Six years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the Greek economy is still in decline. Last year it fell by over 5 percent. On a per capita basis, Greek incomes have fallen by over 14 percent since the onset of the crisis. To get a sense of how...

A couple of days ago, President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi "gave EU leaders a crash course in Macroeconomics." Reuters' report correctly summarized it as a lecture "about labor costs." The "takeaway" was that all would be well in Europe if its largely centrist or center-right...

The president gave a rousing speech yesterday before the annual retreat of the House Democrats. As is appropriate for such an occasion, his speech was light on details, with the focus on his vision of the priorities for the upcoming Congress. Immigration reform and gun control were only briefly mentioned...

In the midst of the manufactured pseudo-crisis known as the "Fiscal Cliff," Social Security has, yet again, been placed on the chopping block. For the second time in little over a year, the Obama Administration has made a preemptive offer to change the formula for adjusting...

Should Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan win the election, they will undoubtedly push for non-trivial reductions in Social Security benefits under the thin pretext that it will be help to close the deficit and restore fiscal balance over the long term (it will not, as Social Security is...

For some time it has been common knowledge that the Obama Administration has not filed charges against a single prominent "bankster." Moreover, let us note that this has not been the unfortunate consequence of an oversight or simple omission. Heading off the filing of serious criminal charges has...

With Labor Day here, football season is upon us and the baseball playoffs are around the corner. Yet the buzz in Washington D.C. is all about the President's forthcoming speech on unemployment. Undoubtedly, sports coverage will be detailed and in-depth. History, fact, and causal statements will feature prominently in the...

President Obama has, reportedly, been frustrated with his administration's failure to devise insightful or innovative ways to resolve the problem of lasting and persistent unemployment. Let us review the record. He began by continuing the previous administration's bank bailout programs where the Treasury and Federal Reserve directly and indirectly supplied...

Supply-side economics is a hearty perennial, one that closely follows the election cycle. Every four years ambitious Republican politicians (and not a few 'centrist' Democrats) rediscover that the wealthy would like to pay less in taxes. But the rhetoric of politics does inhibit the wealthy, their kept intellectuals, and paid...

"A spectre is haunting Europe." Its not the revolution that Karl Marx supposed would come about. Nor is it Parisian students and workers taking to the streets as in May 1968. It is the vision of hordes of Europeans striking back at those who caused the 2008 financial crash. This...

This week, the New York Times detailed Goldman Sachs' machinations in Greece's project to obscure billions in debt, as the country skirted the budgetary limits it was obliged to meet as a member of the European Union. Sordid as it was, it was only one more example of...