As we sit back and blithely watch Greece's death by debt, it's easy to assume it can never happen here. It can, and it will.
Richard Barrington | Posted 05.24.2012
How good is the Federal Reserve at its job? That can be a difficult question to answer. Monetary policy is subjective, and it can take years before t...
Michael Pento | Posted 05.24.2012
We now have entire nations which have become insolvent. It would be very difficult to argue that having a banking crisis is better than enduring a sovereign debt crisis, especially since much of the assets banks hold is sovereign debt.
Gemma Godfrey | Posted 05.18.2012
As the euro zone crisis intensifies and global markets reflect investor concerns, we ask ourselves, is a Greek exit from the euro on its way? Preparations have already begun to protect shareholder interest.
Charles Peralo | Posted 05.16.2012
Bitcoin created a decentralized currency that cannot be counterfeited, will not create inflation and is free for everyone to use. Now the challenge is building confidence in alternative currency.
Mark Weisbrot | Posted 05.08.2012
I know what you are thinking: "Who cares?" Well, try to keep reading, because this does have implications beyond the sprawling soybean farms in the Argentine province of Cordoba. What does it mean to have a "commodities boom," or growth driven by the export of commodities?
Richard Barrington | Posted 05.08.2012
As long as growth remains sluggish, the Fed seems determined to keep rates low. This means that if stagflation takes hold, it could be especially damaging to money market accounts this time around.
Michael Farr | Posted 05.03.2012
We continue to believe that investors are underestimating the risks inherent to the bond market at this stage in the game. Bond investors are not being compensated for the risks they are assuming when they are not even able to earn the expected rate of inflation.
AP | MARTIN CRUTSINGER | Posted 05.03.2012
WASHINGTON — U.S. worker productivity fell from January through March by the most in a year. Stronger hiring at the start of the year was partly...
Richard Barrington | Posted 05.03.2012
Disturbing as some of the March economic data has been, it is just one month, and that does not constitute a trend. It would be unsettling to the economy and the financial markets if the Fed shifted direction with every twist and turn in monthly data.
The Huffington Post | Alexander Eichler | Posted 05.02.2012
There's a gap between America's richest citizens and everybody else. And that gap has been growing larger for years. No, it's not income inequality...
Richard Barrington | Posted 05.01.2012
With the economic recovery still lagging, the intended rewards of the Federal Reserve's aggressive campaign to lower interest rates have yet to be realized. But the cost of that campaign to depositors can be counted, and it may have exceeded $200 billion in the last year alone.
Karl Giberson, Ph.D | Posted 04.24.2012
The theological agenda is such discussions is clear: There must be an eternal being to account for the appearance of temporary things like our universe.
Reuters | Posted 04.25.2012
NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence edged slightly lower in April, while Americans also reined in their inflation expectations a...
AP | JOYCE M. ROSENBERG | Posted 04.19.2012
NEW YORK -- Don't be misled by reports that inflation is tame. For small business owners, it's a threat to profits and expansion plans. An 8 percent ...
Michael Sigman | Posted 04.18.2012
The nation has become a self-parodic reflection of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon: thanks to collusion between parents and educators, the vast majority of all private school children are virtually guaranteed to be above average.
AP | CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER | Posted 04.13.2012
WASHINGTON — Gas prices rose more slowly in March, keeping overall U.S. inflation mild. The consumer price index rose 0.3 percent in March, the...
Richard Barrington | Posted 04.10.2012
Is your money market account stuck in a rut? If so, you're not alone. Money market rates have been locked into a long and steady descent for a few years now. Finally, though, there are signs that this could change in the months ahead.
The New York Times | Paul Krugman | Posted 04.06.2012
A few days ago, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, spoke out in defense of his successor. Attacks on Ben Bernanke by Republic...
AP | CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER | Posted 03.29.2012
WASHINGTON -- The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in four years, adding to evidence that the...
AP | CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER | Posted 03.16.2012
WASHINGTON -- A sharp jump in gas prices drove a measure of U.S. consumer costs up in February. But outside higher pump prices, inflation stayed mild....
Richard Barrington | Posted 05.07.2012
In the second week of February, money market rates slipped yet again, falling by one basis point to 0.14 percent. This happened despite at least four economic trends that suggest that interest rates should be rising rather than falling.
Gene Marks | Posted 05.07.2012
Small business owners are scared. Which is why we're still not hiring and still not overly optimistic. What are we so scared about? I can name 8 things right off the bat.
AP | PAN PYLAS | Posted 05.01.2012
LONDON — Mass unemployment in Greece and Spain, where nearly half of those under 25 are out of work, sent the jobless rate across the 17-nation ...
Michael Pento | Posted 04.25.2012
He, like most central bankers around the globe, persists in conflating inflation with growth. The sad truth is that our Federal Reserve believes growth can be engendered from creating more inflation.
Laurence J. Kotlikoff | Posted 05.25.2012