Last week’s revelation in the Fed minutes for its August 1 meeting that another “QEIII” government bond purchase is almost inevitable has intensified the recent upward trend in markets. With fiscal and monetary policies more extreme than any in history, now entering their fifth year, and equally unprecedented advances in communication in computing enabling ever-faster […]

When even the strongly Europhile Economist (August 11th – 17th, pp 19-22) publishes a lengthy piece on how the euro might break up, the question must be worth addressing again. For one thing, we should think about how many pieces the euro Humpty Dumpty egg might form when it hits the ground, and what future […]

Democracy is fragile in recessions. In times of economic prosperity, good economic policies produce good results, so that eventually both major political parties become committed to their continuance, as with Bill Clinton in 1992 or Tony Blair in 1997. Only in resource economies, where good policies can become disjointed from good results, can the electorate […]

Elections are not a time for considered economic analysis, but then few times are. Opponents of the free market are able to point out obvious flaws in recent economic trends, but are met with mere cheerleading by free-marketers. The appearance of an Obamaist policy document “Prosperity for All” written by Yale professor Jacob Hacker and […]