Capital Commerce

So Barack Obama doesn't think much of John McCain's $300 million Clean Car Challenge, treating it as if it's some new reality show on the Discovery Channel masquerading as energy policy:

When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn't put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win—he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people—not just in the private sector but also in the public sector.

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My pal John Tamny over at RealClearMarkets has a must-read commentary on the dollar and the U.S. economy. He doesn't think much of gross domestic product numbers that show the U.S. economy is growing if at the same time the dollar is plunging:

GDP growth was high under Presidents Reagan (32%) and Clinton (31%), and just the same it's been mostly strong under President George W. Bush. Still, no one would mistake the booming Reagan (S&P 500 +121%) and Clinton (S&P 500 +208%) economies for the one we've experienced during Bush's (S&P 500 +2%) tenure. GDP measures the total market value of all goods and services produced, and with the dollar impressively weak this decade, it's unsurprising that this might show up in a positive way given the bogus nature of GDP calculations.

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"I know you're just a reporter, but you used to be a person, right?" is a quote from the film Deep Impact and immediately came to mind after I read this article from the Associated Press. (It actually took two people to write it.) The "article" made me weep for my chosen profession. The absolutely disgraceful lead:

Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. Horatio Alger, twist in your grave. The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.

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Ramesh Ponnuru writes thus in the Weekly Standard:

It may seem impossible for a tax reform to have all the qualities that [John] McCain should be looking for: one that simplifies the code, levies only two tax rates, and encourages growth, but also provides significant tax relief to the lower middle class and avoids widening the deficit. But there is a way out. A vastly expanded child tax credit, applicable against both income and payroll taxes, would reduce the tax burden quite a bit for lower-middle-class families. To promote growth, the reform could keep taxes on investment low while modestly reducing the top marginal tax rate. To take in as much money as the current tax code, meanwhile, this reformed, pro-family system would have to do two main things. First, it would eliminate or at least cap the deduction for state and local taxes. Second, its top rate, though lower than the current one, would apply to a lot more people.... In 1980, 1988, and 2000, Republicans won presidential elections in part by promising to tax a lot of middle-income voters significantly less than the Democrats would. If McCain wins this election without making such a promise, he will be the first Republican to do so in more than three decades. Or he can embrace a pro-family plan, and thereby go a long way to showing that he intends to reform our institutions to facilitate the pursuit of the American dream.

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