Fed's Sole mission should be maintaining value of currency

All of the Republican presidential candidates have called for getting rid of Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, but only Rep. Ron Paul has advocated abolishing the Fed. Mr. Paul wants to return to a gold standard. There are pros and cons of going back to gold, but, short of that, there are a number of constructive things that can be done. One reason Fed policy is so confused and conflicted is that the Fed has been given multiple targets and tasks, some of which, at times, conflict with one another. The Fed is supposed to maintain not only price stability but also full employment. In addition, it is supposed to make sure the banking system is sound. The Dodd-Frank bill gave it the additional task of consumer financial protection.

To understand the problem...

We must withdraw all our military and aid personnel from Afghanistan before the Obama administration’s groveling gets more of them killed. Rioting broke out across Afghanistan after U.S. troops inadvertently burned Korans in a garbage pit at Bagram Air Force Base a week ago Monday (2/20). At least 30 people -- four of them U.S. servicemen -- have been killed since the rioting began. As soon as the mistake was discovered, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan apologized. “It was not a decision that was made with respect to the faith of Islam,” said Marine Gen. John Allen. “It was a mistake. It was an error. The moment we found out about it we immediately stopped and we intervened.” There the matter should have rested. But Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also issued a public apology, and President Barack Obama sent a letter of apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. A deputy defense secretary apologized at a mosque in Sterling, Va. Friday. Serial obsequiousness has not mollified the Afghans.

High energy prices are the result of Democrat policies, and they are deliberate.  Democrats need high prices to make their "green" energy and mass transit boondoggles seem economical.  But they have to lie about it. MSN Money profiled recently the 15 wealthiest counties in the United States, where median household income is roughly double the national average of $49,445.  Ten, including the top three, are in the D.C. suburbs and exurbs in Maryland and Virginia. Sharia has come to Pennsylvania.  The Pennsylvania state director of American Atheists dressed up as "Zombie Muhammad" for a parade last Halloween.  This annoyed Talag Elboyomi, a Muslim immigrant, who assaulted him. Maryland will be the 8th state, and the first south of the Mason-Dixon line, to legalize gay marriage: Joblessness and student loan debt are stunting an entire generation.  Among young people aged 18 to 24, 57 percent of men and 49 percent of women live with Mom and Dad.  So do nearly 20 percent of men aged 25-34.

The leaked confidential documents from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago think tank skeptical about anthropogenic (man made) global warming, seemed to environmentalists to be the best Valentine's Day gift ever. The documents identified Heartland donors and outlined the foundation's fund-raising strategy for 2012.  The smoking gun was one entitled: ‘2012 Heartland Climate Strategy,' which included plans for ‘dissuading (K-12 teachers) from teaching science.'   Global warming alarmists are still reeling from ‘Climategate,' a leak in 2009 of thousands of emails which indicated prominent climate scientists were manipulating data and conspiring to keep dissenting views from being published in scientific literature.  The Heartland documents were, they thought, the Climategate of the skeptics.   Warmist glee was short lived.  The ‘2012 Heartland Climate Strategy' memo was a clumsy forgery - so clumsy it's being dubbed Fakegate.

Of those who are running for president, who has the best and worst tax plans? The worst plan is easy: President Obama's. By way of disclosure, I was part of the small team that developed and helped market President George H. W. Bush's economic platform back in 1988. The first President Bush won, in part, because he had a clear, understandable plan - ‘Read my lips: No new taxes' - and a ‘flexible freeze' to control spending. Unfortunately for him and the country, he abandoned the ‘flexible freeze' soon after taking office and the tax pledge two years later. His reversal played a big part in his subsequent defeat in 1992. Mr. Obama seems not to have learned from the mistakes of the first President Bush. He has repeatedly pledged not to increase taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year and to do everything possible to increase jobs. Yet, in fact, he has already signed 21 tax increases into law. It's easy to have a tax plan better than this.  So let's look at those of all four GOP candidates.

The consensus among pundits two weeks ago was that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, having clobbered former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary Jan. 31, was (yet again) the ‘inevitable' Republican nominee for president.  Now they are saying that if Mr. Romney loses the Michigan primary next Tuesday (Feb. 28), it could be curtains. ‘If Romney loses Michigan, we need a new candidate,' ABC's Jonathan Karl said he was told by a ‘prominent Republican senator.' Mr. Romney shouldn't lose in Michigan.  He grew up there, where his father was a popular governor, and where he won, comfortably, the presidential primary in 2008.  But polls show him trailing former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.  As the marketing guys say, if the dogs won't eat the dog food, it doesn't matter much how much you spend to advertise it.

The two most intriguing words of the week:  "I'm game."  It's was Sarah Palin's answer to Eric Bolling on Fox's Follow The Money show on Wednesday (2/15).  She agreed with Bolling that we could end up with a brokered GOP convention, and that while she respected "all four" remaining candidates in the race (Romney, Santorum, Gingrich & Paul), "all bets are off" if it comes to that.  "If it does," asked Bolling, "then, Governor, would you be interested?" Sarah's answer:  "I would be willing to help any way that I can."  And: "If that means running for office at some point in the future, I'm game." No wonder everyone wants a brokered convention.  As Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler, founders of Tea Party Patriots, told Neil Cavuto on Fox News on Wednesday (2/15), "Nobody is satisfied with the (four) candidates out there. They're all losers." Jenny and Mark could have done a mea culpa at this point, for after going ga-ga over Herman Cain, they pouted in a corner when he cratered.  If Tea Party Patriots had gone all-up/all-in for Rick Perry, we wouldn't be in this loser-mess now. But we are.  So, what would it take for an "all bets are off" convention?  The short answer is...