Economy

Even before the crisis, there were some who stressed that monetary policy should keep an eye on asset bubbles and the growth of credit. This column argues that the policy of inflation targeting, used widely in the 1990s and 2000s, did…

By Sober Look Continuing with the recent theme of the US labor markets, consider the chart below. It's the total US employees on nonfarm payrolls going back to the mid 60s. We've heard numerous discussions about how the current payrolls…

Last week I promised to provide a little more insight into what the ECB is doing with its OMT program and what this should mean for the euro, economic growth, and European sovereign bond markets. This weekly post is dedicated to that theme.…

By Sober Look Friday's employment figures were terrible across the board, although some have naively interpreted the decline in the headline unemployment rate (from 8.3% to 8.1%) as positive news. Unfortunately there is nothing positive…

By Sober Look The Citi Economic Surprise index was fairly accurate in pointing to a US slowdown in the first half of 2012. One therefore should not dismiss the recent reversal in the indicator's trend. The index just went into the positive…

By Marc Chandler The US employment data is an important disappointment, especially coming on the heels of yesterday's ADP and service ISM reports that had lifted expectations. The private sector created a net 103k jobs, well below the 143k…

By Warren Mosler This was written by Michael Johns. I saw him on C-Span, contacted him, and have been in touch ever since. Michael is a conservative, and one of the Tea Party founders. As you can see below, however, he too recognized the…

Editor's note: the price plateaus mentioned in this article are all in nominal terms. When using inflation-adjusted prices, prices have still risen dramatically, though less dramatically. By Marin Katusa, Chief Energy Investment Strategist…

Editor's note: Moody's issued the following press statement yesterday relating to its downgrade of the European Union's ratings outlook. Moody's Investors Service has today changed to negative from stable its outlook on the Aaa long-term…

I want to highlight the end of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech at Jackson Hole yesterday because he reiterated something he has been saying for a while now - that the Fed will do more but it won't be able to save the day by itself. I…