With the Thanksgiving weekend over and the first taste of the holiday season under our belts – literally after all that turkey – we have a somewhat mixed set of news to deal with. So rather than devote my time to a single topic allow me to surf across the issues:
Dubai: Given all the media… »
We all need a break. I will not be posting here until next Monday. Meanwhile enjoy… »
I have spent much of my time recently lashing away at the notion that either monetary policy [i.e. interest rates] or fiscal policy [i.e. the Federal budget deficit] should be tightened any time soon. Nowhere in the data is there a sign that now is close to appropriate for such a move.
“It is not the… »
Apparently.
The growing consensus in the media and commentariat is that a recovery has begun, that the economy is therefore OK, and so we need to shift our attention to setting the stage for tightening both fiscal and monetary policy. And this tightening had better come soon since there is a tsunami of problems ready to… »
Today’s revised GDP numbers for the Third Quarter are disappointing. You may recall that the original estimate last month was that we saw the economy grow about 3.5% in those three months. As better data has been accumulated, that growth is now estimated to have been smaller, at 2.8%.
While any growth is good, especially after… »
I have often wondered how easy it would be to write a completely silly article and still get it published. Now I know. Emund Andrews did it this morning. You can read his foolery on the front page of the New York Times.
Yet more debt hysteria I am afraid.
This is getting a little monotonous, but… »
With deficit hysteria now growing with each passing day the risk that our leadership will blink and do something really dumb like raise interest rates gets larger. You all know how stupid I think such a move would be, but, hey, this is the all-knowing bond market we are talking about. You know that place… »