It’s an economic article of faith among almost every school of economic thought that central banks raising interest rates curtails economic growth and lowering interest rates stimulates short-run economic growth. The problem with this assertion by nearly every...
So the talking heads of bubblevision think inflation is abating, but what about this: Federal revenues in November posted at $252 billion—10.3% below last November—while spending came in at $501 billion. And the latter included an ominous +53% rise in Federal debt...
The narrative to attack any tax cut and defend any increase in government size is reaching feverish levels. However, we must continue to remind citizens that constantly bloating government spending and increasing the size of monetary interventions are some of the...
Nouriel Roubini, a former advisor to the International Monetary Fund and member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, was one of the few “mainstream” economists to predict the collapse of the housing bubble. Now Roubini is warning that the staggering...
Last Friday the Wall Street gamblers made another run at “bad news is good news”, taking the averages up modestly after a frenetic chase around the barn and back. But at the end of the day, it’s high time to forget about the games played by Wall Street day-traders and...
The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX may prove to be a canary in the coal mine of the easy-money-fueled crypto bubbles. FTX’s collapse has exposed just how little due diligence is actually taking place among investors, who are apparently willing to put large...
As mortgage rates have risen this year, the demand for home purchases has fallen. That has spelled trouble for the home construction business. Homebuilder confidence dropped for the 10th straight month in October. The decline in builder sentiment reflects what...
It’s been a rough year for advocates of modern monetary theory (MMT). After nearly two years with all the budget deficits and money printing MMTers could have wanted, the doctrine’s popularity seems to have faded now that we’re well passed the honeymoon phase. Twenty...
The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the target federal funds rate 75 basis points on Wednesday, marking the fourth 75-basis-point hike in a row since June. The federal funds rate is now the highest it's been since December of 2007 when...
“President” Joe Biden described the U.S. economy as, “Strong as hell,” in a recent sound bite. No one except his most ardent supporters, a vanishingly small number in reality, believes that. He and they point to statistics, “internals” in Biden-speaks, that point to...
On Oct. 3, 2022, the U.S. national debt eclipsed $31 trillion for the first time in history. When you factor in unfunded liabilities in Medicare and Social Security, the debt skyrockets to well over $100 trillion. As the Anti-Federalist writer Brutus warned: “I can...
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is a 2022 recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics for his writings on how government should respond to bank failures. Honoring Bernanke for his advice on what government should do when banks fail is like giving a fire...
According to the establishment survey of employment, released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total employment increased, month-over-month by 263,000 jobs. The "job market stays strong" reads one CNBC headline, and the new jobs print was hailed as a great...
The Federal Reserve has a legal dual mandate to minimize unemployment and price inflation. The current “dual” between the two mandates is to reduce price inflation by increasing interest rates to increase unemployment and kill businesses to choke off aggregate demand....
