Political Economy

The Fed chairman is now crafting the Fed's public image just as politicians do. The press conference is a part of that pubic relations campaign. What should we expect then?

Whatever thunder the FOMC meeting usually has is being stolen this week by the first of Bernanke's press conference tomorrow. In fairness, the FOMC's statement is unlikely to change substantively from the mid-March statement. The press…

How do we make moral and ethical decisions? It would be nice if our choices were grounded in nothing but the facts, in the details of the issue at hand. Alas, that’s not the way it works. Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist at the University…

It is one of the paradoxes of life that the most practical means to ensure that the system does not collapse is to insist on justice for all and to ignore demands for special treatment premised on claims that justice places the system at…

Here is Omid Malekan back with a video explaining inflation to the layman. You have seen his videos on Bank Bailouts Explained and Quantitative Easing Explained. The QE explained video was especially popular and went viral on the Internet.…

When unemployment is high, immigrants are seen as a burden and the mood shifts toward the anti-immigration rhetoric we are hearing from Mr. Cameron. Economic nationalism is a force to be reckoned with. This anti-foreigner sentiment will…

No, I am not talking about tonight's speech from President Obama. This is about another President's speech, very loosely based on the Oscar Winner, "The King's Speech". Can you guess who the President is? Have a look at the video.…

I read a very good piece on the psychology of economic nationalism by SocGen 's Dylan Grice earlier today. Because of some relevant thoughts from a reader regarding austerity, I wanted to pass on my thoughts on what he wrote in the context…

A sovereign nation that issues debt in its own fiat currency cannot default involuntarily. Again, this is the Ecuador risk factor, defaulting for purely political reasons, not because of the inability to pay. It is not clear whether there…

The UK is a good example of what austerity means. In the wake of tax increases and budget cuts in the UK, retail sales in Britain have plunged by the most on record. I seriously doubt that the coalition government there will meet its…