Political Economy

By Win Thin The situation remains unsettled in Egypt.  As of this writing, President Mubarak pledged to stay on until his term ends in September, but delegated some authority to VP Suleiman.  Because of his strong connections to…

A corporation is a societal construct codified into legal existence to further the mutual interests of individuals. A corporation is "an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of the law," according to…

With commodity prices, there are a number of forces at play working to increase prices, including a thirst for natural resources in China and other emerging markets, a natural disaster in Australia, and the La Niña effect on agricultural…

By Michael Pettis On Friday the US Treasury released its presumably semi-annual (it was due last October) report to Congress on currency issues, and in it refrained from calling any of the countries under review “currency…

Frederick J. Sheehan is the author of Panderer to Power: The Untold Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession  (McGraw-Hill, 2009) and "The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond…

Here is my mantra regarding so-called 'unsustainable' debt levels. I feel strongly about this topic so I'll repeat it and show you a few statistics on consumer debt from the recent US government data: oor quality growth can continue…

Marshall Auerback spoke to BNN's Squeeze Play about the civil unrest in Egypt and what the unrest means for financial markets and the global economy. The most obvious global implications regard the potential for civil unrest elsewhere and…

By Claus Vistesen Despite the efforts of yours truly to create as strong a profile as possible in the world of econ-blogging, I regret to inform my readers that the organizers of the World Economic Forum in Davos have not found it within…

From today's Breakfast with Dave research note at Gluskin Sheff (highlighting added): An energy policy that truly removes U.S. dependence on foreign oil (shale case, coal, nuclear). A complete rewrite of the tax code that promotes…

By Jeffrey Somers and Michael Hudson A spectre is haunting Europe: the illusion that Latvia’s financial and fiscal austerity is a model for other countries to emulate. Bankers and the financial press are asking governments from Greece to…