The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Slash-and-Burn’? Yeah, More of That!

The New York Times editorial page would have you believe that House Republicans are out of control: Are there any adults in charge of the House? Watching this week’s frenzied slash-and-burn budget contest, we had to conclude the answer to that is no. First Speaker John Boehner’s Republican leadership proposed cutting the rest of the […]

Bahrain Burning, Silver Soaring

Trouble in the Sunni kingdom in the Persian Gulf that is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet: MANAMA, Bahrain — Troops and tanks locked down the capital of this tiny Gulf kingdom after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre-dawn assault Thursday that uprooted […]

The Return of Stagflation?

The inevitable effects of Keynesianism are beginning to make themselves felt: U.S. core consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than a year in January, indicating a long period of slowing inflation had run its course. The Labor Department said on Thursday its core Consumer Price Index, which excludes food and energy costs, […]

Ruh-Roh, Again: Chinese Now Worried About Inflation, Raise Interest Rates

First, the end of QE2, and now Beijing tightens up credit: China staged its third interest rate increase since October on Tuesday, the latest sign of the authorities’ intensifying efforts to temper the blistering pace of economic growth and prevent already worrisome inflation levels from escalating further. The central bank in Beijing raised its benchmark […]

Ruh-Roh: Fed to End QE2?

How will markets react to the end of “quantitative easing”? Today, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher . . . said that he will not support any further QE expansion beyond the current $600 Billion Treasury buying program which is set to expire in June. The era of fiscal stimulus is over and now, if the […]

How Screwed Are We?

For more than a year, I’ve been warning against the idea that we are in an economic “recovery.” It’s not just the disturbing persistence of an unemployment rate above 9 percent. That’s the symptom, not the disease. What the U.S. economy is suffering from, and what no amount of neo-Keynesian “stimulus” can remedy, is a […]

A Reverse Piven Strategy?

by Smitty Tyler Cowen’s little book, “The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better” is interesting, but I’m nonplussed by this notion: Right-wing ideas, in their least viable forms, have become more popular in this political environment. From the American right, tax cuts […]

Labor Department Blames Snow for Increase in Weekly Unemployment

It’s kind of a dog-ate-my-homework excuse: More Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments last week, indicating it will take time for the labor market to mend. Applications for jobless benefits increased by 51,000 to 454,000 in the week ended Jan. 22, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 405,000 claims, according […]

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