some terrific individual performances — Carly Fiorina seemed to grab all the buzz in the aftermath — one thing that barely came up was the economy. It was very much ... -
Is Donald Trump a 21st-Century Protectionist Herbert Hoover?
Here’s a historical fact that Donald Trump, and many voters attracted to him, may not know: The last American president who was a trade protectionist was Republican Herbert Hoover. Obviously, Hoover’s economic strategy didn’t turn out so ... -
Fed: Move at the Pace of an Injured Snail
Pretty much everyone in the world wants the Federal Reserve to begin its “rate liftoff.” September is the latest target date for this market consensus. But permit me one dissenting question: Are you sure? Or as the saying goes, be ... -
Donald Trump, Supply-Sider?
Is Donald Trump a supply-sider? In his still young presidential campaign, he has said several times that he wants to be the “jobs president.” In his announcement speech, he put it this way: “I will be the greatest jobs president ... -
Jeb Bests Hillary in an American Worker Tweet Off
Jeb Bush is right and Hillary Clinton is wrong. You can probably say that about a lot of things. But in this case it’s about the need for more part-time American workers to work full-time in order to improve ... -
Jeb Is Right about 4 Percent Growth
‘There is not a reason in the world why we cannot grow at a rate of 4 percent a year.” That’s what Jeb Bush said when he officially announced his presidential run in Miami last week. And right off the ... -
The Essential King Dollar/Low-Energy Nexus
The strong May jobs report — including a 280,000 jump in nonfarm payrolls — reminds me of the big debate over the harmful effects of a strong dollar and falling oil prices. But where’s the harm? King Dollar, along with the supply ... -
Janet Yellen’s Back-to-the-’50s Interest Rates
Janet Yellen told us last week that the fed funds target rate will be raised slightly later this year. But after that, future rate hikes will be small and gradual over the next several years. In fact, we may never ... -
GOP Will Lose in 2016 without Sensible Immigration Reform
If the GOP doesn’t put together a sensible immigration policy it will lose the 2016 presidential election. When Obama beat Romney in 2012, with the former Massachusetts governor attracting only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote with his self-deportation argument, Republicans across ... -
Snarking Hillary Is Not the Way to the White House
A number of GOP candidates are engaging in Hillary-bashing over allegations that she used her office as secretary of state to help her husband’s business dealings, prop up speech-making fees, and grease the path for foreign governments to donate ... -
Tougher Sanctions Necessary to Force Iran to Change Its Terrorist Ways
If recent news accounts are to be believed, the framework of agreement between the U.S. and Iran is on the rocks. Iran’s top officials, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, are saying economic sanctions must end ... -
Petraeus Puts the Icing on Bibi’s Iran Cake
Don’t just rely on Benjamin Netanyahu’s passionate advice to Congress on his way to reelection that Iran is our arch enemy. Now we have the counsel of retired general David Petraeus, who gave a remarkable interview this week ... -
Hillary’s Judgment Problem
Hillary acknowledging that it would have been better to use two e-mail accounts is about as close to an apology from the Clintons you’ll ever get. But the matter of “convenience” is just nonsense, as everyone knows. Even a ... -
Ruling the Fed
Fed chair Janet Yellen testified this week on the state of the economy. The only interesting thing to come of it was some sharp-edged criticism by Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee. That includes committee chair Jeb Hensarling, ... -
Presidents’ Day Musings
Let me begin with Presidents’ Day. It’s a nice long weekend. But it says nothing about the greatness of certain American presidents. Whatever happened to Washington’s Birthday? Or Lincoln’s Birthday? Of course, I could go for Reagan’... -
Commonsense Economics: Capital = Consumer Spending
It’s too easy to label President Obama’s State of the Union as more tax-the-rich and redistribution. We know that. Rather than name-calling, Republicans must draw a clear line in the sand between their worldview and Obama’s. I’... -
Corker’s Folly
What can Senator Bob Corker be thinking? On his first Sunday-news-show appearance of the year, right at the beginning of a new Republican Senate era, does Corker communicate a new GOP message of growth and reform? Does he talk about ... -
Lower Oil and King Dollar Are Unambiguously Good
We all know that the American energy revolution, led by the new technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, has created a flood of new shale-oil and natural-gas production that has overwhelmed world markets and driven prices down by roughly 40 ... -
What about the Brainiacs?
Is this immigration game really worth the candle? I think not. And I say this as someone who is an immigration reformer, not a restrictionist. The free movement of trade, capital, and labor is strongly pro-growth. History shows that legal ... -
Prescription for a Stronger Economy: Marriage
I spoke at the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation dinner last week. Nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas wrote this column about my remarks: At a dinner sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation last Thursday (I am an unpaid national advisory ... -
A Return to the JFK-Reagan Economic Model
Election Day will produce a new Republican Congress, or so the latest polls tell us. If so, the huge losses for the Obama Democrats — both in 2010 and this year — will have come in large measure from the economic failures of ... -
Lower Oil Prices Are Unambiguously Good
Steep stock market corrections often create shrouds of pessimism that do bad things to people’s brainpower. And one of the absolutely stupidest things I have heard in recent weeks is that the recent drop in oil prices is bad. ... -
None Can Call It Treason
A couple of weeks ago at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, several hundred people went to their feet to applaud a speech delivered by David H. Koch. The occasion was the opening of the Met’s new faç... -
Support Obama’s New ISIS Plan
I know he’s made a million mistakes. And I have opposed nearly all his domestic and international policies. But after watching Obama’s intense ISIS speech Wednesday night, and reading the text several times, I think the president basically — ... -
Blame Socialism, Not Shinseki
The VA problem is not Shinseki, it’s socialism. The Veterans Affairs health-care system is completely government run. It is a pure single-payer program. National Review editor Rich Lowry calls it “an island of socialism in American health care.” He ... -
On Mike Pence
The New York Times front page profile on my friend, Rep. Mike Pence, ’Star of the Right Loses His Base at the Border,’ is really all about the anti-immigration, far-right group led by Tom Tancredo of Colorado to oppose any ...
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Middle-Income Wage Earners Need a W: Cut Business Taxes First
After the breakdown of health-care reform, both President Trump and the Republican Congress need a W — a win. And not just any win, but one that will play into the public demand for faster economic growth, better jobs, and higher ... -
Optimism Triumphs in Trump’s First Address to Congress
The mark of great presidents is optimism — visionary optimism and transformational optimism. During Tuesday night’s remarkable speech before Congress, Donald Trump was brimming with optimism, from start to end. My guess is that his marvelous speech will imbue and ... -
Tax and Regulatory Reform Will Mark the End of Obama’s War on Business
On the very day President Donald Trump’s incentive-based tax and regulatory policies are put in place, Barack Obama’s war on business will have officially come to an end. No longer will American companies be punished by uncompetitive rates ... -
The Trump Transition Is Transcendent, but the Economy Needs Attention Now
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition continues to go smoothly. Better than smoothly. Confidently. More than confidently. Transcendently. And to top it all off, the Dow is up 9 percent since the election, while economic-sensitive small-caps have jumped nearly 16 percent. These are ... -
If Trump Wins, Buy the Dip. If Hillary Wins, Sell the Rally.
The wisdom on Wall Street is that Hillary Clinton is the safe choice. She’s the certainty candidate to Trump’s uncertainty. So when Jim Comey announced the reopening of the FBI’s Clinton investigation, stocks fell for nine days. ... -
In Gettysburg, We Need the Pro-Life, Pro-Growth, King-Dollar Donald Trump
The Trump campaign has announced that their candidate will deliver a major speech in historic Gettysburg, Pa., on Saturday, October 22. Donald Trump will present his closing arguments for American voters, outlining the steps he will take in his first 100 days ... -
Hillary’s Red Army March of Tax-Hike Destruction
You’ve got to hand it to Hillary Clinton and her team. Their message discipline is awesome — at least in terms of taxes. It reminds me of the orderly march of the Chinese Red Army on the way to battle. ... -
Hillary Clinton, You’re No John F. Kennedy
The election season is heating up, Donald Trump has pulled back even with Hillary Clinton, and every new economic number is being scrutinized for its supposed political meaning. The unexpectedly soft August jobs report will lend a little political advantage ... -
Donald Trump Is the Middle-Class Growth Candidate
Did Hillary Clinton actually propose raising middle-income taxes in a recent speech? The audio suggests she said “we are going to raise taxes on the middle class,” although the prepared remarks indicate she meant “we aren’t.” Well, these things ... -
Mike Pence Saved the GOP after the Cruz Disaster
Ted Cruz essentially gave a career-ending address at the GOP convention on Wednesday night. His speech was a slap in the face to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. “Vote your conscience” is a wonderful-sounding phrase. But we all know what ... -
Magna Carta 2.0: Good for Freedom, Good for Growth
The original Magna Carta was a charter agreed to by King John of England in 1215. It just celebrated its 801st anniversary. So no, I wasn’t there. But that charter has become part of an important, iconic, political myth that ... -
A Business Recession Looms
The May jobs report was a shocker, with nonfarm payrolls up only 38,000 and private jobs up a mere 25,000. A lot of investors and economists are making the case that this was a weird, one-off, statistical glitch, and that stronger employment ... -
Zuckerberg’s Conservative Battle
Mark Zuckerberg and his massive social-media site Facebook have come under strong criticism for allegedly suppressing stories of interest for conservative readers from its influential “trending” news section. Facebook has roughly 1.6 billion users worldwide, of whom 167 million are in the ... -
Trump Must Prove that He Can Do the Job
Donald Trump has swept the primaries and is now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. His almost unbelievable primary surge — from New York to Indiana — was nothing short of breathtaking. He has confounded almost all the pundits and a majority of ... -
How Trump Turned Cruz into the Establishment Candidate
Donald Trump’s landslide victory in the New York GOP primary was a game-changer. It ended his Wisconsin slump and set the stage for an across-the-board sweep next Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Trump’s vote ... -
Slash Corporate Taxes First, Then Yellen Can Normalize
Speaking before a packed audience at the prestigious Economic Club of New York, Fed chair Janet Yellen basically announced that there would be no rate hikes for quite some time — maybe once before year end, maybe not. Her key point ... -
Two-Percent Growth Is a Loser for the Angry Middle Class
The good news is that the economy is growing at 2 percent and that there’s no recession in sight (barring a complete collapse of profits). The bad news is that the economy is growing at 2 percent. It’s been doing ... -
Message Matters: Trump Succeeded, Yellen Failed
Most political reporters are fixated on the presidential horserace rather than the message candidates are sending to voters. Message wins all the time. Message moves polls. Message raises money. Message determines elections. Most of all, a clear message tells voters ... -
We Will Never Destroy ISIS without a Full-Blown Declaration of War
The speed of the news cycle and the media obsession with the presidential horseraces have crowded out a crucial development in the war on ISIS and related Islamic jihadist groups. House Speaker Paul Ryan has been sounding out colleagues for ... -
The Fed Should Let Middle-Class Workers Prosper
The Dow Jones lost over 1,000 points this week. It’s down 9 percent over the past year. The broader S&P; 500 also got clobbered, and is down 7 percent in the past year. What’s going on? Is the world coming to ... -
I’ve Changed. This Is War. Seal the Borders. Stop the Visas.
I know this is not my usual position. But this is a war. Therefore I have come to believe there should be no immigration or visa waivers until the U.S. adopts a completely new system to stop radical Islamic ... -
If We Want to Destroy ISIS, We Can Destroy ISIS
If we want to destroy ISIS, we can destroy ISIS. Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but I want to state it anyway. Why? Because I am not hearing it enough. I’m certainly not hearing it from the White ... -
Pro-Growth Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton Echoes JFK
The Democratic presidential debate ironically took place the same week that a Princeton University professor was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. Why ironic? Because Professor Angus Deaton is a strong advocate of economic growth. Today’s Democrats are not. ... -
The Shutdown Message
Nobody really likes government shutdowns, including me. But sometimes you have to make a point. Send a message. Show voters what you really believe. Take a stand. With John Boehner set to resign at the end of October, many believe ... -
For the Fed, One-Eighth of a Point and Done
As stocks endure their worst correction since 2011, and the battle between Fed doves and hawks rages on over a quarter-of-a-percentage-point rate liftoff, the much-anticipated August employment numbers made for a surprisingly mediocre report. Nonfarm payrolls came in below consensus at 173,000. ... -
Fed Right, Trump Wrong
Just-published minutes from the Fed’s July 28-29 meeting indicate that most officials saw conditions for a rate liftoff as “not yet” achieved. They may be approaching a rate-hike moment, but they’re not there yet. Good call. That’s ... -
Economic Debate: Kasich, Rubio, Bush Up
With a record 24 million people watching the GOP debate, you’d think there would have been a lot more time spent on the most important issue of the day: the economy. Look at any poll. Jobs and the economy are ... -
Hillary’s Inconceivably Stupid Capital-Gains Tax Scheme
The worst sectors of the worst recovery since World War II are business investment in new plants and equipment and new business start-ups. These are the biggest job-creators, and their slump is a key reason for the sub-par labor recovery, ... -
Worse than the Supremes: Obamacare Economics
The judicial decision to uphold all of the president’s health-care subsidies may be very disappointing, but the economics of Obamacare are far worse than whatever constitutional mistakes have been committed by the Supreme Court. The economics of Obamacare are ... -
Randy Richardson: Conservatism’s Banker
Just as the great William F. Buckley Jr. laid the intellectual foundation for the rise of modern conservatism, philanthropist R. Randolph Richardson set down the financial foundation of the new conservative movement. But Randy Richardson, who died May 25 at the ... -
The GOP Needs a 5 Percent Growth Target
First-quarter real GDP actually declined by 0.7 percent, according to revisions out this week, creating much new talk about recession. But there is no recession. Trouble is, there continues to be virtually no recovery. The economy has expanded about 1.5 percent over ... -
Will Anyone Ever Defend Banks?
One of the interesting nuggets coming out of the conservative sweep in the British elections was the failure of bank-bashing by the Labour party. Labour leader Miliband, who has since resigned, was anti-bank, anti-rich, and anti-business. It failed. And while ... -
Zero Inflation Is Holding the Economy Together
Don’t expect any miracles from the economy. But don’t expect a collapse either. In political terms, it’s kind of a Mexican standoff. Team Obama says they saved us from another Great Depression. And they point out that 3.1 ... -
A Challenge for Hillary Clinton: Return to a JFK Growth Agenda
When John F. Kennedy was elected president he surprised both Democrats and Republicans with a bold tax-cutting plan to solve the problem of a moribund economy. He had campaigned on “getting the country moving again,” and had set a 5 percent ... -
Curb Your Economic Pessimism
The economy has been in a tepid, soft, slow recovery for the past five-and-a-half years. It’s the weakest rebound in generations. The Commerce Department’s revision of fourth-quarter GDP shows that nothing much has changed. Over the past year, ... -
King Dollar Naysayer Nonsense
Despite the conventional criticisms of the financial commentariat, both theory and evidence argue for a strong, stable, and reliable currency as a crucial channel to prosperity. Just think of the reverse: If you could devalue your way into prosperity, Argentina ... -
Captain Rick Perry
‘More than any election since 1980,” ace pollster Kellyanne Conway tells me, “2016 will be a national-security contest.” And she says former governor Rick Perry may have the best chance to convince voters that he can be commander-in-chief. Let’s think on ... -
What Scott Walker Actually Said
Yes, believe it or not, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker actually spoke at some length at the dinner this past week where Rudy Giuliani charged that President Obama doesn’t love America. All the hullabaloo went to Giuliani, but in terms ... -
After Mitt: A GOP Message of Incentives, Sound Money, and Growth
Mitt Romney showed once again that he is truly a class act. In his announcement that he will not be running for president in 2016, he stated, “I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may ... -
Jindal’s Brilliant Take on Radical Islam
‘Let’s be honest here. Islam has a problem.” Those are key sentences in an incredibly hard-hitting speech that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal will give in London on Monday. It is the toughest speech I have read on the whole ... -
Optimism for 2015
Politics and the economy are both looking up. President Obama’s big-government spending, planning, and executive-branch overreach were crushed at the polls. Elections matter. The GOP has been rejuvenated. Republican governors will lead the way. And the Republican majorities in ... -
Lower Oil Prices Are a Free-Market Victory
Seldom has so much good news been portrayed so negatively. Oil prices continue to fall in the U.S. and around the world, but near everyone in the media is grumpy about it. The headlines today are among the silliest ... -
Marriage Is Pro-Growth
The greatest economic challenge of our time is how to restore economic growth. Over the past dozen years, average real growth has slowed to 1.8 percent annually, under both Republican and Democratic presidents and congresses. It’s a bipartisan problem. And ... -
For 2016, Hillary Had the Worst Night
We all know the Republican midterm landslide was largely a repudiation of President Obama’s policies and his handling of the job of chief executive. And of course, we don’t know who will succeed him in 2016. But buried deep ... -
The Optimistic GOP Story Everyone Is Missing
The vast majority of political journalists — and I include some of my conservative colleagues — are missing a very big story. The Republicans are going to recapture the Senate, picking up more seats than most any forecaster expects. And the House ... -
How about a Little Optimism?
So President Obama gives a major economics speech towards the end of last week, and the next week stocks get clobbered. It was the worst correction in many months. There’s probably no direct cause and effect here. But it’... -
The Return of King Dollar
Maybe the U.S. economy, a weakling for the last six years, is finally starting to flex some muscle. We’re referring to the return of King Dollar. For those who haven’t been paying attention, the greenback is in ... -
A Bold and Optimistic GOP Can Create a Wave Election
If the Republican party adopts a clear, optimistic, growth-and-reform message to turn America around, it can win big in November. It could still be a wave election. But so far it hasn’t done it. The party is essentially asking ... -
The Obama Bank Shakedown
The $16.65 billion settlement by Bank of America over financial-crisis-era mortgage securities “highlights a pattern of the government extorting the banks,” Dick Kovacevich said on CNBC this week. (Italics mine.) Kovacevich is the former Wells Fargo chairman and CEO. I’ve ... -
Governor Perry Still Looks Strong
The so-called “abuse of power” indictment of Texas governor Rick Perry is not only not going to hurt him in the 2016 GOP sweepstakes, it might actually help him. I say that because Perry immediately fired back at the charges with ...