Recent economic woes have sparked a number of bad spending ideas at all levels of government. John Locke Foundation experts have been exposing the problems associated with these bad ideas. John Hood’s recent National Review article suggesting tax code changes to help home workers attracted interest in the past week from U.S. News & World Report. Meanwhile, Roy Cordato also generated interest in his ideas with a Locker Room blog entry that exposes the false argument that government deficit spending shifts burdens to future generations. Economist Robert Murphy (author of the Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism) and the Earth to Wall Street blog highlighted Cordato’s work. Carolina Journal Associate Editor David Bass used his latest American Spectator column to discuss problems associated with targeting federal “stimulus” funding for a program called the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The Monroe Enquirer-Journal recently published Chad Adams’ column criticizing local governments for relying on the gimmick of the “hiring freeze” to avoid real budget cuts. Meck Deck blogger Jeff Taylor earned kudos recently when a Creative Loafing column cited his efforts to warn taxpayers and government officials about poor budget and spending decisions that have led to today’s current problems. (That this moment was coming was so obvious that local bloggers like Jeff Taylor at Meckdeck.com were predicting it last year. Yet county leaders were either in denial or didn’t care.) In addition to these developments, N.C. History Project Director Troy Kickler offered a timely presentation one week ago on the topic “What Is Money?” for Campbell University’s First Friday luncheon series. Kickler’s speech expanded on themes first popularized by French economist Frederic Bastiat.
