John Kerry spends an awful lot of time these days trying to sell the Obama administration’s latest foreign policy mistakes — the restoration of normal ties with communist Cuba and the deal they made with the Iranians. It’s a tough sell, and it doesn’t help that Kerry’s arguments flirt with incredulity. Kerry said in an […]
It’s been five years since President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act into law, making this an opportune time to look back at the effects this misguided legislation has had on the financial services industry, especially on community banks and credit unions in Colorado. Dodd-Frank was supposed to lift the economy out of recession, promote […]
Several Grand Valley businesses are celebrating anniversaries, among them Colorado Document Security, Safari Ltd. and Pollux Clothing. It’s not the milestones themselves that are necessarily newsworthy, but what they represent: Enterprises that have survived what are typically challenging early years to evolve into sustainable operations. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, only half of […]
If the Mesa County economy were a paint-by-numbers portrait, some features would be bright and encouraging, but others still dark and discouraging. Count among the uplifting colors those associated with first-half numbers for sales and lodging tax collections and particularly real estate sales. Count among the ominous colors those associated with the latest numbers for […]
In a 1984 lecture on public policy, Judge Robert Bork related the story of English jurist Baron Parke being asked what gave him the greatest pleasure in the law, to which Parke replied, “Writing a strong opinion.” Pressed to explain what exactly he meant, the imperishable answer was, “It is an opinion in which, by […]
What’s the best way to brand Mesa County and Grand Junction and its collection of attributes? What’s the best way distill into a brief message all that’s good about the area and convince people to bring their businesses and jobs here? That’s the considerable task at hand for a community and tourism branding research and […]
Could this be the last great American summer? It will be if President Barack Obama and his grumpy band of killjoys at the Environmental Protection Agency get their way. Under orders from the president, the EPA has decided to wage war against such summer staples as backyard cookouts and Fourth of July fireworks Absurdly low […]
Apparently I’m feeling the need to expand upon my previous thoughts on the ridiculous number of bills presented in the last session of the Colorado Legislature. If you recall, I wrote that in the last legislative session alone, more than 600 bills were introduced. That leads to a few logical questions: Are there really 600 […]
It’s unlikely one would ever lack for examples of socialist failure. But should you ever find yourself at such a loss, the one that stands out perhaps most profoundly of late is Greece. Greece’s problems are many and not small. The little Mediterranean nation has accumulated a debt nearly two times its GDP, has an […]
Since the start of this year, at least, much speculation has swirled about when the Federal Reserve would finally increase short-term interest rates. To paraphrase Shakespeare, it’s much ado about nothing. Actually, that would be a best-case assessment. The Federal Open Market Committee served up assorted points on the economy and monetary policy in its […]