2011

This column addresses the high price paid by the President’s Council of Economic Advisors’ failure to read Akerlof & Romer

Rick Bookstaber opines about a future world in which the flood of information being produced will be filtered by third parties like Facebook and Google with as yet unpredictable consequences for society. Perhaps these filters are just…

The Case-Shiller Home Price Indices were released this morning. As usual, I use the seasonally unadjusted numbers to see what is happening. The numbers show that home prices dropped 4.5% in the year to May 2011, with every market down…

Apparently, there was a reason that Soros was 75% in cash. He is getting out of the hedge fund business altogether, liquidating assets and returning the funds to investors.

Obama's Weekly Job Approval Ties Term Low of 43% tags: Barack Obama polls Chart of the Day: The Housing…

As Europe’s leaders struggle to convince markets that their Greek debt problem-resolution-proposals are actually viable, and will really do the trick, last week’s flash PMI readings seem to have attracted rather less attention than they…

The employment-to-population ratio had been much higher in the US than Europe. This gap narrowed dramatically in the last decade and had almost disappeared by the end of 2009. Draw your conclusions about what this says about the different…

My take: The issue is real and if the debt ceiling is not increased, the US will slip into a double dip recession in which unemployment will rise higher and stocks will sink lower than in 2009. Voters now see this as a predominately…

When the government issues a currency used as the money of account and accepts that currency in tax payment, it is not necessary to “back” the currency with precious metal or enforce legal tender laws. Taxes drive money.

No, but stocks and bonds are down. Global equity markets are down and safe havens like gold and the Swiss Franc are up. Stan Collender thinks the likelihood of a deal is less than many believe.