Pakistan is not often in the Western news, but when it is, it is almost always negative. That is certainly the case with the arrest this week of former prime minister and leading opposition figure Imran Khan, which triggered widespread protests.
Read moreThe U.S. Government Keeps Breaking the Economic Golden Rule: Do No Harm
Government officials at every level should adopt a new mantra, a Hippocratic economic oath: do no harm. Newly minted doctors take the same oath to do no harm as one of their foundational medical principles. Economic policy should start with the same presumption.
Read moreWho Is Really to Blame for SVB and the Banking Crisis
The Federal Reserve has raised short-term interest rates at the fastest pace since the early 1980s in an attempt to curb the hottest inflation since the early 1980s. But in its zeal to tame inflation, the Fed has been seemingly indifferent to sudden sharp shifts in the economic winds.
Read moreThere Is a Painless Way to Fix Inflation
When The Fed sharply increased its target interest rate by three-quarters of a percent, Chairman Jerome Powell remarked, “I wish there were a painless way…There isn’t.” Actually, there is a painless way: stop raising rates.
Read moreInflation May Already Have Peaked. Overreacting Brings Its Own Risks
Billionaires Have Always Owned the Media. Musk Is No Great Threat
The explosive announcement that Elon Musk is buying Twitter and taking it private has generated a slew of commentary. The most common refrain has been that we are at “peak billionaire” and that Musk’s acquisition reflects a disturbing acceleration of not just inequality but of the ability of the very rich to dictate the rules of democracy itself.
Read moreWhy You Probably Don't Need to Worry About 1970s-Style Stagflation
The Seventies were famous for many things: wide-lapels, disco music, Watergate, the middle-class abandonment of cities for suburbs, and of course, stagflation, that toxic blend of soaring prices and stagnant economic growth. Is history repeating itself?
Read moreHow to Make Sense of the Stock Market's Turbulent Year So Far
Here we go again. From late March 2020 till almost the end of last year, stock markets had been on an extraordinary tear. When the pandemic exploded, market plunged close to 30% in a matter of weeks. What the markets giveth, they taketh away.
Read moreWhy We Should Stop Freaking Out About Inflation
For the first time in decades, we are in the midst of a bona-fide inflation scare. Recent numbers came in at 6.2%, the highest since 1990. Much of the world is beset by high demand for goods that have created massive supply-chain bottlenecks, with not enough ships and capacity at ports leading to long delays and higher prices for almost everything.
Read moreIt's All About Spending, Stupid. The Dems Blew Their Moment by Obsessing Over Taxes
After months of false starts and internal divisions, it appears that President Biden and Congressional Democrats are on the verge of agreeing to a spending package to address climate change, childcare, housing, paid family leave and to lower drug costs.
Read moreChina’s Didi Crackdown Isn’t All That Different From U.S. Moves Against Big Tech
The scrutiny intensified when Didi elected to list its shares in the U.S. In the eyes of the Chinese government, that raised the possibility that Didi would then share its precious domestic data with U.S. counterparties.
Read moreWhat America's Plutocrats Today Should Learn From Past Generations
Balancing the other-worldly success of a few in contrast with the challenges many still face is one of the thornier dilemmas of a post-COVID-19 world where those gaps have grown ever wider.
Read moreWhy You Should Be Wary of Claims That the Stock Market Is in a Bubble
Almost exactly a year ago at this time, I warned that markets were due for a sharp correction and that the emergence of COVID-19 was more than a valid reason.
Read moreAmerica's Cities Are in Crisis. They Should be Allowed to Raise Debt to Save Themselves
That kind of help from the federal government has been sorely lacking during the pandemic—and is utterly essential to any meaningful and sustainable economic recovery for the whole country.
Read moreHow the GameStop Trading Surge Will Transform Wall Street
That has often been the case, but then came the GameStop phenomenon when a tsunami of that so-called dumb money flooded parts of the stock market, leaving Wall Street professionals not just scratching their heads but a few of them badly wounded.
Read moreIf We’re Serious About Saving the U.S. Economy, We Need to Bail Out the Cities
As the United States heads into its grim pandemic winter, Congress remains deadlocked on passing a new stimulus bill.
Read moreAs Congress Fails to Act, Only the Fed Can Save the Economy
With COVID-19 surging across the country, and state after state enacting new restrictions as individuals adjusting to a more widespread contagion, these programs could be needed in the coming months, just as Mnuchin is attempting to end them.
Read moreIf We Don't Move Fast, the Economy Is Going to Get Much Worse
Regardless of the electoral outcome, doing nothing until February 2021 after a new Congress and President are sworn in could well plunge the country back toward the depths of March when a major depression seemed upon us.
Read moreThe Ugly Partisan Truth Behind President Trump's Stimulus Roadblock
That fact alone would suggest the need for further government stimulus, but hope for that faded after the president announced that he was uninterested in further stimulus bill until after the election, though he then backtracked and suggested he was open to some action.
Read moreAmerica is a Tale of Fractured Economic Realities and That's Stopping Us From Fixing this Crisis
Given how much economic damage the pandemic continues to cause, it seems astonishing that Washington has been unable to muster any action since the spring.
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