The German story of Faust is well known throughout literary and scholastic circles.  In the story, Faust is a successful scholar who is unsatisfied with his life and bargains with the Devil.  He offers his soul in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.  The popular term: “deal with the devil” originates from the story of Faust.  This story has also been interpreted by some as a metaphorical representation of an ambitions person who compromises their moral integrity to achieve power and success.
A more appropriate interpretation for the current political …

Many people are familiar with the sentiment voiced by Milton Friedman that “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”A  However, there is an endemic trend among federal, state, and local government entities to sell promises of a ‘free lunch’ to become elected and gain power.  The fundamental problem with this mathematical problem is that everybody cannot live at the expense of everybody else.
Consider that the government cannot create resources out of thin air.  The only way that a state entity can provide resources for you is to take …

A recent proposal released by the government deficit reduction commission has pinpointed the home interest deduction as one of the ways to increase government tax revenue.  The debt reduction commission released two separate scenarios for ways that this proposal could be implemented.
The first proposal, referred to by some as the “Zero Plan” would eliminate most tax deductions to raise an estimated additional $1.1 trillion in taxes, while compressing the tax code down to three rates, the lowest at 8 percent, the middle at 14 percent and the top one at …

A recent report from Reuters reflects reduced economic growth estimates by economists, predicting a 2.7% real GDP growth rate for all of 2010.  Concerns over this slow recovery include the fact that this slow growth is insufficient to make a significant impact to unemployment.  This estimate represents a 0.2% reduction versus last month and a 0.6% reduction versus the estimates released in June.  The reality slowly sinking into economic forecasts is the fact that incentives in the United States are not aligned to spur growth.
The looming expiration of tax cuts …