As GM slides toward Chrysler-style bankruptcy it is brutally obvious that we lack a national industrial policy. There is no debate that we need one. The screaming lack of any coherent macroeconomic plan is obscured by face-offs that pit union fans against bond holder rights advocates. The national media debate...

It seems almost too perfect to have swine flu be the pandemic fear of the hour. We have, after all, been dealing with economic swine flu for the better part of two years now. Debt and speculation ruled the global roost from 2002-2007. The speculative fever that gripped the world...

A defining element of the ongoing economic crisis has been an endless series of large numbers. Everything seems to be measured in the billions, hundreds of billions and trillions. So it is with large, global losses and bail-outs. Contextualizing and making real such large numbers is rare. What follows is...

Last week $2.15 trillion dollars in plans were announced from the Federal Reserve (Fed), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the US Treasury. These plans have received little attention. Instead, attention was focused on the raging battle over $170 million in AIG bonuses. This is truly sad. There are...

Most Sunday mornings I have the pleasure of joining the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., his daughter Santita Jackson, and various guests on Keep Hope Alive Radio. The show melds experts, academics, politicians and listener calls. With each passing week the listeners' calls reflect deepening pain. The past Sundays, March...

These days it is hard to be optimistic about the economy. The business of America has been in business for a long, long time. Business is not good. Many are optimistic about a bright, new, young President. I understand the power of hope and the need for change. It has...

There remains very little debate regarding the depth and extent of our economic downturn. Each passing week brings news of mass lay-offs, rising anxiety and fears about further economic trouble. The last year has seen more than 4 million Americans added to the unemployment statistics and over 3 million...

Symptoms and Solutions

Economic pain is slippery to diagnose, discuss and dissect. We all know there exists a business cycle and that gains and pains come with our system. We all now know that we have exited a gain period and are in a painful stretch. It...

So much in our America rests on the celebration of success and the harsh judgment of failure. In the best of times, this drives astonishing striving and victory. In turbulent times of national emergency, our elevation of "winners" and castigation of "losers" can be become maniacal and counter-productive. In many...

We are cursed to live in interesting times. We all have front row seats to the death of a global economic order. The old order ran from the late 1970s through the spring of 2007. We have watched faith and wealth in the old system decline in rapidly accelerating fits...

I can't bring myself to join the gleeful investing masses. Watching shorting become illegal around the world and tax billions pledged, I feel an acute sense of unease. Secretary Paulson has attempted to declare himself the most equal of pigs in our animal house economy. The Treasury seeks more than...

The seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will shape and change international credit markets and US real estate financing for years. It will take months to assess and learn how much the worlds of borrowing, lending and home ownership will be altered. Born in the depths of the depression,...

As attention shifts from the Olympics to running mates and the celebrity "news" de jour, the infrastructure beneath your house is termite infested. Just beneath the nicely painted exterior and behind all the new appliances, doubt is boring through the beams, gnawing at the studs. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

Change always moves slowly; in fits and starts it lumbers down a path different from the anticipated. The slide of American power, prestige and influence is very much following this parade pattern. Just behind the same old debates and rabidly frothing opinion chatter, our headlines are jam-packed with waning sings....

Our national politics and economics have come to be defined by the inflation and violent pricking of bubble after bubble. There is a rhythm to our endless economic and political adulation and repudiation. I can not say I have solved the riddle, I can say it is high time we...

There is a long history of plentiful and inexpensive energy aiding technological development and the substitution of capital for labor. The age of oil has been a period of rapid and rapidly rising production of goods, services and wealth. The ability to harness technology-driven productivity and grow output has transformed...

Listening to debates about housing, oil and commodity prices is surreal. Housing and medical costs are huge components of household spending. In the first 3 months of 2008 housing and medical costs represented 33% of personal consumption expenditures, or $3.3 trillion. Across the same three months sky high energy...

It has been a very hard year. House prices and payments are falling. Gas and food prices are rising. There are fewer and fewer help wanted sings and wages have not kept up with inflation. All four support legs of modern middle class families are wobbly. The four legs are...

Two great issues define this moment in America. War in Iraq and economic turbulence dominate debates, fears and campaigns. Optimistic pitches can be heard about the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq and policy responses to sub-prime driven economic pain. Many and influential voices loudly tout economic and military success....

Through the second half of 2007, to the collapse of Bear Stearns, US equity indexes were leading America into recession. Markets were discounting shares to reflect serious and prolonged earnings and profit reduction. Stock prices were indicating a long hard fall. Serious turmoil in the financial industry, housing collapse and...