Economy

"I don't want to see unemployment this high," Thomas Hoenig says. "But I also don't want to see it this high three or four years from now following another crisis because we were so impatient. That's a very hard trade-off and it's very…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI) is probably the target of more anger than any government dataset. And certainly, it's not great at measuring inflation. But gauging inflation can be tricky; so today, I wanted to…

The persistence of the decline in discretionary spending online for consumer durable goods suggests that consumers have come to terms with the need for a longer term frugality -- perhaps not wishing to repeat the premature "green shoots"…

The Fed justified the current round of quantitative easing “to promote a stronger pace of economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate”. In effect, the Fed is trying to increase…

There is a difference between economic growth from mere factor mobilisation and economic growth from increased productivity. One requires a lot more capital investment and debt than the other. If and when capital investment growth slows,…

Frederick Sheehan argues that we are overleveraged, undercollateralized, and accentuating these unsustainable imbalances through economic policy to smooth out volatility.

Is China currently rebalancing? The currency has been appreciating, the PBoC has hiked interest rates four times, and wages have been surging. Because of all of this I am often asked if China has finally begun the long-waited rebalancing…

Many an economic eyebrow must have been raised last Friday when Europe’s first quarter GDP data was released, and people discovered that the Greek economy had suddenly surged forward, rising by 0.8% over the level it had attained in the…

Here's Ron Paul on Chris Matthews' show talking about giving people greater liberty and freedom on a number of different issues. I agree with much of what he says. But here's the part I want to focus in on: property rights. I am all for…

As labour costs in China rise, economists are beginning to think about replacing labour with capital, something we have already seen as a major factor in suppressing wage gains in developed economies. This is also in line with what…