After the Great Depression, Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for 30 years—and with great success. Even though Hoover’s policies were anything but market-oriented—he greatly raised spending, taxes, and tariffs in response to the 1929 Wall Street crash—Republicans took the fall for Hooverism. It…
The plunge in U.S. stock markets, along with various bourses around the world, is a result of fears that whatever is happening in China is a portent of worse things to come, and that what happens in China is contagious. Whether that is true is difficult to discern, however: We don’t have any…
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 217,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Which means that there are now more people working than there were before the recession and, for that matter, than ever before in…
The Commerce Department released revise first-quarter GDP numbers this morning. They were expected to show that the economy had actually shrunk a bit, instead of expanding by 0.1 percent as the initial report showed. The contraction was predicted to be somewhere around .5 percent. And while this…
President Obama likes to talk about income inequality, but what matters far more is the actual income of the typical American. And how has the typical American household income fared on Obama's watch? Well, the economic "recovery" has now spanned an Olympiad, and during that time the typical…
While the talk among the political class is of guns and gay marriage, the concern out in the country is, doubtless, about jobs and economic growth. And the hope is that the recovery will show a little pride and act like a real recovery and that business will start expanding and hiring. The…
In response to the news today that the economy contracted -.1 percent in the final quarter of last year, Democrats are touting the claim that this is "the best-looking contraction in U.S. GDP you'll ever see." The claim was originally made by chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics Paul Ashworth.
Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford. New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama…
Bill Clinton, who rode a recession into office and left the scene just before another one began, knows something about the blame game. Addressing the Democratic convention on Wednesday night, he made a full-throated effort to defend the Obama presidency by putting it in the context of past…
Why would the president oppose raising taxes when economic growth was 5.6 percent but propose raising taxes when it’s at 1.9 percent? When it’s politically advantageous to be seen as raising taxes on the rich.
When did President Obama change his mind on the wisdom of raising taxes in an economic downturn? And, perhaps more important, if the U.S. economy slipped back into recession, would the president abandon his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy?
President Obama just announced from the White House a plan to maintain current tax rates for the middle class, while hiking the tax rates for those earning above $250,000 per year. And while Republicans have already voiced opposition to the president's plan, Democrats are now beginning to express…
A top Democratic congressman, Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says that we're living through a "depression":
Vice President Joe Biden had this to say today about whether there's a "depression" in America:
Today, President Obama said, “It has typically taken countries up to ten years to recover from financial crises of this magnitude.” In truth, however, the historical norm has been as follows: the deeper the recession, the stronger the recovery.
Last year, the mega-law firm Dewey & LeBouef generated revenue totaling $782 million. It was the 20th largest firm according to the National Law Journal. Its clients included the Los Angeles Dodgers, the NFL Players Association, and eBay. But over the last five months, 206 of its partners defected.…
According to former President Bill Clinton, "there's a recession," and we're still in the middle of it. Here's a clip from an interview Clinton did with CNBC earlier today:
I received this smart email from a reader:
President Obama, speaking earlier today at a campaign event in Seattle, Washington:
In recent weeks the White House has been pushing a new argument about the economy: "We didn’t know how bad it was."
“[A] U.S. recession caused by the fiscal crisis in Europe would be very costly and could throw millions of Americans out of work.” So says the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank that numbers Pulitzer Prize winning, generally liberal economists Joe Stiglitz and Robert Solow among…
CNN: "Officials confirm 'credible but unconfirmed' 9/11 threat"
Politico: "Rick Perry panic fires up the left"
Sure, the rest of America's hurting economically, but Congressional leaders are doing quite well.
Last week I wrote a piece about the great comic book bubble of 1993. Today I got a note from Ron Forman, who owned one of the regional distribution companies that Diamond drove out of business, setting the bubble in motion. Ron helpfully adds that it was The Return of Superman and Turok #1—think of…
The U.S. economy might be on the verge of a double-dip recession, while Europe is paralyzed by a massive debt crisis afflicting the governments on the periphery of the eurozone. Alarming as they are, both of these stories are just part of an even gloomier overall economic picture of the West.
What Tolstoy wrote about families is true of economics: Boom times are all alike, but every crash is disastrous in its own way. That’s why stories about bursting bubbles are always instructive. There are lessons in the smallest of them, even the bubble that led to the comic book crash of 1993.
The Obama administration is 0-for-3 in meeting economic expectations. In 2009, President Obama and his advisers believed the bountiful stimulus package would give the economy a strong jolt. It didn’t, and still hasn’t. In 2010, Obama declared Recovery Summer and predicted a surge in employment. The…
"Bill Clinton to Paul Ryan on Medicare Election: ‘Give me a Call’"
I have noticed something unsettling in my own life lately: I know a lot of people who are on food stamps or some kind of extraordinary government assistance. The count right now stands around 10 people, which is a lot for a small town denizen such as myself.
Over at The Atlantic, Derek Thompson flags this terrifying indicator:
The folks at econstories.tv are back with round two of their entertaining and informative rap battle between economists John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek. Watch it below:
The geniuses at econstories.tv are back with round two of their entertaining and informative rap battle between economists John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek. Watch it below:
Let me bore you with some numbers. Employment dipped to 137,960,000 in December 2009. That may seem like a lot of Americans with jobs, but it happened to be the low point in the recession that began before President Obama took office the prior January.
At this point, conventional wisdom suggests that it will be difficult for Republicans to force and win a vote before the midterm elections on extending tax cuts for all Americans. The main obstacle is the Senate, where Republicans would have to get 19 Democratic votes. There are now five Democratic…