It seemed tragic back in October 1981 when the federal debt reached $1 trillion. How would we ever pay back $1 trillion? The real tragedy, though, is what’s happened since…
No Hope and No Change
Finally, the candidates are no longer presumptive. American voters and their delegates have chosen, yet somehow we’ve ended up with candidates from both parties that almost no one likes. Both…
Now Bad News Is Bad News
With the end of quantitative easing due to take place next month, reality may once again have an impact on financial markets. Since QE began more than five years ago,…
Spending Our Way to Prosperity
Focusing on the government shutdown is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while drawing closer to the iceberg. The iceberg in this case is the massive government debt…
Get Back to Work
Labor Day has passed. It’s time to get back to work … or at least think about work. Work, or the lack of it, is what the economy is all…
Sequestration: The Crisis Du Jour
It’s crisis time again in Washington, D.C. Having just barely avoided a swan dive off the fiscal cliff, the leaders of our country are now locked in battle over the…
The Incredible Shrinking Economy
Only in today’s America would a shrinking economy cause the stock market to rise. The federal government reported this week that the U.S. economy contracted by -0.1% in the last…
The End of QE?
The Fed’s quantitative easing program has been like that endless tub of popcorn or vat of soda that those with large appetites buy at the theater. It goes on and…
Fiscal Cliff Turns Into Fiscal Bluff
“What’s a five letter word for ‘cliff’?“ an editorial page cartoon asked. The answer: “Bluff.” To bluff is to mislead and that’s an appropriate summary of the fiscal cliff agreement,…
From Goldfinger to Groundhog Day
Tick. Tick. Tick. It’s like that scene in “Goldfinger,” where the seconds are ticking down and James Bond is trying to defuse the bomb. He succeeds, of course, just in…