- Evert’s Electables
- How to Save the USA
- Football Player Exposes Diabolical Lies of Feminism
- Our Beloved Republic is in Danger of Becoming a Socialist Country
- A Layman's Awe in the Revelation of Jesus Christ
- Memorial Day - Including the Remembrance the USS Mount Hood
- American Lawfare in New York
- Timmons's Condescending Remarks of a Children's Christian Ministry
- There Is An Operational And Management Concern About Greenville Coroner’s Office
- Are SC State Legislators Spying on Its Citizens?
- Audacy Announces All-Star Lineup on 98.9 WORD
- Evert’s Electables Republican Primary - June 11, 2024
- County Council Candidate’s Shady Practices and Dark Money Ties
- Evert’s Electables - June 25th, 2024 Republican Primary Runoff
- The Times Examiner Endorses Steve Shaw for Greenville County Council
The Gambling Industry Wants to Make Fantasy Sports Leagues Illegal
- By Stephen Moore
Here's a sad and textbook case of how companies all too often use the strong-arm of government to destroy their competition.
The online gambling industry in America spent years and years fighting against the powerful Las Vegas casinos to make online sports betting legal in the states. They won a historic Supreme Court case in 2018 that struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a federal ban on sports betting throughout the United States.
The court recognized this law as a protectionist racket -- and, for better or worse, almost overnight the floodgates were opened in most states for legalized online sports betting.
The REAL Story of the Two Americas
- By Stephen Moore
For the past 30 years or so, the Left has invented a narrative that there are two Americas: a group of very super-rich people (the one-percenters) who have prospered over the past several decades, and everyone else who has gotten poorer. It's a fairy-tale narrative because almost all Americans have seen financial progress. The median household income adjusted for inflation rose by more than 40% since 1984.
Prosperity isn't an "us vs. them" zero-sum game. A rising tide really does lift all boats.
But there really are two Americas today. First, there are the cultural and overeducated snobs -- the kind of people who religiously read The New York Times, drive electric vehicles, wear Harvard or Yale sweaters, and have never even heard of NASCAR or eaten at Popeyes or ridden a John Deere tractor.
New Bank Regulations Will Hurt Small Businesses and Middle-Class Borrowers the Most
- By Stephen Moore
The rapid succession of bank failures last spring clearly spooked federal regulators at the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board and bank depositors. The bad decision-making at Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank caused the regulators to implement emergency life preserver measures to banks and conjured up memories of the 2008 financial crisis.
But as the saying goes, in Washington a crisis is always a terrible thing to waste, and so we are seeing a reflexive response for more government intervention. No surprise that Senate Democrats immediately pounced into action, calling on federal regulators to add another layer of rules including a complex increase in capital requirements on the U.S. banking system. Reacting quickly, the Federal Reserve, with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the FDIC, released a joint proposal for the U.S. implementation of the "Basel III regulatory framework." These are complex rules, but in a nutshell, these rules would increase the amount of money that banks hold in reserve by 25%.
Blue States Just Can't Stop Taxing
- By Stephen Moore
The latest Census Bureau data on population changes in America should have been a wake-up call to lawmakers in blue states and cities. The Census data provide even further evidence that "soak the rich" tax policies have incited a blue-state meltdown.
California, New York and Illinois all lost the most population last year. These states have nearly lost a combined 5 million people over the last decade. California and New York could both lose another three congressional seats by the end of the decade, and Illinois another two.
Did I mention that these are the three states with the highest taxes?
The Tyranny of the Phillips Curve
- By Stephen Moore
Repeat after me, class: Growth does NOT cause inflation. Write it on the blackboard 100 times.
For decades, the economics profession has been trying to tell us all just the opposite. They keep shoveling out the dumbest economic concept of all time: the Phillips Curve. This was the lame-brained "theory" by neo-Keynesian economists of the 1960s and 1970s that to slow inflation, the Federal Reserve needs to raise unemployment and slow down economic growth.
The whole concept of an inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation blew up when it was put into practice in the mid-1970s and the result was rising inflation AND rising unemployment. Then in the 1980s and '90s, with free-market supply-side policies in place, we had low inflation and low unemployment.
Why Does Washington Want to Destroy America's 'Magnificent 7'?
- By Stephen Moore
Nothing exemplifies America's tech industry dominance in the global economy more than the meteoric rise of what is now being called the "Magnificent Seven" stocks -- Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. These companies single-handedly account for nearly all the gains in the stock market this year. They -- which is to say we as American shareholders who own them -- have a net worth of nearly $10 trillion.
Think about it. None of these gazelles are Japanese, German or Chinese. All seven are American companies. They are globally dominant. They are innovators nearly unrivaled in human history. Amazingly, you would think their best years are behind them, like an aging baseball player. No. They are getting stronger, not weaker.
Green Groups Are No Longer Promoting a Cleaner Environment
- By Stephen Moore
The late, great humorist P.J. O'Rourke used to quip that everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to wash the dishes.
Well, now that can be said for traditional environmental groups that seem to have lost their way.
Green groups are supposed to be about keeping our rivers, lakes and streams clean. They are supposed to be about fighting litter and keeping toxic chemicals out of the air. Their job is to maintain the beauty of our national parks and save elephants and tigers.
Dems Have Now Officially Rejected President John F. Kennedy's Legacy
- By Stephen Moore
There's a political cartoon going around that shows John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy sitting on a couch watching a speech by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The two hold their palms to their heads and moan that their legacy is being twisted and ruined.
This has the situation completely backward. It isn't RFK Jr. who is rejecting the Kennedy brothers' legacy, but President Joe Biden and the modern-day Democrats.
It's been said many times -- and it happens to be true -- that if JFK were alive today and he were espousing the ideas of his 1,000-day presidency, he would be a Republican. JFK was a staunch Cold War anti-communist/socialist. He espoused lower tax rates, was pro-life, served our country in uniform valiantly, was patriotic, was a hawk on protecting First Amendment civil liberties, and he and his brother, who served as attorney general, took on union and government corruption.
Will New York Politicians Tax Wall Street Out of Existence?
- By Stephen Moore
Let's face it. Anyone who works in, or just visits, the Wall Street area of Manhattan can't deny the aura of power and money isn't what it was 20, 30 or 50 years ago.
The vibrancy, the financial dominance, the gusto seems to have gone missing -- so have many of the Gordon Gekko high rollers. Today, Wall Street is less crowded. It's sleepier. There aren't exactly tumbleweeds blowing down Broad Street past the New York Stock Exchange, but it's not the bustling place where the financial titans and the world's money changers hang out anymore.
The Nat Cons Are Dead Wrong: Middle-Class America Is Much Better Off Today Than in the Past
- By Stephen Moore
In the last several months, I have debated some of the intellectual leaders of a group called the "national conservatives." I consider myself a conservative (on most issues, though I lean more libertarian). National conservatives are well meaning and make some very valid points about the things that are going in the wrong direction in America culturally and economically, especially in the post-COVID world under President Joe Biden.
Sometimes it really does feel like our country is decaying: Our government-run schools are rotten; there are more suicides, more drug overdoses; our border is out of control; our debt is growing exponentially; our basic First Amendment rights are under assault; our cities are starting to resemble third-world countries, and everything is more expensive. Biden, who pledged to be a unifier, is driving the country over a progressive cliff.
When Will Politicians Learn Banning Cigarettes Will Never Work?
- By Stephen Moore
One of the most enduring lessons of American history is that the banning of liquor sales and consumption ("the noble experiment") was a colossal failure. Drinking didn't go down much, but the profits ended up going not to legitimate businesses but bootleggers and the mob, while the murder rate soared to all-time highs in American history. It was the policy that made America's most famous gangster, Al Capone, famous -- and rich.
I was reminded of this when I saw recently that the Biden administration's Food and Drug Administration wants to ban menthol cigarettes. Menthol flavorings account for approximately 37% of cigarette sales. That demand will not disappear but it will be driven underground, creating more significant risks to consumers.
The Great 'Green Energy Transition' That Wasn't
- By Stephen Moore
One of the textbook marketing flops of all time was the Ford Edsel sedan, which was heralded as the hot new car in the late 1950s. All the automotive experts and Ford executives said it was a can't-miss. Henry Ford (the car was named after his son) guaranteed hundreds of thousands of sales.
But one big thing went wrong: Nobody ever bothered to ask car buyers what they thought of the new car. As it turned out, they hated it. So instead of sales of 400,000, Americans bought 10,000, and the model was embarrassingly discontinued.
America's Top National Security Threat Is Our Runaway Debt
- By Stephen Moore
After spending $6 trillion on social welfare and a Green New Deal spending spree and running our national debt up to $33 trillion, President Joe Biden is asking to whip out the federal credit card yet again for $100 billion more in military assistance for Ukraine and Israel and "humanitarian" aid.
Yes, it certainly is a dangerous world, and more so every day. But Biden has a lot of nerve proclaiming that he's 100% committed to the defense of Ukraine and Israel when his own policies have contributed directly to the hostilities.
Our Public Schools Are a National Disaster
- By Stephen Moore
Perhaps what's most distressing about the latest collapse in high school test scores is that no one seems to be very distressed.
You've probably heard the news that ACT scores have fallen for the sixth straight year. Our high school kids are less equipped for a job or college than at any time in three decades.
Why isn't anyone in Washington or anyone in our $800 billion education bureaucracy sounding the alarm and declaring this a national emergency? It certainly puts our national security, our technological superiority and our economic prosperity in grave danger.
Pope Francis Blames America First
- By Stephen Moore
When I was growing up and attending Catholic schools, I was taught that the pope is infallible.
But then I read Pope Francis' updated encyclical letter last week, and now I can only conclude that at least this pope is fallible. In fact, the declaration is so filled with anti-Christian fallacies that one has to wonder whether we have a pope that is actually Catholic.
Washington's Credit Card Price Controls Will Hurt Consumers
- By Stephen Moore
Why has Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) declared war on credit cards?
Americans are in love with paying with plastic.
Perhaps too much so -- given that credit card debt now exceeds $1 trillion.
But paying with plastic has become a sort of American pastime -- so popular and convenient (especially reward programs that offer cash-back payments, frequent flyer miles and other discounts) that there are now an estimated 500 million to 1 billion credit cards in circulation and close to another 1 billion debit cards. This means there are multiple more credit and debit cards than there are adults in the U.S.
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at Freedom Works. He is also author of the new book: "Govzilla: How The Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy." To find out more about Stephen Moore and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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