
Ax the Income Tax
March Madness, baseball, and flowers; spring in America would be so grand without income taxes and the headaches of filing on April 15.

March Madness, baseball, and flowers; spring in America would be so grand without income taxes and the headaches of filing on April 15.

The Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates later this year, and foreign central bank policies may compel it to sell off Treasury and mortgage-backed securities—reversing Quantitative Easing.

In the 20th Century, isolationism proved costly—protectionism exacerbated the Great Depression and strategic disengagement pulled America into an even more bloody Second World War. Now, neo-isolationism may prove America’s last reasonable choice.

Federal Reserve policymakers are meeting to consider whether to open the door to raising interest rates as early as June. Falling unemployment favors higher rates, but inflation remains well below the Fed target of 2 percent.

The Federal Reserve economic policy committee meets next week to consider whether to open the door to raising interest rates in June. Falling unemployment favors higher rates, but weighing in the opposite direction, inflation remains well below the Fed target of 2 percent.

The job market has improved, but only momentarily, and it won’t force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in June. That should keep a lid on rates banks charge for consumer loans and mortgages.

To listen to President Obama, the U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders. Yet it is hardly creating jobs at a breakneck pace, and too many able-bodied men have grown lazy and show no interest in working.

The Supreme Court could improve American health care by striking down federal subsidies offered through HealthCare.com—the federal exchange that sells insurance in states without government-run marketplaces.

America and the entire West are at war with jihadist terrorism and radical Islamism—on the battle fields of the Middle East with ISIS and al Qaeda but more importantly in coffee houses, the basements of mosques, and on the internet for the hearts and minds of young people.

Since 2008, the Federal Reserve has been giving banks virtually free money by keeping their short term borrowing rates near zero.

Fighting racism, prejudice, and the violence those can beget is everyone’s job. Muslims would do well to respond to President Obama’s invitation to combat extremist ideas in their communities, but too often Washington’s broader policies toward minorities encourage just the opposite.

Free trade is undermining American prosperity, and Congress should deny President Obama authority to negotiate new deals in Asia and with the European Union.

Moderate Islam may be guilty of terrorism by its silent acquiescence, and that is the issue President Obama and other leaders in the West refuse to address.

Greece will soon default on its sovereign debt and mercifully loosen Germany’s grip on European economic policy.

The newly elected Greek government is quite correct to eschew austerity and seek reductions in what it owes northern European governments. The Euro is punishing the South, and solving Mediterranean states’ chronic financial problems would require moving some industry from the North to the South. More austerity would only bleed the patient further.

The economy added 257,000 jobs in January, down significantly from the 324,000 fourth quarter average monthly gain. Overall, the economy is creating jobs, but lower oil prices and a strong dollar are slowing the pace.

Reading the president’s State of the Union and Budget Message, Americans are on the cusp of the second Age of Pericles. The economy is booming and with new taxes on the wealthy and free community college for all, lasting prosperity can be assured.

Posturing as champion of needed public investments and fairness, President Obama wants new taxes on the overseas earnings of American businesses. That would kill jobs and punish retired Americans.

In 2014, GDP growth bounced back in the spring and summer from a tough winter, but in the fourth quarter, it fell off to 2.6 percent. History indicates the country should be doing a lot better—simply, too many prime working-age Americans are despondent and have permanently dropped out of the workforce.

By electing Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras to be premier, Greeks voted to end the draconian economic measures imposed by Germany and other international lenders.

The European Central Bank has announced a €60 billion ($69 billion) monthly government bond buying program—Quantitative Easing—but that won’t do much for the moribund continental economy.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama will propose much he knows the Republican-controlled Congress will not enact, but his real agenda is to set the table for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has declared France is at war with radical Islam, but his government may have to take on Islam altogether. Certainly, it must abandon its pell-mell accommodation of immigrant cultures that threaten French civilization.

The economy added 252,000 jobs in December—down from 353,000 in November. With GDP growth slowing, prospects for jobless Americans are worsening.

It was one thing to get elected but it will be another for the Republican Congress to work with a president best known for his imperious style and a hard left agenda.