We’re well into January, but 2014 demanded a bit of reflection before commenting. Was it a good year or a bad year? We still don’t know. We’re calling it the…
Land of the Setting Sun
Let’s pretend that the United States economy is a football team. The coach calls the play. The running back runs right up the middle and is thrown for a loss. …
QE RIP
So the Federal Reserve Board has made it official. This is the end of quantitative easing. It’s quits for QE. Bond buying has gone bye bye. Quantitative easing has been…
Repeat After Me: The Economy Is Improving. The Economy Is Improving.
If you repeat something often enough, you may even start to believe it. So try this phrase: “The economy is improving. The economy is improving. The economy is improving.” Certainly,…
Attention Deficit Capitalism
“Democracy would not be democracy, rule of the people, without at least a modicum of political attention and activity from its citizens.” …
Mario the Magnificent
It will take more than higher prices to cure what ails the European economy, but Wall Street reacted to the European Central Bank’s inflation-boosting efforts by setting new records yesterday.…
Wishful Thinking Does Not Create Economic Recovery
This was going to be the year. Remember the predictions of 3% economic growth? More recently, the consensus was 1.2% growth for the most recent quarter. It turns out, though,…
The Economic Recovery That No One Noticed
The average recovery since the end of World War II has been 58 months. The current “recovery” has just reached that milestone. So maybe we should be celebrating. But what’s…
The Economy Is Booming – Unless You’re A Consumer
At least it sounds like good news. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that the economy grew at a rate of 2.84% during the third quarter. That’s up significantly…
Bad News Is Good News
Good news. The economy still stinks. In today’s economy, which is driven by The Federal Reserve Board’s quantitative easing (QE) program, bad news is good news and good news is…