Trump’s Perfect Storm that Could Sink the American Economy
Donald Trump has steered the American economy into a perfect storm. In the book, film, and now in real life, a rare combination of destructive forces comes together and magnifies the damage. This storm could break the U.S. economy. Trump’s tariffs are the most destructive force. Their first-order damages begin by arbitrarily driving up the prices of every product and… Continue reading
The Economic Foundations of this Year’s Mid-Term Elections
The usual explanations for the Democrats' drubbing in this year's mid-term elections have focused mainly on the lopsided number of Democrats up for reelection, especially in red states; low turnout among important parts of the Obama coalition; and the President’s depressed popularity. But there’s also one very basic and underlying issue that played an important part; not only in this…Continue reading
Are Financial Crises the New Normal?
The policy-making committee of the Federal Reserve Board meets again tomorrow, and the news won't be encouraging. The one-percent decline in GDP in the first quarter disposed of the Fed's forecast for 2.9 percent growth this year, and they have to lower it to the range of 2.0 percent to 2.5 percent. That’s just what the IMF did yesterday, forecasting…Continue reading
World Bank Shocker — China’s GDP to Top the U.…
The World Bank shook up a lot of people this week with its declaration that by a new accounting, China’s GDP will top America’s this year. But the meaning and significance of that accounting remain at best elusive. Last year, the World Bank reported that using prevailing exchange rates, China’s GDP in 2012 was barely half that of America ($8.…Continue reading
Zero Day Exploits — Can We Control the Arms Race?…
Yesterday, a new stage of the "roaring debate" over cyber policy made the news, thanks to David Sanger of the New York Times. He revealed that the U.S. government is now one of the biggest purchasers of information about “zero days,” which are software coding flaws that can be used by cyber criminals to penetrate computers and (potentially) wreak havoc…Continue reading
Republicans Maintain Hard Opposition to Obamacare at Their Own Political…
The political struggle over Obamacare has reached a critical inflection point as real events have overtaken its opponents' basic arguments. That opposition has always drawn on doubts about the public's real interest in a federal guarantee to health insurance and their tolerance for a mandate to enforce it. After the program’s fitful start, it is now clear that large numbers…Continue reading
Beyond the Sabre Rattling, Will Russia or the West Bail…
The crisis over Ukraine is quickly becoming a geostrategic conflict. As Vladimir Putin maneuvers to restore Russia's right to behave with a superpower's impunity, particularly in its own backyard, the West pushes back. But economic forces also have shaped this confrontation, especially Ukraine’s record as the world’s worst-performing industrial economy over the last twenty years. It was popular discontent with…Continue reading
Memo to Democrats: U.S. Workers could be Big Winners in…
President Obama’s drive to complete new open trade agreements with the European Union and 11 Pacific Rim nations are the most critical economic initiatives of his second term. Their importance reflects the basic patterns of economic growth across the world. After a decade of unusually weak growth, job creation and income gains, America’s prospects for rising wages and employment are…Continue reading
What the New Jobless Report Means
The jobless rate fell sharply again -- from 7.0 percent to 6.7 percent -- but the reason wasn't a burst of new job creation. In fact, total employment was up by just 74,000. What changed in December was that new layoffs fell sharply, which we usually see in the first two years of an expansion. It's some two years behind…Continue reading