What do demonstrators in the streets of American cities have in common with Molotov-cocktail-hurling anti-austerity demonstrators in the streets of Athens? They are both reflections of the fact that things have changed permanently since the rich-world financial melt-down that began in the spring of 2007 with the failure of two [continue reading . . . ]
Gas at $4.00 a gallon? Gold at nearly $1,800? One of the reasons is that the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by 38% in a decade, measured against the currencies of major trading partners. The collapse of the dollar to 97-lb. weakling status has been a drag if [continue reading . . . ]
Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme, as Texas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry labeled it during the GOP candidates’ debate Sept. 7? The answer is “No.” Charles Ponzi gave money collected from early suckers attracted by phony promises of high returns to new suckers after taking a cut. [continue reading . . . ]
The Swiss National Bank’s surprise decision Tuesday to try to prevent the Swiss franc from rising beyond SF1.20 to the Euro may well turn out to be a key miles-marker on the road to a global depression. The Swiss franc had become one of two leading refuges for investors seeking [continue reading . . . ]
Has the U.S. caught the Japanese disease? Are we destined for growth so slow you can barely feel the pulse? There are, of course, enormous differences between the U.S. and Japan. They are roughly twice as indebted as we are in relation to the size of their economy. With [continue reading . . . ]
Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now at Berkeley, is as articulate and passionate as any economist on the left. He is ubiquitous on cable-tv shoutfests. I keep waiting for him to say with conviction that the private sector must create wealth before the government can redistribute it. I’m not [continue reading . . . ]
I get a headache thinking about how much money Uncle Sam is borrowing — in the past year at the rate of almost $42 million a second (hat tip to the Financial Times blog Alphaville for calling this debt graphic to my attention). Think the U.S. is an outlier? Guess [continue reading . . . ]
Today’s brutal report on the labor market from Uncle Sam reminded me that the Seattle Times (where I once worked) the other day conjured the image of vast expanses of state office space bereft of employees (here’s a link to the article). State government employment has declined two years in [continue reading . . . ]