The United States has been getting its economy in order, creating opportunities for stronger growth and a continuation of its long-running bull market. But, apparently, that’s not enough to prevent…
Bond Yields: Good News, Bad News or Both?
Bond yields can tell us many things, but determining what those things are can be challenging today. Yields have been rising and one positive is that investors appear to be…
An Unhappy Birthday to Karl Marx
Karl Marx was born 200 years ago this month. And, in spite of the praise of academics, journalists, politicians and pundits to the far left of the political spectrum, the…
Note to Fed: The Phillips Curve Has Left the Building
The Phillips curve, which charts an inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation, was proven unreliable during the 1973-1975 recession, when we had stagflation — the combination of high unemployment and…
U.S. Economy Performing Like New England Patriots
The U.S. economy, like The New England Patriots last year, did not perform at its best during the first quarter. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a 2.3% annual rate,…
The Longest Period of Job Growth Ever. So What?
The second longest recovery … the second longest bull market … the longest period of job growth on record. Such records are pretty meaningless. The recovery has been pretty anemic,…
Communist Country Outdoing U.S. in IPOs
When a communist country is having more and bigger initial public offerings (IPOs) than the United States, something is wrong. Last month we wrote that IPOs are showing signs of…
Inflation Almost There, But Interest Rates Are Not
The Federal Reserve Board acknowledged at its meeting last week that the rate of inflation is “almost” at its 2% target level. The last impediment to raising interest rates to…
Welcome to Wonderland
Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic. …
Big Data May Boost Productivity
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…