Political Economy

What happens on August 3rd if no debt ceiling negotiation is reached in the US. This column argues that Treasury could go around, not over the debt ceiling limit by using its constitutional authority to mint money.

These questions sound like Congress thinks the US will be the next Greece. And that makes them likely to turn the US into the next Japan. The Congressmen almost never ask questions. They are statements posed as questions to get Bernanke to…

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue, because there may simply not be the money". Video of President Obama with Scott Pelley below.

Michael Hudson argues that President Obama says one thing, and he does the opposite. Here’s basically the charade that’s happening when he’s trying to be reasonable. In order for him to move way to the right and to continue the Bush…

Yesterday, Sheila Bair wrote an unusual Op-Ed in the Washington Post in that it was penned just after departing a high-ranking government position and it was also highly critical of the government’s policy responses. The obvious conclusion…

Clearly, the Europeans’ dithering has had catastrophic consequences. The extend and pretend strategy has not prevented contagion from infecting the core. So we need to see a response here. In the shorter-term, the Europeans are likely to…

Bair is too diplomatic to name names. But she is as blunt and direct as you can be without doing so. While no names were named it is abundantly clear from the Nocera piece at whom she points a disapproving finger: Paulson, Summers,…

The problem is if “markets become skittish about Spain or Italy, which cannot be bailed out. So EU leaders will cut Greece loose” and indeed, there is talk about doing just that – allowing Greece to default. The policy of extend and pretend…

Multiple news sources are reporting about a secret meeting due to take place on Monday amongst European officials to discuss the deepening sovereign debt crisis that has now spread to Italy. Below is my translation of an article in German…

Marshall Auerback argues that President Obama remains close to Wall Street via Geithner, Summers, Rubin, et al. Given the strong mutual cultural antipathy between Wall Street 'Yankees' and Southwestern 'Cowboys', it is not surprising that…