Yesterday’s communiqué from the leaders of the G20 – a motley collection of democracies and dictatorships – has some good points, but in general it represents a new version of what economist Friedrich Hayek called “the fatal conceit.” It believes that government has all the answers, and demonstrates that the world’s leading governments recognize few boundaries. As such, not only does the communiqué promise far more than it can deliver – something the voters in G20 democracies should remember – but…

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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been talking with President Obama this morning, and high on the agenda was the PM’s call for international banking regulation. The interesting thing is that both Obama and Brown have blamed lack of regulation for the banking crisis, when there is clear evidence on both sides of the Atlantic that it was bad and inept regulation that drove the crisis. For an example from the US, here’s John Carney on how bad regulations helped…

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Rasmussen reports that support for the borrow-and-spend plan is falling rapidly:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the legislation, 43% are opposed, and 20% are not sure.

Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it.

Opposition has grown from 34% two weeks ago to 39% last week and 43% today.

Interestingly, only 27% of independents support the package, indicating that President Obama would have to spend a lot of his political capital to turn…

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