Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Prescription For A Stronger Economy: Marriage




Larry recently spoke at the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation dinner last week.  Nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas* wrote this column about his remarks:


At a dinner sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation last Thursday (I am an unpaid national advisory board member), there was a debate about wealth redistribution. A team of Canadian students who think government should “spread the wealth around” faced off against a team of American students who think government has no business doing any such thing.


The theme continued when former Sen. Phil Gramm, Texas Republican, debated Chrystia Freeland, a member of the Canadian Parliament. While all of this was informative, civil, interesting and at times entertaining, the final speaker, CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow, may have uttered the most profound thought of the evening.


While Mr. Kudlow takes the traditional conservative position when it comes to economics, he said what would help individuals as well as the nation the most is for people to “get married.” He said it loudly, and the super-sophisticated New Yorkers in the room fell momentarily silent. When the shock wore off, many heads began to nod.


Mr. Kudlow’s point was that marriage gives people a reason to work, a home one hopes is stable, and children for whom two parents feel responsible.


Sociologists have reached the same conclusion over many years. In her book “One Marriage Under God: The Campaign To Promote Marriage in America,” sociologist Melanie Heath writes, “Married people” — for whatever reason — “are happier, healthier, and better off financially.”


The point I took from the speakers at the Coolidge dinner was that the real power to influence a life does not lie in or emanate from Washington, D.C., whichever party is in power. Instead, it comes from the millions of personal decisions each person makes for his or her own life.


How many politicians today would dare to admonish people who are living together to get married? Yet for not just economic reasons, doesn’t it seem the wisest course for most to take when one considers the benefits? Cohabiters may look at their divorced parents as an excuse not to marry, but that is an excuse, not a sufficient reason. One might better consider successful marriages, instead of failed ones, and emulate what made the good ones work.


At the Coolidge dinner, the organization’s chairman, Amity Shlaes, passed out buttons that said “Coolidge in ‘16.” Although the 30th president died in 1933, his ideas and philosophy of life are being given new life by events like these. If his ideas worked — and Coolidge’s did because they were born from a Puritan ethic that founded and sustained America well into the 20th century, making the 1920s roar economically — why not reconsider those ideas, updating them as necessary and applying them to solve today’s problems, rather than skipping from one failed policy to another?


Back to marriage. The Coolidges had an unusual relationship, but it worked for them. Grace was vivacious and outgoing; her husband quite the opposite. And yet there was genuine love.


Few men have ever uttered more noble words about their wives than what Coolidge said of his: “She has borne with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces.”


Mr. Kudlow seemed to be suggesting — and I would agree with him — that you don’t get that kind of affirmation outside of a committed marital relationship, which also makes for stronger families, economies and nations.




*Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist. His latest book is “What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America” (Zondervan, 2014).

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

KUDLOW: The Chinese Are Not Our Friends (CNBC on October 13, 2014)


Former Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), and CNBC's Larry Kudlow, discuss the power of Chinese hackers and measures the U.S. can take to safeguard our defense and financial systems.



Saturday, September 13, 2014

My Interview with General Jack Keane


My interview with retired four-star Army General Jack Keane, where he points out mistakes of the new Obama/ISIS war policy.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Friday, June 13, 2014

Friday, May 23, 2014

Larry Kudlow: VA Scandal Shows Perils of Socialized Medicine

Larry was recently interviewed by "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV


The scandal rocking the Veterans Health Administration should serve as a warning as to what can happen under the Affordable Care Act, renowned economist and syndicated columnist Larry Kudlow says.

This is not simply a management problem," Kudlow, author of the CNBC blog "Kudlow's Corner,'' told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"This is about a pocket of government-run socialized medicine with rationing and price controls and the usual bureaucratic inefficiencies. That's the problem with the VA.''

The VA is under fire for allegedly keeping chronically-ill patients on a secret-waiting list — resulting in the deaths of at least 40 veterans.

Additionally, there are allegations of false record-keeping to cover up the scandal. "It is not a money problem. The money going to the VA has exploded in recent years. In fact, from 2000 to 2013, budget outlays tripled while the veterans' population being served has actually declined by four million,'' Kudlow said.

"There's a problem with government-run healthcare and [this] should be a lesson to all of us about the dangers of Obamacare and single-payer insurance and so forth and so on." Kudlow also called on Republicans to back a "sensible'' immigration reform bill or risk losses at the polls.

"Sensible immigration reform will really be pro-growth. It can really help America and can really help the Republican Party put a different face on and reach out not just to Latinos,'' Kudlow said.

"This is symbolic, immigration reform — symbolic reaching out to Asians, to African-Americans, to young people, to women, and it says the Republican Party can in fact be a big tent. "Its policies don't have to echo the Democrats, but there's a reach-out factor here that I think is very, very important.'' Kudlow said that doesn't mean unbridled citizenship or blanket amnesty.

"What I am talking about is … the possibility of legal status so long as the immigrants who are living here illegally pay their back taxes, are checked for any criminal offense because criminals must be deported … learn English, learn civics, learn history, learn the constitution," he said.

"They have to go through a process and I think that's very, very important. I don't want them put at the front of the line for citizenship. I'm not really even talking about citizenship right now. I'm talking about legal status.

"[Sen.] Rand Paul [of Texas] has come out for legal status in a similar way, so has [Texas] Gov. Rick Perry, so has former [Florida] Gov. Jeb Bush. I like the direction here.''

Kudlow said it is also important to attract immigrant "brainiacs" as well as students and blue-collar workers.

"We need the high-tech electric engineers, all the Silicon Valley people. We need the foreign students we're educating. Why should we send them home? Why not keep them here?" he said.

"We need the low-end workers. That's what the Farmers Association and the Retailers Association are telling us. In other words, we need legal immigration.
 

"We need legal visa increases. If we do that, the more population will expand and increase economic growth. It's real simple. Population times productivity equals growth.''

Kudlow pointed to the low number of immigrants who supported Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.

"Twenty-seven percent of Asians voted for Mitt Romney, 27 percent of Hispanics voted for Mitt Romney. The GOP cannot win with those kinds of numbers," he said.

"If the party has a sensible policy and puts its best foot forward with the kind of principles that I'm encouraging here, it will make an impact.

"I am a conservative Catholic and all that goes with that, but I am willing to work in the same big tent as my friends from the Log Cabin Republicans. I believe that kind of attitude, which is an open inclusionary attitude, is missing from the GOP and must change.''

With that, the negative perception of the GOP will change, he believes.

"Right now, the GOP has a bad image. It’s an image of cranky white men and women. That image has to change,'' Kudlow said.


Saturday, March 29, 2014

Friday, March 28, 2014

CNBC's 'Kudlow Report' Bids Adieu on Friday, March 28, 2014

by Newsmax Reporter, Todd Beamon


After 25 years of interviews and commentaries on everything from
Obamacare to supply­side economics, Larry Kudlow is retiring from full­time
work at CNBC Friday — ending his award­winning "The Kudlow Report"
and becoming a senior contributor to the cable network.

Kudlow, 66, will contribute to the "Business Day" program on CNBC. The
network announced his retirement from the daily prime­time show earlier
this month.

A columnist and radio program host, Kudlow is a regular guest on "The
Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

Undergirded by "The Kudlow Creed" — "We believe that free market
capitalism is the best path to prosperity!" — the CNBC show began in
January 2009 and offered a mixture of politics and business. It has featured
interviews with a wide range of politicians, economists, Wall Street titans,
and media personalities.

The program succeeded "Kudlow & Company," which aired from 2005 until
October 2008. Before that, starting in 2002, the program was called
"Kudlow & Cramer" — with investment guru Jim Cramer as co­host. From
2001 to 2002, the program was called "America Now."

Over the years, Kudlow has hosted such guests as former President
George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger, and current Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

He also has talked with such business leaders as media mogul Barry Diller
and energy investor T. Boone Pickens.

For instance, Thursday's program featured interviews with Republican Gov.
Scott Walker of Wisconsin — and he was joined by Cramer to discuss ways
to keep the American economy growing. Cramer now hosts "Mad Money"
on CNBC.

"Larry, I miss you," Cramer said, extending his hand. "You were the place
for civil discourse, because you are a civil man. We ended every show the
same way — and we do it now.

"You're the best," Kudlow responded. "You're the best."

He then turned to camera: "Jim Cramer, my ex­partner — and I miss him."

"This is not the end of Larry Kudlow in the public eye, it's just a new
beginning," Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said. A longtime friend of
Kudlow, Ruddy added, "Larry will continue to carry the torch for
Reaganomics and the free market like no one else as he has for decades."

Ruddy noted that Kudlow played a key role as an adviser to President Ronald
Reagan in "unleashing the greatest economic boom the world has ever known."

Story continues below video.


The program also included tributes from such guests over the years as
NBC News White House correspondent Chuck Todd, Illinois GOP Rep.
Peter Roskam, and wealth­management company CEO Jack Bouroudjian.

Under Reagan, Kudlow served in the Office of Management and Budget.
He also worked as chief economist at Bear Stearns on Wall Street, and
served as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

A Man In The Arena (tribute to Larry Kudlow)

Thank you, Jason Trennert (CIS at Strategas Research Partners) for your beautiful tribute to Larry Kudlow:

All good things, as they say, must come to an end and tonight, I’m afraid, will mark the final installment of Larry Kudlow’s eponymous show The Kudlow Report on CNBC.  I had long been a fan of Larry from his days on The McLaughlin Report when the sum total of political commentary on television was, mercifully now that I think about it, reserved for Sunday morning.  (For you youngsters out there, the sum total of market commentary on television was reserved for a half-hour a week on Louis Rukeyeser’s Wall $treet Week and in truth, it’s hard not to feel as if we were the better for it.)  I always admired Larry’s unapologetic defense of free markets and, to be frank, his style.  He always looked, dressed, and spoke like a Wall Street guy should, I thought.  I have considered a great blessing to have become friends with him and for his willingness to support my development as an economist and as a Wall Street professional as well as to shape my thoughts on the way markets and the economy work.

Perhaps we’ve gotten along so well because he too started his life as a Democrat.  For me that changed after spending precisely one semester in Marion Barry’s Washington D.C.  For Larry, that seemed to change after he began his career on the open market desk of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and, after a stint on Wall Street, became the associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the first Reagan administration. He really became a star when he rejoined Bear Stearns as its Chief Economist in 1987 and his association with The McLaughlin Group flourished.  Eleanor Clift never saw it coming.


We all stumble, of course, and it’s doubly hard to stumble publicly.  Larry’s ability to craft a second career as a journalist and remain a fixture on CNBC for more than 12 years was due, in my view, to his intelligence, his unflagging optimism about this country, and his commitment to his Catholic faith and to his wife Judy.  It all started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 with America Now which he co-hosted with Jim Cramer.  That show morphed eventually into The Kudlow Report and has remained a regular stop for those who intersect at the country’s two major power centers – Washington and Wall Street ever since.  For those who doubt the power of an individual voice to have an influence, it should be remembered that Larry almost single-handedly gave President Bush the intellectual cover to cut taxes on both dividends and capital gains at a time when it was a politically unpopular.  (While there may be questions about priorities, I have yet to hear a good economic rationale for the double taxation of dividends.) Commented The New York Times at the time, “All summer long on his program, which is watched by White House officials (although not President Bush), Mr. Kudlow hammered at the idea of dividend tax cuts.  At the same time, conservative economists kept up the pressure on the White House.”[1]
<#_ftn1>  What was most significant about the tax cuts on dividends and capital gains at the time, was not only the fact that the rates were lowered but they were made equal, significantly diminishing the incentive for executives to seek capital gains over dividends.  Larry will remain a contributor at CNBC and if someone’s awake over there they’ll have him recreate Lou Rukeyeser’s Wall $treet Week in his own image.  In thinking about Larry’s career I am reminded of Teddy Roosevelt’s famous words:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Keep up the good fight my friend.