No More Benefit of the Doubt
Up until now, I’ve always tried to give the Obama administration the benefit of the doubt when it comes to economic policy. I have always tried to see their side of the argument and assumed they were operating in good faith. Economics is not an exact science and all of us who opine on the .. read more
Getting Austerity Wrong
I wrote yesterday about the austerity debate and today David Leonhardt tackles the subject in the NYT: The world’s rich countries are now conducting a dangerous experiment. They are repeating an economic policy out of the 1930s — starting to cut spending and raise taxes before a recovery is assured — and hoping today’s situation .. read more
Paul Krugman: Irony Impaired
The big debate recently in economic policy circles is the effect of cutting budget deficits rather than continuing to spend until the recovery is self sustaining. Leading the spend our way to prosperity camp is the US and specifically Paul Krugman. Their argument (and I’m simplifying) is essentially that the stimulus wasn’t big enough and .. read more
Will Stock Prices Follow Dividends
The short answer is yes, eventually. And right now the dividend picture is improving: A widespread recovery is under way among companies that throw off cash to shareholders. Since January, 136 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index have either increased their payouts or initiated new dividends, collectively bolstering payments by $11 billion this .. read more
Never Let a Crisis Go To Waste, Again
The Dutch have a lot of experience dealing with oil spills and they offered their help after the BP spill. The administration turned it down and one explanation is that they were kowtowing to their union buddies: The Americans, overwhelmed by the catastrophic consequences of the BP spill, finally relented and took the Dutch up .. read more
Hayek Says Make A U Turn
One of the best lines I’ve read in a very long time: Despite the caricatures of his critics, Hayek never said that totalitarianism was the inevitable result of expanding government’s role in the economy. He simply warned us of the possibility and the costs of heading in that direction. We should heed his warning. I .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The economic data last week was mixed and the market managed to give back all the gains of the week before and yet for some reason it feels like last week was a pretty good week. Why in the world would I say such a thing? Well, because the markets that aren’t stocks had some .. read more
Weekly Chart Review
The weekly chart review is posted on the main site: Weekly Chart Review
