Was the U.S. a victim of an economic 9/11 in 2008? Bill Gertz has an article running in this morning’s Washington Times, “Financial terrorism suspected in ’08 economic crash,” on a report prepared by the Department of Defense in June 2009.

ROBERT BARRO – How ironic that Wisconsin has become ground zero for the battle between taxpayers and public- employee labor unions. Wisconsin was the first state to allow collective bargaining for government workers (in 1959), following a tradition where it was the first to introduce a personal income tax (in 1911, before the introduction of the current form of individual income tax in 1913 by the federal government).

Time is running out on cheap petroleum fuels. Recent research states that we have little more than 40 years of steadily decreasing supplies of that type of energy while concurrently its price grows prohibitively high. Then it’s no more cheap oil. Then what?

Roger L Simon – When the chips are down, our modern liberals are overcome by their own sense of entitlement.

MADISON, Wisc. – Thousands of Tea Partiers gathered in Madison on Saturday, in an effort to rally support for newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s deficit reduction plan.

Kyle Olson – After years of obstructing efforts to reform public education, the nation’s teacher unions are using this week’s national education conference in Denver to push for a spirit of “collaboration” among education reformers and teacher unions.

George Gilder | What was once the indispensable state is now an asylum of decline that threatens to drag the rest of America down with it.

Their budgets will be crushed by the Medicaid expansions that the feds are forcing on them. .

Palm Springs, California -At the front gates of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, a few hundred liberals rallied Sunday against "corporate greed" and polluters. They chanted for the arrest of billionaires Charles and David Koch, and their ire was also directed at the other free market-oriented businessmen invited here by the Koch brothers to discuss free markets and electoral strategies.

Tom Blumer – The state of the union is financially weak, and getting weaker.

FRED SIEGEL – The turbulent years of the 1960s and '70s are best known by the headline-grabbing civil rights and women's rights movements. But there was another "rights" movement, largely overlooked, that has also had a profound effect on American life.

Thomas Sowell says economic downturn will end faster with less government intervention. While you may need a fork lift to get it on your night stand, Thomas Sowell’s most recent edition of his popular guide to economics, “Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to Economics,” will aptly navigate all — from laymen to experts — through the treacherous subject that has seemingly stumped many as of late.

Capitalism has created the highest standard of living ever known on earth. The evidence is incontrovertible. The contrast between West and East Berlin is the latest demonstration, like a laboratory experiment for all to see. Yet those who are loudest in proclaiming their desire to eliminate poverty are loudest in denouncing capitalism. Man’s well-being is not their goal. Ayn Rand, Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal

Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chairman and chief executive of General Electric Co. tapped by President Barack Obama as his next top outside economic adviser, will be asked to guide the White House as it attempts to jump-start lackluster job creation and spur a muddled recovery.

One day after assuming office as new chairman of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke out in an unscripted conversation about Republican plans to shrink the federal budget, lower taxes, tackle runaway entitlement programs, and seek tax reform.

Obama continues offshore drilling ban in favor of wind farms. With OPEC targeting $100/barrel oil as OPEC oil ministers gathered last week for a meeting in Cairo, 2011 may see oil challenge the $148/barrel all-time high reached in July 2008.

AWR Hawkins – High gas prices don't bother our president. While campaigning for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama spoke to the $4 a gallon gasoline prices Americans were facing by making it clear he had no problem with gas prices at that level.

Paul Joseph Watson | 2010 was a year of worldwide awakening, 2011 will go a long way to proving whether or not the resistance has teeth.

Even if you haven't been paying attention, you know something has gone terribly wrong with America.

Ed Driscoll – "Only 4% of American films are made by women. In Iran it's 25%," an ad by international banking firm HSBC claims. But HSBC's bizarre ad propping up the mullahs is but one of a growing number of overtly politicized ads from once-staid financial institutions.