government

The following is the rationale for the ratings action Standard and Poor's took earlier today in downgrading the sovereign debt ratings of Spain Overview     -- The deepening economic recession is limiting the Spanish government's policy…

Jack Welch recently caused a ruckus by suggesting that the government was “cooking the books” with its economic data. Specifically, he tweeted the following last Friday after the employment situation report: "Unbelievable jobs…

It occurs to me that the whole furore over patents in the software industry really revolves around the role of government in setting the regulatory ground rules for business and government’s influence in the private sector. A recent post in…

Two months ago, we got four scenarios for the fiscal cliff via Credit Suisse and Sober Look. All of these scenarios called for at least a 0.9% drag on the economy, meaning that we should fully expect at least a 0.9% drop in annualized GDP…

By Michael Pettis I recently “debated” twice with senior Chinese officials on the future prospects for China. In both cases they made the argument that Chinese growth rates were going to rise in the next few years and that the current deep…

I was on RT's Capital Account on Friday night talking to Lauren Lyster about QE and the conversation moved more into the realm of fiat currency and government's coercive taxing power. This is particularly relevant given arguments within…

The lead article in today's links is from Seumas Milne in the Guardian on George Osborne's failure to deliver on his promises as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer. If you recall, the platform that Osborne championed was one of voluntary cuts…

And going beyond April, the political arithmetic of a post Monti government looks complicated, making the kind of stability needed to advance what the population may well see as “harsh” reforms unlikely. In other words, as Monti says, when…

We have reached end-of-paradigm – the final failure of microeconomics masquerading as macro. The solution, the new macro paradigm, requires monetary literacy and numeracy. And this can only be achieved by removing the conceptual blinders by…

The US pension bailout fund PBGC is already stretched and may require more taxpayer money. Now it would be taking over pensions that will be even more underfunded, with asset values way below the present value of the liabilities. And more…