The American economy added a mere 235,000 jobs in August, perhaps one-third of what economists were predicting. Experts reckon that the Delta virus reduced job creation by about 600,000, as workers with child-care responsibility stayed home, and those exposed to contact with the public preferred the safety of their homes to the risk of taking […]
A virtual meeting of the worlds central bankers lacks the glamour and gorgeous background setting of America’s Rocky Mountains. But that did not dampen Fed Chairman Jay Powell’s willingness to take a virtual victory lap when he spoke at the end of last week. He announced that “the baseline outlook is for continued progress toward […]
“Nobody can be a great economist who is only an economist – and … the economist who is only an economist is likely to become a nuisance if not a positive danger.” So wrote F.A. Hayek over 60 years ago. Not wanting to be a nuisance, I take the great man as my guide today. […]
Exactly 50 years ago today, on August 16, 1971, the world awakened to find the international financial and trading system in place when went to bed, gone. The previous evening, at 9 PM on the East Coast, when the markets were closed, President Richard Nixon destroyed the system that had been set up in Bretton […]
By the measure most Americans recognize, inflation is running at an annual rate of 5.4%, the highest in 13 years. There are other measures, and consumers who don’t eat, or drive a car, or worse yet plan to buy a new one or a house or rent a flat, will be less hard by hit […]
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen…” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson 180 years ago. No one can accuse Joe Biden of such foolishness or, if he has his way with History, of being a “little statesman”. He has recently issued a spate of orders designed to re-introduce competition to […]
Reality bites. And at a decidedly inconvenient time for Federal Reserve Board chairman Jay Powell. In a little more than a month he will be meeting with his international peers at their annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He must decide whether to compete for the Banality-of-the-Year Award by repeating that the Fed will continue […]
The good news for President Biden is that the economy added 850,000 jobs in June, allowing him to claim credit for a booming economy, and the “dramatic progress in vaccinating our nation”, which has reduced the number of people too fearful of Covid to look for work from 6 million to 1.6 million. The bad […]
All hail Bernie Sanders. Not, as Republicans claim, because he is about to convert the Democratic Party to Socialism, with the government owning the means of production and distribution. He knows that he can accomplish his goal of having government control the commanding heights of the economy without going through the bothersome process of buying […]
Jay Powell did it. The Fed chairman has been trying to figure out how to warn investors that he can’t keep interest rates at zero forever, or continue indefinitely buying $120 billion of assets every month to pump more paper cash into the economy. Last week he issued just such a warning, without conceding to […]