economics

A recent Bloomberg Businessweek article, “Mr. Normal Meets Mrs. Merkel” got me thinking. Why are Americans screaming about their tax levels? We have among the lowest federal tax rates in the civilized world and certainly the lowest our country has experienced in the past several decades. In the...

In 2006, the underpinnings of the American financial system began to crack from a speculative bubble in the country’s housing market.  Fueled by irrational exuberance in which homeowners believed their home prices would rise forever, this was made worse by Main Street and Wall Street,...

Courtesy of Lee Adler of the Wall Street Examiner The Industrial Production news today reminds me of a story. It’s a story that shows just how the Fed’s manipulation drives both the stock market and the 'conomy. It’s also a story of the twisted personalities behind the...

Californicated? Visit with a few posts by Russ Winter and Mish Shedlock.  California and “Solving Problems” Courtesy of Russ Winter of Winter Watch at Wall Street Examiner American masters of the universe and their toadies give self serving lip service to covering some...

To know the Washington Consensus as a regular citizen is to hate the Consensus.  The Washington Consensus, as the name implies, was an “inside the beltway” series of neo-liberal policies embraced by the IMF, the World Bank, and the U.S. government. It called for a minimal State and an all-...

By Peter Tchir, Minyanville Timing in fixed income markets can be as important as it is in equities. With so many more liquid opportunities in fixed income now compared to the past, this is a meaningful risk management tool. This “active” component will also include ideas in equity and commodity...

On April 25, 2012, Treasury Secretary Geithner made remarkable statements about the role of elite financial fraud and greed in producing our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. In this first installment I focus on the first of five problems with Geithner’s claims: (1) he does not understand...

As Brazil, Russia, India and China, the BRIC countries, advance full-steam ahead, Jim O’Neill’s decade-old prediction for this group of only four countries remains prescient. BRIC is growing an economy that will surpass the combined size of the great G7 economies by 2035. Very little is said,...

Presidential nominees of either U.S. party can secure economic advice from any economist in the world.  This makes it all the more amazing and sad that they choose economists with track records of disastrous policy advice. Bill Clinton chose Robert Rubin, George W. Bush chose Gregory Mankiw,...

“To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep” Where is Shakespeare and his logic when we need him?Ed DeMarco, head of...