Tag: Biden

Tough times are ahead in Biden’s economy. Here’s your recession checklist

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July 11, Michael L. Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business at SMU Dallas, for an op-ed recommending a checklist of strategies to navigate a recession predicted later this year. Published in Fox News Business under the heading Tough times are ahead in Biden’s economy. Here’s your recession checklist: https://fxn.ws/3o7N9NT

​If you haven’t been paying much attention to the small army of economists droning on about the threat of a recession, that’s OK. It’s summer. It’s hot. Nobody, not even me, one of those economists, wants to dig through the mountain of boring economic data detailing things like consumer confidence and retail inventories. But the warning signs are there. Nobody can know for sure but it seems very likely that sometime before the end of the year the economy is going to get worse. Maybe much worse.

And of course, there’s nothing you can do to prevent a recession. Why worry about things you can’t change?

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Afghanistan: What Biden’s critics get wrong, and the debt owed Afghan refugees

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August 26, Stefano Recchia, the John G. Tower distinguished chair in international politics and national security at SMU Dallas, for a piece challenging critics of President Joe Biden and his decision to pull out of Afghanistan. Published in The Hill under the heading Afghanistan: What Biden’s critics get wrong, and the debt owed Afghan refugees: https://bit.ly/3jgNlZw

The Biden administration could certainly have better planned the extraction of civilians from Afghanistan. Yet media and politicians portray the fall of Afghanistan as a broader strategic debacle for U.S. foreign policy and President Joe Biden. They say America’s abandonment of the elected government in Kabul undermines U.S. efforts to support democracy elsewhere; harms U.S. alliance commitments; will be a boon for terrorists, and is likely to result in massive human rights violations.

These criticisms exaggerate the fallout. Responsibility for the current mess does not lie primarily with those who decided to face the reality of an unwinnable war and call it quits. Instead, it rests mainly with those who expanded what had begun as a limited mission to hunt down suspected terrorists linked to al Qaeda into “nation-building” in Afghanistan — President George W. Bush and his administration.

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Here’s to hoping Joe Biden remembers his ‘you can’t eat equality’ line

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Jan 18, Robert Lawson, who directs the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom in the Cox School of Business at SMU Dallas, for a piece reminding incoming President Joe Biden that he once said: “You can’t eat equality.” Published in the Orange County Register and affiliates of the Southern California News Group with the heading Here’s to hoping Joe Biden remembers his ‘you can’t eat equality’ line: http://bit.ly/392fmPv

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Hillary Clinton’s defeat by Donald Trump in 2016 generated a lot of soul searching among Democrats confused about how they could lose to such a loathsome creature. Predictably, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the growing left-wing of the party called for more efforts to fight inequality, social injustice, racism, globalism, and whatever other –ism of the day motivates their always-outraged, activist followers on any given day.

Clinton seemed content to put on her tin-foil hat blaming the nefarious forces of Russian Facebook bots instead of her own lackluster campaign. Meanwhile, among the Democrats, only Joe Biden seemed to get it. The then-vice president correctly diagnosed the problem to be that the Democrats had run too far to the left blaming racism, sexism, and inequality for every problem in America and had lost touch with the party’s traditional jobs and opportunity message. At one point he quipped, “you can’t eat equality. You know?”

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10 steps toward better presidential debating

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Oct. 19, Ben Voth, associate professor and director of debate and speech in the Dedman College of SMU Dallas, for a piece outlining 10 steps organizers should take to improve presidential debates. Published in The Hill with the heading 10 steps toward better presidential debating: https://bit.ly/35duhDf

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Presidential debates exist as a televised tradition since 1960 in the United States, but the Commission on Presidential debates (CPD) presented this year is horribly flawed and must be re-imagined. Moderators have evolved to be the center of attention rather than the candidates — who seize on the opportunity to deliver propaganda rather than defend the policy. Our drift to “town hall” formats is an unfulfilling and unrevealing substitute for true debate.

 The debate scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 22, is likely to be the final presidential debate of the 2020 election season — this despite talk of a possible make-up debate for the missed Oct. 15 debate.

Since the CPD took over the League of Women Voters’ debates in 1987, viewership averages over 60 million. By comparison, the Super Bowl gets 100 million, political conventions get 10-20 million, popular TV shows get 5 million, and even vice-presidential debates like the one between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden in 2008 can attract more than 70 million.

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Biden’s proposed ban would harm economy, environment

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Sept. 4, James Coleman, law professor in Dedman School of Law specializing in energy law, for a piece questioning Joe Biden’s idea to suspend all oil & gas permits on U.S. public lands. Published in the Las Vegas Review Journal:  https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/bidens-proposed-ban-would-harm-economy-environment-1840407/

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s new climate plan promises to start his Presidency with a series of “Day One Unprecedented Executive Actions” that include “banning new oil and gas permitting on public land and water.” Biden and the other Democratic candidates should make clear whether they support this ban, which would reverse President Barack Obama’s energy policies and lay waste to America’s growing energy economy.

Biden’s order would completely shut down drilling on public lands — including the 85 percent of Nevada owned by the federal government. No new leases and no permits for new wells on existing leases.This ban would violate the laws Congress has made to govern public lands but it would be very difficult to challenge in court. Even if a judge ordered Biden’s administration to continue issuing permits, it could slow-walk them or throw up other obstacles to make it practically impossible to drill on public lands. . .

 

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