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Dear Forbes.com readers: This will turn out to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the worst U.S. recession in decades. I first said so in August and, since I wrote those words, financial and economic conditions have deteriorated further--and severely. Stock prices are sharply down and there is a risk of a market crack. Interbank and credit spreads are wider than ever since the beginning of this crisis, Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ) and Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) are gone, and soon enough Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS...

Former presidential candidate Steve Forbes declared Monday the U.S. economy is in “cardiac arrest” and will plunge into “something we haven’t seen since the early 1930s” if Congress doesn’t come to the urgent rescue of American financial institutions. “You have to have faith that at some point these people will come to their senses, and do things that have to be done to stabilize the patient, and then we can take positive measures, like a strong dollar, like tax cuts, to get our economy in shape so that it can start to recover next year,” Forbes told Newsmax in an...

Quote from article: "The Bush Administration should vigorously push to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recapitalized and broken up into 10 to 12 new companies, with their ties to the government completely severed. Yes, this would mean Uncle Sam pumping in some $300 billion in equity capital, and perhaps taking on some $100 billion in those questionable mortgages. But such an investment would enable these companies to have a sound debt-to-equity ratio in the vicinity of 4-to-1."

Steve Forbes is on FOX, is being critical of Paulson and also of Ben Bernanke. Like Newt, he recommends getting rid of Mark-to-Market accounting procedures. Other good stuff . . . TUNE IN

The Treasury Department has told members of Congress that the U.S. faces an economic tsunami if a bill allowing the government to purchase up to $700 billion of toxic securities from financial firms is not passed this week. Unfortunately, this solution of giving the U.S. Treasury almost unlimited power to buy distressed securities could be avoided if the government made some simple (and temporary) changes to mark-to-market accounting rules. So far, and for many unknown reasons, these changes have been considered off limits. Why drawing such a hard line in the sand is so important is a real mystery. Certainly,...

Forbes Magazine recently released the top 50 states for business again.which ranks state economies especially with regards to small businesses which are the backbone of our economy. To no surprise, red right wing republican free states beat the Democrat liberal left wing socialist paradise states by an overwhelming number. 8 out of 10 states on the top ten were traditionally Republican with Nebraska beating Minnesota for number ten, while 7 out of 10 were traditionally Democratic. West Virginia was once again at rock bottom followed by Louisiana, Alaska and Maine. Mississippi, considered the worst state in the country was 42nd....

The Treasury/Fed/Congressional rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is only a stopgap. Unless fundamentally restructured, these two debt-bloated giants will sooner or later blow up. The once implicit, now explicit, government guarantee for these two quasi-government entities was the reason that they could be leveraged to the hilt, with a debt-to-equity ratio of almost 25-to-1. Instead of just packaging mortgages and selling them off, the companies kept hundreds of billions in these instruments in their own portfolios to fatten profits--and enrich their politically connected managers and political allies. They also went into the junk-mortgage business, buying more than $170...

Hand it to John McCain for being the perpetual Lazarus, from his virtual political demise a year ago to what he wrought in Minneapolis/St. Paul with his pick of Governor Sarah Palin for Vice President. Although the GOP is in disrepute, the Arizona senator has a good shot at winning in November--and a good thing, too. Whatever Senator Barack Obama's dazzling abilities as an orator and campaigner are, he has demonstrated no understanding of the elemental importance of free enterprise or of the fundamental role of risk-taking in bringing about economic progress. To him businesses are necessary evils and must...

Ithaca, N.Y. — The Best Of Everything? By REBECCA JAMES   The Commons is a popular gathering place in downtown Ithaca, N.Y. (Photo by Gloria Wright)     ITHACA, N.Y. — When your town has made more than 25 lists that call it one of the best cities in America, you might be surprised that one magazine would call it one of the "Twelve Great Places You've Never Heard Of."But along with that 2006 designation from Mother Earth News, Ithaca seems to make the grade no matter what's being ranked. It's one of the "lesbian friendliest cities," has the "best...

Steve Forbes begins speaking on the economy around the 18 minute mark, and continues until just past the 43 minute mark. (He is done chatting with the audience around the 20 minute mark, if you want to skip those remarks.)

Political Players: Former GOP Presidential Candidate, McCain Economic Adviser On Taxes, Energy And The Budget, Steve Forbes. Steve Forbes: I think his (McCain's) plan is the most realistic plan to achieve a balance - or a far better balance - that is out there, by recognizing the importance of reducing the burden of taxation, among other things. That is the key to getting the economy back on track again. ... So the way you get a balanced budget is one, greater revenue growth. And he's got the best plan for it. And two, restraint of spending. ... Steve Forbes: The...

Ohio has two counties in the list: Delaware County #5; and Geauga County (the red county where I live) was #4. Forbes' rankings are skewed toward counties with good school districts. Using research provided by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C., we started with a list of the nation's counties with populations over 65,000. To eliminate under-funded school districts, we isolated 97 counties where more than half of per-pupil spending comes from property taxes. They've also discovered something most Americans are still searching for: the ideal place to raise a family. Their sons, Pete...

Has the Federal Reserve run out of bullets? that implication could be drawn from the recently released minutes of the Fed's last Open Market Committee meeting, during which the federal funds rate was cut from 2.25% to 2%. The Fed hinted that no more rate cuts are in store and that the economic horizon is becoming cloudier. (The reason our central bank can't reduce interest rates further is that the inflation picture is getting uglier.) Stocks tanked on this news. However, the Fed has yet to use its most effective artillery: strengthening the value of the U.S. dollar.

Detroit has earned another dubious honor, the second place on Forbes magazine's list for the worst cities in the United States for jobs.

Jimmy Carter Bush Steve Forbes 03.24.08, 12:00 AM ET More From Steve Forbes Can it be true? A Republican president repudiating the anti-inflationary legacy of Ronald Reagan? That is precisely what George Bush is doing.

Trailwatch reached out to each of the remaining presidential campaigns and offered them an unedited forum in which they could address voters. As he was when we requested information for our Candidate Screener, Ron Paul was the first candidate to respond to our offer. We asked each campaign to submit 500 to 1,000 words on the issues they believe are the most important ones facing the nation at this moment in time. Here is what Ron Paul had to say. --Paul M. Murdock America became the greatest, most prosperous nation in history through low taxes, constitutionally limited government, personal freedom...

Debunking Reagan's Debunker Rich Karlgaard 02.25.08, 12:00 AM ET Last month during Bill Bennett's radio show, Morning in America, Bill asked me about a Paul Krugman column in the New York Times entitled, "Debunking the Reagan Myth." The title speaks for itself. Here are key Krugman passages: "[Reaganomics] did fail. The Reagan economy was a one-hit wonder. Yes, there was a boom in the mid-1980s, as the economy recovered from a severe recession. But while the rich got much richer, there was little sustained economic improvement for most Americans." "When the inevitable recession arrived, people felt betrayed--a sense of betrayal...

... The path back requires re-establishing the GOP as a party of limited government and economic freedom. This is essential to Mr. McCain's political future, the fortune of his party, and the economic well-being of the nation. And the first big indication that he intends to bring back the party of Reagan will be who Mr. McCain taps as his running mate. ... Fortunately, there is no shortage of true-blue fiscal conservatives in the GOP. Here are few who would help Mr. McCain unify his party and restore its winning brand: ... South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford... South Carolina Senator...

Steve Forbes, the editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine and himself a former presidential candidate, announced his endorsement Saturday of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president. Forbes had campaigned hard in Florida for former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who dropped out after Tuesday’s primary. Two other high-profile Giuliani backers — Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Solicitor General Theodore Olson — also have switched to McCain. The backing by Forbes is the latest in a cascade of signs that a once-reluctant Republican establishment is embracing McCain, who could wrap up the party’s presidential nomination in three days on Super Tuesday.

Mr. McCain stepped up his attempts to court the Republican right, scoring a number of high-profile endorsements this week. Yesterday, he received the support of billionaire Steve Forbes as well as former Solicitor General Theodore Olson. Mr. Olson, who served as assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, represented President Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore. The picture was a bit mixed earlier in the week when Mr. McCain got near-simultaneous endorsements from moderates California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York Mayor and rival Rudy Giuliani, causing some consternation among party conservatives. Some prominent pundits, including...

Imagine living in a city with the country's highest rate for violent crime and the second-highest unemployment rate. As an added kicker you need more Superfund dollars allocated to your city to clean up contaminated toxic waste sites than just about any other metro. Unfortunately, this nightmare is a reality for the residents of Detroit. The Motor City grabs the top spot on Forbes' inaugural list of America's Most Miserable Cities.

There is a lot of talk about change in this year's presidential race. But if Washington is truly broken, as many Americans think it is, then it doesn't merely need to be changed. It needs to be fixed. And the man who fixed up New York is ready to fix up Washington. Rudy Giuliani has proposed the largest tax cut in modern American history and a dramatic simplification of the tax code. His proposal has received broad support from fiscal conservatives in Washington; yesterday it was introduced as legislation by Reps. David Dreier and Roy Blunt, and by Sen. Christopher...

This is an outstanding lecture on the economy and the future. It conatins the basics of a rational approach to our problems. I have never seen anything like this in that it is comprehensive, off the cuff and quite entertaining. If you have 45 minutes this can alter your understanding of what is and what should be. Steve Forbes did this for the Telescom Conference last Fall. The URL is: HERE. This man should be our President. In the upcoming financial crises we need someone who can think on their feet.

The man who rates the world's richest people with his eponymous publishing empire is working behind the scenes in the US presidential race. Steve Forbes is hoping to make fresh waves in 2008. After losing bids for the Republican nomination in 1996 to Bob Dole and in 2000 to George W Bush, 2008 may be the year he gets to fight a presidential election campaign against a Clinton. On reflection: after twice failing to win theRepublican nomination, Steve Forbes says he cannow achieve more working on the outside Forbes is co-chairing the Republican presidential nomination campaign for former New York...

What Part of Catholic Do You Not Understand? Someone needs to ask the US bishops conference (USCCB) movie reviewer, Harry Forbes what part of the concept “Catholic” he does not understand. Mr. Forbes gave a glowing review to the film, The Golden Compass, and put all American Catholic bishops on record as supporting the work of an atheist! Subsequently, New Line Cinema attempted to do a full-scale promotion of the movie using diocesan newspapers claiming that the bishops’ movie office had declared the film to be “entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching.” Just to set the record straight: this movie...

Forbes Magazine has features on all the candidates, included in each is a rating of how liberal or conservative the candidate is. Forbes' methodology for the ratings included a survey (which some completed), and a review of the candidates records and statements, and is discussed here .

According to the new ratings that Forbes Magazine created, Fred Thompson is rated as the most conservative candidate running for president. With a rating of 40.6 out of a possible 50, Thompson leads the pack of GOP hopefuls as the most conservative, right ahead of John McCain. Here are the results of the Forbes rating system: * Thompson 40.6 * McCain 40.5 * Brownback 37.9 * Romney 36.7 * Giuliani 36.2 * Hunter 34.3 * Paul 31.2 * Tancredo 31.1 * Huckabee 26

In the July 2 issue of FORBES I posed these questions: What feeds the global liquidity surplus? On balance, is the global cash glut mainly the result of the U.S. Federal Reserve's loose money and the resulting lax loans? Or can it be explained by a new force--rapidly rising prosperity around the world? The answer mattered, I wrote. "If loose money [lax lending] is causing the liquidity surplus, then both economic growth and the bull rally are resting on thin ice." That would be bad and guarantee a hard landing. But if the 25-year Laffer-to-Google (nasdaq: GOOG) boom in innovation,...

Once this panic is over and all the corporate and financial corpses have been found and buried, politicians and an angry public will demand legislative action. Let's hope the reaction will be more constructive than that in the aftermath of the Enron and WorldCom scandals during the earlier part of this decade: the baleful Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Sarbox has created a lot of unnecessary paperwork for companies (and lucrative make-work for accountants and lawyers). It is a waste of brainpower. The act assumes that paper barriers will stop business wrongdoing. The spectacular bankruptcy of commodities broker Refco in 2005 showed how...

The Iraqi prime minister and president on Thursday announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites and Kurds, saying Sunni moderates refused to join but the door remained open to them. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the agreement was the first step to unblock political stagnation that has gripped his Shiite-led government since it first took power in May 2006. The announcement after three days of intense political negotiations in the capital was disappointing because it did not include Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi and his moderate Iraqi Islamic Party. President Jalal Talabani and al-Maliki were flanked by the leader...

Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, wrote anonymous postings on the blog, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.

Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 5 — For the last 14 months, high-tech insiders have been eating up the work of an anonymous blogger who assumed the persona of Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive and one of the world’s most famous businessmen. The mysterious writer has used his blog, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, to lampoon Mr. Jobs and his reputation as a difficult and egotistical leader, as well as to skewer other high-tech companies, tech journalists, venture capitalists, open-source software fanatics and Silicon Valley’s overall aura of excess. The acerbic postings of “Fake Steve,” as he is...

In a media marketplace heavy on celebrity news, stories are interesting, but pictures reign supreme. Want proof? Just look at the price tags. The past few years have seen an explosive rise in the prices paid for exclusive celebrity photos. Driven by the public's desire for the nitty-gritty of celebrity life and celebrities' moves to control--and profit from--their images, the photos on our list are testament to a maturing market worth tens of millions. In Pictures: The Most Expensive Celebrity Photos In Forbes' list of the 10 most expensive celebrity photos, we surveyed top-priced photos sales in the United States...

George W. Bush's presidential legacy will ultimately depend on a decision he has yet to make: Iran. Even European skeptics can no longer doubt that Iran's regime is working toward producing nuclear weapons. Sure, Iran has had setbacks, but it's pouring every possible resource into bringing this project to fruition. It's only a question of time. Most experts now say the country will have nuclear capability within one to three years. If President Bush doesn't stop the mullahs, or if he leaves the problem to his successor, his presidency will be judged a failure. He'll get points for recognizing the...

With Independence Day fast approaching, I was reflecting upon a Forbes magazine column, in which many of us celebrities and other notables were asked to answer the question, "What is the American Dream?" How would you answer the question? How some others answered Tom Brokaw replied, "To me, the American Dream is the freedom to choose to live how and where you want, to determine how you'll be governed and to provide your children with even more choices than you had." Kurt Russell believes, "…the American Dream has changed – now I believe it's a wish for freedom at no...

Oprah Winfrey has been named the world's most powerful celebrity. The US chat show host beat golfer Tiger Woods and Madonna to top Forbes magazine's annual list, Celebrity 100. The list takes into account celebrities' earnings, internet presence and press, TV and radio coverage. Last year, Oprah - whose talk show is watched by 30 million US viewers each week - was beaten to the top spot by Tom Cruise. However, her estimated earnings of USD260 million secured her pole position this year. A Forbes spokeswoman said: "A combination of strong financials and her enduring influence on the US public,...

Rudy Giuliani would make a superb president. he combines Reaganesque vision with extraordinary attention to detail. He is strong on national security and also has the principles and policies to strengthen the economy. He is a tax cutter and a foe of the federal income tax's complexity. He is a fervent free trader, much needed, as global protectionist pressures are rising. He has also demonstrated an antipathy toward unnecessary regulation. If Sarbanes-Oxley hasn't been amended by the time Giuliani takes office, he will push hard to remove its counterproductive elements. While I disagree with him in certain areas--I am pro-life,...

Rudy Giuliani would make a superb president. He combines Reaganesque vision with extraordinary attention to detail. He is strong on national security and also has the principles and policies to strengthen the economy. He is a tax cutter and a foe of the federal income tax's complexity. Rudy Giuliani is not afraid of trying to do Big Things. He successfully tackled the welfare mess in New York City, even before the welfare reform act of 1996. By the time he was through, welfare rolls had been cut nearly 60%. In short, he is not afraid to pursue major structural changes,...

I Dream of Genie: When Steve Forbes endorsed him last Wednesday, Rudy Giuliani appeared to return the favor, by dropping his longtime opposition to a flat tax and embracing Forbes's pet idea. As the New York Times reported, Giuliani said that if there were no federal income tax, "maybe I'd suggest not doing it at all, but if we were going to do it, a flat tax would make a lot of sense." It looked like a pawn-for-pawn swap, one dubious cause deserving another. Everyone knew Giuliani's supply-side stance was a head fake meant to fool social conservatives. "We're going...

The Latest Inflation Numbers remain disturbing. The Fed doesn't need to raise interest rates. It just needs to drain the excess liquidity it created, until the gold price--the best monetary barometer--goes down to the $400 range. But Chairman Ben Bernanke will likely dawdle. And then overreact. Stay tuned. . . .

Forbes also noted that voters should look at the effect of Giuliani's policies while in office. "Thanks to Giuliani's success on welfare reform, where rolls were cut 60%, the abortion rate in New York City fell faster than the national average," Forbes said. "Rudy may be pro-choice -- and I happen to be pro-life -- but the policies he pursued help the pro-life cause."In an interview yesterday, publishing mogul and former Republican Presidential candidate Steve Forbes elaborated on his endorsement last week of Rudy Giuliani for President. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Forbes said Giuliani was the "real fiscal...

Flipping through Forbes magazine, I arrived at the back page compendium of Thoughts on the Business of Life, familiar to long-time Forbes readers. The following, from that great philosopher Roger Ebert, jumped out at me: "Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions never lie to you." I'd been trying to sort through what every observer of the Republican Party has been trying to sort through. How can Rudy Giuliani be leading the Republican field of candidates? Suddenly, it seemed that Ebert captured it as well as anyone. Giuliani is simply not a candidate of logic. He doesn't add up....

The most high-profile national conservative leader to endorse Rudy Giuliani for President so far insists that the former New York mayor's non-conservative stands on social issues such as abortion won't derail his candidacy in the Republican nomination process next year. "I've met with several social conservatives and they are leaning strongly to Rudy," said Steve Forbes, publisher and two-time GOP presidential hopeful, who has just come out for Giuliani for President. Although he said he couldn't give the names of most of those he has talked to who are poised to join the Giuliani bandwagon, Forbes did cite Joel Rosenberg...

Rudy Giuliani is the real fiscal conservative in the 2008 presidential race. That's why I'm endorsing him for president. Most Americans know that Mr. Giuliani turned around America's largest city. They know he cut crime and welfare in half; they know that he improved the quality of life from Times Square to Coney Island and everywhere in between. And they witnessed his Churchillian leadership following the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Less well known is the mayor's fiscal record. Nonetheless, conservatives will find it impressive. He built New York's resurgence not just on fundamental police work, but also on a foundation...

Rudolph W. Giuliani accepted the endorsement of Steve Forbes yesterday and embraced Mr. Forbes’s signature issue, saying he liked the idea of a flat tax — something Mr. Giuliani denounced when Mr. Forbes was running for president. If there were no federal income tax, “maybe I’d suggest not doing it at all, but if we were going to do it, a flat tax would make a lot of sense,” Mr. Giuliani, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said yesterday, standing beside Mr. Forbes at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square in New York. But he said it was not...

?Forbes will also serve as Giuliani?s national campaign co-chair and senior policy advisor for the Giuliani campaign.?

March 28, 2007 Steve Forbes Joins Giuliani Campaign Steve Forbes, former Republican presidential candidate, President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes, and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for President of the United States. Mr. Forbes will serve as a National Campaign Co-Chair and Senior Policy Advisor: ?I am honored to support Rudy Giuliani for President,? Steve Forbes said. ?As Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani showed how exercising fiscal discipline ? including tax cuts ? lowers deficits, spurs economic growth, and increases revenue. It is time the rest of the country benefit from a true fiscal...

On the occasion of his first anniversary as Federal Reserve Chairman in February, Ben Bernanke was saluted by Wall Street and most of the business media for controlling inflation. The celebration, alas, was painfully premature. The inflation set off by Alan Greenspan's mistaken monetary extravagance in 2004 has not been fixed by his successor. The Fed's excess money creation is still roiling and distorting economies and financial markets around the world. The destructive political repercussions are unfolding. The most notorious symptom of the Greenspan-Bernanke blunder is the still high price of oil. But, of course, the monetary extravagance fired up...

Is the AMT really the realization of the Flat Tax? Is it therefore actually more fair and democratic than the regular tax code? I wonder where my fellow Freepers stand on the issue of repealing, fixing or leaving in place, the AMT, which increasingly is going to become the main tax system in the country for people who actually pay taxes. On the one hand, it results in a higher amount of taxes paid, on the other hand, it seems like a fair, flat tax that a few years ago some conservatives claimed to like. I have my opinion, but...

Somalia's prime minister said Sunday that the suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa are sheltering in the stronghold of his country's militant Islamic movement. "If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the United States," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told The Associated Press.