Tactical Update
The 21st century, global, economic saga continues to provide plenty of nuance. The past few weeks, we’ve been introduced to a few new characters, Cyprus and Russia. There is a bit of a rogue element with Russia. Regardless, the same common themes are present for analysis: leverage, speculation, global capital imbalances and the accompanying political, .. read more
Sequester The Fed
“If Congress allows this meat-cleaver approach to take place, it will jeopardize our military readiness. It will eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research. It won’t consider whether we’re cutting some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness or a vital service that Americans depend on every single day.” President Obama on .. read more
State Of The Union
The President will deliver the State of the Union address Tuesday night. He will probably offer a laundry list of programs that he’d like to spend more money on and the Republicans will respond with a laundry list of reasons why the President’s list is a bad idea. The President will say that he intends .. read more
Really Big Coins, Constitutional Amendments & Other Stupid Ideas
I haven’t yet commented on the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin option to avoid the debt ceiling because it is so stupid that I couldn’t fathom that anyone might actually take it seriously. Silly me. It appears that I underestimated the desire of certain politicians to keep spending ever larger amounts of our cash. No less .. read more
Morons & Oxymorons
American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. That’s the title of the recently passed legislation to avoid the so called “fiscal cliff”. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It isn’t a true oxymoron since that term is generally reserved for things that are surprisingly true and paradoxical but it certainly fits the more common, .. read more
Is The US Already In Recession?
Is the US economy already in a recession? That’s what Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute believes. He made the media rounds last week and his message was a simple one – the US economy has been in recession since July of this year. ECRI has a flawless record of predicting US recessions .. read more
Who Knew? Economics Is Simple Math
I was on the road last week and between meetings I spent more time than usual watching CNBC. I no longer wonder why their ratings are down. They have a lot of hours to fill obviously and right now they are concentrating, seemingly exclusively, on the fiscal cliff negotiations. Last Tuesday, they interviewed a stock .. read more
Uh, Oh. Bernanke Agrees With Me
There’s important potential for the economy to strengthen significantly if there’s a greater level of security and confidence about where we’re going. A plan for resolving the nation’s longer-term budgetary issues without harming the recovery could help make the new year a very good one for the American economy. Ben Bernanke in a speech last .. read more
