Oil hovers above $102 amid global stocks rally

John Ransom: No More Moonbeam Presidents

Obama’s presidency has a "Jackass: The Movie" quality to it, just like a few other candidates. Herein, I offer them some advice. ;-)

Larry Kudlow: Dave Camp Spanks Tim Geithner

In a hearing on the president’s budget, Camp stated that nearly $2 trillion in tax increases will take more money away from employers, investors, and savers, and would push the top rates close to 45 percent.

Daniel J. Mitchell: Even with a Volatile Stock Market, Personal Retirement Accounts Are Better and Safer than Social Security

Some left wingers criticized the idea, saying the big drop in the stock market in 2008-2009 is proof that personal retirement accounts are too risky. You won’t be surprised to learn, though, that they are wrong.

Paul Tracy: 7 Stocks Yielding 12% or More

When we looked only at the companies that turned a profit during the past year, we found just 17 U.S. common stocks paying yields of more than 12%.

Political Calculations: President Obama's Permanent Spending Achievement

President Obama has permanently grown the size of the U.S. federal government's budget by 16.5% during the four years he will have been in office.

Charles Payne: That's Why They Play The Game

The story at this very moment is Santorum has something the giants Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are lacking.

Night Watch: Night Watch: New Pakistani "Ultra" Coalition Forms

Pakistani news services reported that this new ultra-nationalist and Islamist coalition was formed after the 26 November killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a US airstrike. It is virulently anti-American and anti-Indian and strongly supports the Afghan Taliban

Fritz Pfister: Obama Policy Gives Housing Market Gas

One head of a mortgage department says the same amount of time is invested to process four applications as it did to process ten before the Leviathan was unleashed on banks.

Jeff Carter: Inflation? Not Just Yet, but It’s Coming

Europe sucks. China is going down. But the US is the most ingenious economy the world has ever seen, in spite of really crappy fiscal policy enacted over the last several years.

Bill Tatro: The Germany Occupation of the Drachma

Germany’s strength of austerity, manufacturing, and productivity would have made the Deutsche Mark the strongest currency on the continent.

George Friedman: Meth in Mexico: A Turning Point in the Drug War?

We expect fighting over the methamphetamine market to maintain violence at its current levels, but once a group comes out on top it will have far more resources to expel or absorb rivals.

Mike Shedlock: Face The Music: The Case Against Fractional Reserve Lending

Dr. Lacy Hunt correctly identifies fractional reserve lending as the culprit behind the massive rise in debt. Hunt also explains why government spending cannot help, why Europe is in worse shape than the US, why a US recession is coming.

Tad DeHaven: Obama’s Budget: This Isn’t Built to Last

In Obama's newest budget are the building materials for an economic time-bomb that will explode on future generations.

Doug French: Profits Are Socially Responsible

Back in 1997 Gregory Bresiger penned a piece for the Free Market tearing apart the notion of "socially responsible investing" (SRI). Managers focused on social issues instead of profits will perform poorly as resources are diverted to unproductive uses. Bresiger looked to close the argument with this seemingly absurd proposition.

John Ransom: If Al Gore Had a Change of Heart; It’s that Big

The mean greenies in Germany are so hot at enviro Vahrenholt's change of heart that they probably ought to charge themselves a carbon tax, or buy on offsetting credit, or just kick back and relax with a cold drink on a furry polar bear rug in front of a big log fire.

Bob Beauprez: A Case Study in Energy Regs Gone Mad

When Barack Obama promised that his non-energy energy policies would “bankrupt†anyone foolish enough to try to operate a coal-fired power plant, he talked as if he would only inflict pain on some inanimate structure of concrete and steel.

Mike Shedlock: Farage: Globalist Troika Driving Greece Towards Violent Revolution; Godfrey Bloom calls Eurobonds "Pathway to Hell" like Subprime Mortgages

Violence and destruction in Greece that you saw on Sunday is being caused directly because people have had their democratic rights taken from them.