The philosopher Friedrich Hegel propounded the triad of thesis, antithesis, synthesis as one of the major logical processes by which knowledge gets advanced. We are now seeing its operation in the global energy market. From the thesis of a free-market energy menu consisting largely of fossil fuel energy sources and an antithesis of a highly […]

The IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report, released Wednesday, said global financial stability had improved in the last six months. They must be the only people who think so. In reality, the U.S. budget deficit has widened in spite of the economic recovery, the financial services sector is undertaking ever more preposterous deals, storing up trouble […]

The news that Portugal has requested a bailout from the EU is hardly surprising. The outgoing socialist government, having wrecked the economy and emptied the government coffers, wants to tie down its center-right successor, due to be elected June 5. Similarly, when later this year Spain finds itself in similar or worse trouble and approaching […]

Multifactor productivity data, announced to little fanfare last week, showed a sharp downward revision for 2008-09, with a net fall over the two years. The quinquennium 2005-09 had the lowest average multifactor productivity growth of any quinquennium since 1978-82, at a beggarly 0.2% per annum.. Lovers of the current economic order like to trumpet the […]