The U.S. public is unprecedentedly pessimistic about the prospects going into 2013, with 56% “fearful” against 40% “hopeful” according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. When one looks at the world’s markets, and at the policies that have been almost universal since the crash of 2008, one can see the rationale for their pessimism. […]

To keep the spirit of Christmas usefully at bay, and reinforce my proudly-held Grinch-like reputation, I will this week examine the little-known discipline of Sado-economics, the use of economic policy to punish the disfavored. It is a policy tool used more than you might think, and it sometimes has some virtue, since it reverses the […]

As Ben Bernanke unveils yet another attempt to print enough money to restart the moribund U.S. economy, its true #1 need becomes increasingly clear. It’s not lower tax, and only indirectly lower government spending and a better education system. In an era when global competition from middle-income and low-income countries has intensified beyond all historical […]

We learned last week that bad debts on U.S. student loans now exceeded those on all credit card debt. Yet politicians, educators and economists continue to advise American youth to aim for a college degree, on theory that it represents a job for life. However according to the Economic Policy Institute the unemployment rate for […]

“Sexual Intercourse Began/In Nineteen Sixty Three/Which was rather late for me/Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban/And the Beatles’ first LP” wrote the British poet Philip Larkin in his poem “Annus Mirabilis.” Those lines have always been popular, since they seem to express a change in the global zeitgeist that happened around that year. But […]

The U.S. National Association of Homebuilders Housing Market Index jumped to 46 on Monday, its highest level since May 2006, just before the peak in house prices. In Britain, especially in south-east Britain, house prices remain inordinately high in terms of wages, rents and purchasing power. In the United States house prices are subsidized by […]

As discussed in the last two weeks, the next four years are likely to be unpleasant ones. There are already several crises heading towards us, and in the fiscal, monetary, regulatory and general economic areas the Obama administration’s policy is likely to be counterproductive. In these circumstances, there is only one sound course of action […]

President Obama’s victory clarifies the political and economic landscape. Unfettered in his second term, he will now be able to pursue the economic policies he truly favors. To see their result, we can look at a country with an overlarge government, low domestic savings, endless “stimulus” spending financed by its development bank, relatively high inflation, […]

There’s a clear choice in Tuesday’s presidential election, and this column has in one way or another indicated its preference. However this close to the election, it is increasingly apparent that, given a realistic assessment of the policies likely to be pursued by either candidate, the years 2013-17 will be very unpleasant indeed. Entirely contrary […]

The Eurozone appears to be trying to do things the hard way. It has softened conditions on Greece, while promising an unlimited fund to buy debt of the other PIGGY governments and supporting the creation of a supranational banking regulator. In the short term, this has quieted market speculation. In the long term it has […]