The oil price rise of more than $50 per barrel since the Fed started cutting interest rates in September is beginning to get serious. Since the rise of oil import prices alone removes $170 billion from the US economy, more than 1% of Gross Domestic Product, it is both inflationary and highly recession-producing, especially since […]

As commentators have come to realize the depth of the economic mess in which the United States is now mired, an increasingly loud theme of their wailings is that the free market has failed, so that we need more government regulation and state control. One expects the Democratic Presidential candidates to take this view (though […]

First quarter labor productivity growth, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Wednesday, was unexpectedly positive, with non-farm labor productivity rising 2.2% over the previous quarter. Wall Street mostly rejoiced at this number (the stock market was down, but irrationality is the middle name of most short term trading moves.) However to the impartial observer […]

The first quarter Gross Domestic Product rise of 0.6% was greeted with considerable relief by most Wall Street commentators; they had expected the chaos in the housing market and the banking system to have pushed the US economy into recession. This was unreasonable; the huge monetary stimulus currently being hurled at the economy was always […]