A new wave of pessimism seems to be washing over the economy. Its source is hard to pinpoint but there is no shortage of candidates: rising unemployment (if a declining rate of rise), second thoughts about the recovery of the stock market and even the Administration's rhetoric which in recent...

New York City -- The stock market's relatively easy acceptance of the GM bankruptcy -- vastly improved at the last minute by a deal with bondholders to permit a pre-packaged filing so that the bankruptcy is more likely to move quickly-- provides yet another indication that the economy may finally...

One of the things that has struck me more than anything else in directing the NDN Green Project over the last year and a half is how events have so often outstripped policy. Last year when oil prices were spiking, contributing to the economic crisis that erupted in the fall...

New York City - Debt crises, as I have written before, are as old as civilization. And history has shown that when debt exceeds the ability to repay, there is only one solution: debt reduction. This can take the form of a general release as in the Biblical jubilee...

Should the federal government build or incent others to build a new electron superhighway? In other words, a backbone for a 21st century electrical grid? At NDN's recent event on clean infrastructure, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee asked precisely that question and it's one more and more energy leaders are asking....

The conventional wisdom is that the financial crisis has claimed yet another casualty in the form of meaningful action in the next year on climate change. According to this argument, putting a price on carbon in a down economy is a non-starter. What's more, collapsing oil prices have taken at...

Cross-posted at the NDN Blog.

New York City -- In his classic 1841 book Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Scottish journalist Charles Mackay pinned the blame for financial panics on the herd instinct. As interpreted by financier Bernard Baruch who wrote an introduction...

NEW YORK CITY -- What did it mean when oil prices today spiked by their largest amount in history, $16 in one day? It means something is seriously wrong with the oil price market. Analysts had no obvious explanation for the rise other than to say that it may have...

New York City--As used in Washington, the term "silly season" means what happens to government in an election year. Legislation becomes almost impossible to pass, politicians grow more disingenuous than usual. And no one does anything without assessing how it plays politically. When one party controls Congress, the other may...

Cross-posted at the NDN Blog.

New York City - The reappearance of a belligerent Russia on the world stage, buoyed by high oil prices and newfound wealth, would appear to signal a new era in global politics. For anyone still clinging to the idea of the...

The decision by the Fed yesterday to leave rates unchanged--despite inflationary pressures from soaring oil prices on the one hand and a weakening economy on the other, testifies to the conundrum an oil shock creates. There are, in essence, two possible choices when a shock sends prices soaring. One is...