For much of the past 30 years, the long-running, 20th-century contest between state and market had appeared settled. The strong, post-Reagan economic performance of the U.S. based on deregulation, free trade and capital flows and globalization appeared to confirm the virtues of liberal economic policies, while the collapse of the Soviet Union and the capitalist [...]
There’s been a lot of talk this week in China about whether it should swoop in to save the eurozone. Loading up on Italian debt is one possibility, which could keep Europe’s overall bailout tab in check and boost market confidence. Another idea is to create an EU-China bond. Unlike an EU-only bond (a concept [...]
Something truly scary might be about to take place in Europe. OK, I know what you’re thinking – isn’t something scary already happening in Europe? Greece is heading for a default as politicians and bankers bicker over the terms of its second bailout. Pressure is growing on Italy as its borrowing costs rise. Stocks have [...]
Depending on how you look at it, U.S. banks could lose as much as $1 trillion if the current money troubles in Europe were to lead to a full blown financial crisis. Or they could lose close to nothing. It depends on who you believe. Understanding why there is a difference of opinion is at [...]
The horror. Halloween is under threat this year because of a paucity of pumpkins. There’ll be nothing to carve by October 31 if you don’t run to the store now to purchase your pumpkin. Your children will curse you. Vampires will stalk you. Yes, a wet summer on the East Coast, topped off by the [...]
As global stocks tank over rising fears of a double-dip recession, one country at the center of the storm has never exited the recession – Greece. Amid its increasingly severe debt crisis, the Greek economy is in its third consecutive year of contraction, and, under pressure to slash state spending and stabilize its national debt, [...]
Yesterday U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke was in Beijing meeting with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in China. He reiterated longstanding U.S. complaints about doing business in China: that China’s government isn’t doing enough to expand domestic demand and foster Chinese innovation. Foreign investors in China, said Locke, give up their innovative edge when [...]
I have long been amazed how often people argue that low-interest rates don’t help the economy. And to be honest I once wandered over to the monetary dark side and wrote a post wondering, because of the confidence issue, whether keeping rates low for such a long period of time was helping the economy. But [...]
There’s been a lot of rhetoric since Obama announced on Monday a plan to cut the debt by $3.1 trillion over the next decade, a good portion of which would come from raising taxes on the wealthly. The President’s speech itself contained a good bit of hyperbole. The President said that America’s millionaires pay a lower [...]
One of the reasons you hear regularly thrown out to explain why unemployment has remained persistently high this recession and whatever you would call the period we are going through now (recovery, not quite) is state budgets. Government is typically the most reliable employer during a recession. But strapped states are having to follow the [...]
