By Paolo von Schirach February 14, 2012 WASHINGTON – General Electric is hosting a major event in Washington, DC, titled American Competitiveness: What Works. Given GE’s convening power, lots of interesting people from industry, government, the media and think tanks are attending and speaking. And mostly the panelists and speakers talk about the right things. [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 3, 2012 WASHINGTON – Famed Harvard economist and co-author, with Carmen Reinhart, of “This Time is Different“, a major work on financial crises, writes that America needs voters who understand economic policy. In his The Financial Times contribution, (Our ignorance will yield more crises in capitalism, February 2, 2012), to [...]
By Paolo von Schirach January 26, 2012 WASHINGTON – It is quite depressing to observe Washington total political paralysis, accompanied by cheap and openly divisive populism. Admittedly, it is difficult to govern when the two parties are so deeply divided. But the president has to try. This is what he was elected to do and what he gets paid [...]
By Paolo von Schirach January 6, 2012 WASHINGTON – So what is it going to be? Do we cut Medicare or the Pentagon budget? Says president Barack Obama: First we cut defense, and then we shall see. America is voting in a few months and there are more votes for me in keeping Medicare as is. No national [...]
By Paolo von Schirach January 3, 2012 WASHINGTON – All the Republican would be presidents promise vigorous pro-growth policies that will unleash old fashioned, time tested Yankee ingenuity. The campaign narratives are that, after having been constrained by anti-business policies pushed by closet socialist Barack Obama, with proper leadership, American enterprise will burst once more into the [...]
By Paolo von Schirach December 18, 2011 WASHINGTON – The topic of the ABC News Sunday morning talk show today was the size of the US Government: “Is it too big, or not big enough?” Supposedly this is the focus of “The Great National Debate” in America, and the leading theme of the forthcoming 2012 national elections. [...]
By Paolo von Schirach November 21, 2011 WASHINGTON – The Congressional ad hoc “Super Committee” co-chaired by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, (R. Texas), and Senator Patty Murray, (D. Washington), failed in its mission to produce an agreement on any mix of spending cuts and revenue increases that would have resulted in total savings of at least 1.3 [...]
By Paolo von Schirach November 18, 2011 WASHINGTON – Two separate news items illustrate the incredible waste in the way common diseases are treated and health care is provided in America. The first one indicated that regular exercise can heal diseased leg arteries, a common occurrence among (mostly sedentary) elderly Americans. Right now the prevailing ”cure” is to insert [...]
By Paolo von Schirach November 4, 2011 WASHINGTON - Herman Cain, the retired Godfather pizza entrepreneur now running for the Republican Party 2012 nomination, is very popular with the party “base” because he is a genuine straight shooter. He’s a hard core conservative and he’s got solid principles: low taxes and less government, while he favors a [...]
By Paolo von Schirach October 20, 2011 WASHINGTON – Here is some food for thought. In democratic (and once upon a time more egalitarian) America, the Occupy Wall Street movement has propagated the notion that just 1% of super rich Americans own almost everything, while the remaining 99%, with almost nothing, are condemned to suffer. Given [...]