Why is the liquidity trap? Credit where credit is due; Paul Krugman anticipated this where many others did not … Since late 2007 the monetary base has risen more than 300 percent, while GDP and consumer prices have risen less than 20 percent. And no, the disconnect is not all due to the 0.25 percent interest rate the Fed pays on reserves. The bottleneck remains, as it has for most of the pas...Read More
Are the Swiss having second thoughts about capitalism? … Top managers getting huge salaries must now deal with direct democracy … The extraordinary series of political initiatives on pay rates which are being put to Swiss voters is the sign of a rank-and-file "rebellion" against fat-cat salaries for top managers … The shock-waves after the carrying of the popular initia...Read More
Economic recovery proves QE working, says Paul Tucker … Outgoing deputy governor of the Bank of England says the UK's economic recovery is evidence that quantitative easing is finally working … Although Mr Tucker said it was still too early to say whether the economy had reached "escape velocity", his comments come ahead of new GDP figures which are expected to show growt...Read More
Sebelius on the Run … The HHS Secretary refuses to testify about ObamaCare's rollout. The Affordable Care Act's botched rollout has stunned its media cheering section, and it even seems to have surprised the law's architects. The problems run much deeper than even critics expected, and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside contractors are doing to fix them isn...Read More
Economic recovery proves QE working, says Paul Tucker … Outgoing deputy governor of the Bank of England says the UK's economic recovery is evidence that quantitative easing is finally working … Although Mr Tucker said it was still too early to say whether the economy had reached "escape velocity", his comments come ahead of new GDP figures which are expected to show growt...Read More
Sebelius on the Run … The HHS Secretary refuses to testify about ObamaCare's rollout. The Affordable Care Act's botched rollout has stunned its media cheering section, and it even seems to have surprised the law's architects. The problems run much deeper than even critics expected, and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside contractors are doing to fix them isn...Read More
Problems with scientific research How science goes wrong Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change itself … A SIMPLE idea underpins science: "trust, but verify". Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed t...Read More
Analysis: Washington budget battle may delay Fed taper until 2014 … The Federal Reserve may have to wait until early next year before it sees sufficient strength in the U.S. economy to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, after a destructive Washington budget battle that may take a bite out of growth. Complicating the Fed's task, a 16-day government shutdown choked off the flow o...Read More
Problems with scientific research How science goes wrong Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change itself … A SIMPLE idea underpins science: "trust, but verify". Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed t...Read More
Analysis: Washington budget battle may delay Fed taper until 2014 … The Federal Reserve may have to wait until early next year before it sees sufficient strength in the U.S. economy to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus, after a destructive Washington budget battle that may take a bite out of growth. Complicating the Fed's task, a 16-day government shutdown choked off the flow o...Read More
Congress announces deal to end government shutdown, avoid US default … The deal would extend US borrowing authority until February 7; US Treasury would have ability to extend borrowing capacity … The US Congress settled on a deal to reopen the federal government and avoid default on America's debt just hours before the Treasury Department would have lost its authority to borrow mon...Read More
Why Pierre Omidyar decided to join forces with Glenn Greenwald for a new venture in news … Yesterday word leaked out that Glenn Greenwald would be leaving the Guardian to help create some new thing backed by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. I just got off the phone with Omidyar. So I can report more details about what the new thing is and how it came to be. Here's the story he told m...Read More
Congress announces deal to end government shutdown, avoid US default … The deal would extend US borrowing authority until February 7; US Treasury would have ability to extend borrowing capacity … The US Congress settled on a deal to reopen the federal government and avoid default on America's debt just hours before the Treasury Department would have lost its authority to borrow mon...Read More
Why Pierre Omidyar decided to join forces with Glenn Greenwald for a new venture in news … Yesterday word leaked out that Glenn Greenwald would be leaving the Guardian to help create some new thing backed by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. I just got off the phone with Omidyar. So I can report more details about what the new thing is and how it came to be. Here's the story he told m...Read More
U.S. scholars Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Economics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced. The three experts were honored "for their empirical analysis of asset prices." – GlobalPostDominant Social Theme: Economics is a hard science and don't you forget it.Free-Market Analysis: The Nobel Prize was NOT award...Read More
Time to take bets on Frexit and the French franc? … We have a minor earthquake in France. A party committed to withdrawal from the euro, the restoration of French franc, and the complete destruction of monetary union has just defeated the establishment in the Brignoles run-off election. It is threatening Frexit as well, which rather alters the political chemistry of Britain's EU referend...Read More
U.S. scholars Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Economics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced. The three experts were honored "for their empirical analysis of asset prices." – GlobalPostDominant Social Theme: Economics is a hard science and don't you forget it.Free-Market Analysis: The Nobel Prize was NOT award...Read More
Time to take bets on Frexit and the French franc? … We have a minor earthquake in France. A party committed to withdrawal from the euro, the restoration of French franc, and the complete destruction of monetary union has just defeated the establishment in the Brignoles run-off election. It is threatening Frexit as well, which rather alters the political chemistry of Britain's EU referend...Read More
The new head of the Federal Reserve: Dove ascendant … Janet Yellen will stick to her predecessor's expansionary policies … an uphill slog awaits. For most of the past few years, monetary policy has urged the economy on while dysfunctional fiscal policy has held it back. Barack Obama's decision to nominate Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Fed's chairman in Februar...Read More
Breaking BRIC piggy banks … Since 2009 the word "austerity" has not been too far away from the lips of finance ministers across the globe. Deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios around the world surged due to the financial crisis, and it was felt that they were fast becoming unsustainable. Once the immediate danger of the global recession passed politicians across the globe rushed to redu...Read More