In our last post, we noted that productivity’s growth has been stunted. This post looks at what may be the key to reviving it — big data. Productivity growth is…
Productivity Growth Still Weak
The economy is growing at a rate of about 3%, which is a significant improvement over the 2% growth during President Obama’s two terms. The unemployment rate has dropped to…
An IPO Revival?
The initial public offering, or IPO, may not be approaching extinction after all. Renaissance Capital called the first quarter of 2018 “the biggest quarter in a decade.” And that was…
Petro-Yuans, Petro-Dollars and Gold
You’ve likely heard the term “petro-dollars.” It originated in the 1970s, when Secretary of State Henry Kissinger struck an agreement with Saudi Arabia requiring that any country that wanted to…
China Syndrome
Back in the nuclear-fueled ’70s, “China syndrome” was a theory that the world would end with a meltdown from a nuclear reactor tunneling its way through to the other side…
Correction No Reason to Panic
“Correction” is one of those euphemisms Wall Street likes to use that would be funny if it weren’t so painful. According to CNBC, a correction is “a decline or downward…
No Surprises from the Fed
To the surprise of no one, the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates by 0.25% in March. It was the sixth time since December 2015 that the Federal Open Market…
Best Way to Address the Trade Deficit—Ignore It
For each of the past 42 years, America has imported more goods than it has exported. Before 1976, America had a trade surplus each year beginning with the end of…
Does the U.S. Have Less Economic Freedom Than Socialist Countries?
On the 2018 Index for Economic Freedom, which we wrote about yesterday, it wasn’t surprising to see that three Communist countries – Cuba (#178), Venezuela (#179) and North Korea (#180)…
U.S. #18 in Economic Freedom
We like to think of the United States as the freest, most democratic country in the world. That’s not quite the case. And, in recent years, our economic freedom has…