Vladimir: “Well? What do we do?” Estragon: “Don’t let’s do anything. It’s safer.” From “Waiting for Godot” In Waiting for Godot, two men spend more than an hour talking nonsense…
The Job Creation Snow Job
Consider this headline from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Unemployment rate declines to 4.7% in May; payroll employment changes little (+38,000). Great news, right? The unemployment rate fell to…
The Flim-Flam Economy
The absurdity of today’s flim-flam economy can be summarized when the events of the past week are considered together: The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of just 0.5%…
Upending the World
Logic has taken a 180-degree turn, running at full sprint in the opposite direction from where it should be. As one small example, consider the good fortune of Hans Peter…
Fed Family Feud
Is it a mutiny? A family feud? Sibling rivalry? Or an attempt to provide more accurate estimates of economic growth? Greater accuracy would certainly be a good thing, but that…
Let’s Ignore the Central Banks
What if we all decided to ignore the central banks? Granted, they have provided material for this blog non-stop from the day it started. They keep financial journalists, economists, analysts,…
Something’s Rotten …
“That it should come to this!” Hamlet, Act I, Scene II Any student…
Set. Down. No Hike.
The economic outlook can be summed up in five words: Everything’s great, except what isn’t. We’ll lead with the “everything’s great” part, as seen through the filter of the Federal…
Going Negative
“More money cannot cure what too much money created.” Frank Hollenbeck There’s nothing…
Hard Landing
The Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee met last week for the first time since raising interest rates in December and then published its usual policy statement full of mush.…