EU to ban high-energy hair dryers, smartphones and kettles … European Union to ban dozens of high-wattage household electrical appliances in follow-up to controversial ban on powerful vacuum cleaners. A European Commission study, that is still being completed, has identified up to 30 electrical appliances to be covered by the EU's Ecodesign directive outlawing high-wattage devices includ...Read More

Economics Isn't Science or Literature … Economists use many of the same tools as scientists and engineers — matrix algebra, multiple regression, control theory. But they don't use them in the same way. In economics — especially macroeconomics — the goal is often to persuade other people of your point of view. As Federal Reserve economist Kartik Athreya writes in his...Read More

Prescription Painkiller Deaths Fall Almost 25% in Medical Marijuana States … A study that recently appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows a significant decrease in opiate overdoses in states that have adopted and implemented medical marijuana laws compared to states that have not. The authors showed that although opiate overdoses rose in states without medical mari...Read More

Colonization by Bankruptcy: The High-stakes Chess Match for Argentina … Argentina is playing hardball with the vulture funds, which have been trying to force it into an involuntary bankruptcy. The vultures are demanding what amounts to a 600% return on bonds bought for pennies on the dollar, defeating a 2005 settlement in which 92% of creditors agreed to accept a 70% haircut on their bonds....Read More

It Begins: Council On Foreign Relations Proposes That "Central Banks Should Hand Consumers Cash Directly" … A year ago, when it became abundantly clear that all of the Fed's attempts to boost the economy have failed, leading instead to a record divergence between the "1%" who were benefiting from the Fed's artificial inflation of financial assets … and every...Read More

German economy 'losing steam' as business confidence plunges again … Survey of optimism among companies adds to gloom enveloping Europe's biggest economy … Germany's businesses are rapidly losing confidence in the prospect of a recovery in the eurozone, in a further blow to the single currency's biggest economy. Companies' assessment of the business climate is n...Read More

Uber taxi service banned in Berlin on safety grounds… German capital follows Hamburg with vote to ban taxi app firm, saying it does not protect passengers from unlicensed drivers … Berlin has voted to ban Uber on safety grounds as the app-enabled taxi service continues to run up against resistance in Germany. Officials said the Californian company, which operates in 110 cities around t...Read More

Here's what it will take to trigger the next stock market correction … As Wall Street hit another new record Thursday, it is worth considering what could cause a serious setback in stock market prices around the world. Since I started writing this column in 2012, I have repeatedly argued that the rebound in stock market prices from their nadir in the 2008-09 global financial crisis was t...Read More

Nobel gurus fear globalization is going horribly wrong … An interconnected world was meant to reduce inequality – but that doesn't seem to be happening. David Ricardo's Theory of Comparative Advantage has broken down after 200 years, or so I learned at the Lindau forum of Nobel laureates in Bavaria. The theory published in 1817 has been a guiding principle of free trade, taken...Read More

Janet Yellen Takes On Jackson Hole … The economic-policy debate in the U.S. is moving from, "Why is the recovery so sluggish?" to "Is inflation starting to get out of hand?" This shift is premature, to say the least. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen should say so Friday when she addresses the annual summer confab of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. – Bloo...Read More

Islamic State threat 'beyond anything we've seen': Pentagon … The sophistication, wealth and military might of Islamic State militants represent a major threat to the United States that may surpass that once posed by al Qaeda, U.S. military leaders said on Thursday. "They are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere else," Defen...Read More

Nobel economists say policy blunders pushing Europe into depression … German Chancellor Angela Merkel defends eurozone and says it is hard to manage a currency for 18 states … Professor Joseph Stiglitz said austerity policies had been a 'disastrous failure' and are directly responsible for the failed recovery. – UK TelegraphDominant Social Theme: The central bankers have...Read More

Black market boom lays bare a social divide in Colorado's marijuana market … Nascent cannabis industry splits between wealthy with clean criminal records and those who turn to less than legal methods … The red card – part of the state's legal landscape since 2000 when voters approved the sale of marijuana for medical use – allows the grower to cultivate a doctor-pre...Read More

Government unveils significant stimulus measures to prop up cooling economy Korea … Economic growth decelerated in the second quarter of the year and more recent data indicate that the economy is still losing momentum. …, Although exports have been rising, growth is moderate, mainly due to the strong appreciation of the Korean won. Against this backdrop, Choi Kyoung-hwan's economic...Read More

I'm a cop. If you don't want to get hurt, don't challenge me. It's not the police, but the people they stop, who can prevent a detention from turning into a tragedy … No officer goes out in the field wishing to shoot anyone, armed or unarmed. And while they're unlikely to defend it quite as loudly during a time of national angst like this one, people who work in law enfor...Read More

Stocks rally: Dow up 175, Nasdaq hits 14-year high … Stocks closed sharply higher Monday as the Dow surged 175 points and the Nasdaq jumped to a 14-year high. The rebound came as concerns over the Ukrainian conflict began to ease and investors shifted focus to corporate dealmaking and economic news. – USA TodayDominant Social Theme: The Dow climbs a wall of worry.Free-Market Analysis:...Read More

36% Of Americans Haven't Saved Anything For Retirement … Over a third of all Americans (36%) have not saved any money for retirement, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report. Sixty-nine percent of 18-29 year-olds haven't saved anything, along with 33% of 30-49 year-olds, 26% of 50-64 year-olds and 14% of people 65 and older. –CBSDominant Social Theme: It's bad o...Read More

Can central bankers succeed in getting global economy back on track? … Why is the world economy still so weak and can anything more be done to accelerate growth? Six years after the near-collapse of the global financial system and more than five years into one of the strongest bull markets in history, the answer still baffles policymakers, investors and business leaders. This week brought an...Read More

IMF tax bombshell: its plans for higher VAT and a property raid are wrong … The IMF's suggestions for VAT would destroy any government that sought to implement them. The IMF, led by Christine Lagarde, has adopted a position which is far too political for comfort … For an international bureaucracy that sometimes seems to specialise in getting it spectacularly wrong, the Internationa...Read More

Europe's Greater Depression is worse than the 1930s … Europe hasn't recovered, because it hasn't let itself. Too much fiscal austerity and too little monetary stimulus have, instead, put it more than halfway to a lost decade that's already worse than the 1930s. It's a greater depression. And as the latest GDP numbers show, it's not getting any less so. – Washing...Read More