As California sinks slowly into the West, let’s take a look at what makes the difference in states that are successful and those that are suffering.  CEO Magazine conducts an annual survey of about 600 CEOs on a broad range of issues, including regulation, tax policies, education, quality of living, and infrastructure.  In the 2009 […]

Events almost overwhelm.  As I write, President Obama is in Europe winding up the G-20 meeting and the rest of his tour, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is revisiting “mark to market” accounting rules as they apply to financial institution asset write-downs, the stock market is showing signs of a bear market rally, the Obama […]

One of the most insidious consequences of the worldwide recession, particularly if it persists for an extended period, will be the growing tendency toward “economic nationalism”, or, to put it more bluntly, the protection of markets, industries, and jobs by home countries who feel threatened by free trade in a shrinking economy.  It’s a natural […]

Last month I wrote of the disaster looming in the form of 1970’s style “stagflation” as a result of a continuation of the misguided Federal Reserve monetary policy of the past five years that has disregarded its first priority–the protection and stability of the value of the dollar.  Now for the second leg of the looming disaster, […]

Whatever the backlog of subjects I had in mind for this issue, they have been blown away by events that have overwhelmed even what is shaping up as a watershed presidential campaign.  In fact, aside from their respective economic policy strategies if elected, the two presidential nominees are pretty irrelevant to the urgency of the crisis, and both […]

“It is hard in this world to do well.  It is hard to do good.  When I hear a claim that an institution is going to do both, I reach for my wallet.  You should too.”–Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, in “Notable & Quotable”, The Wall Street Journal. Former Treasury Secretary Summers reminds us of the […]

Bob Herbert of the New York Times writes of an “undercurrent of anxiety in the land”, an anxiety that seems more intense than the usual concern for a cyclical economic downturn.  He notes that former U. S. Senator and President of the University of Oklahoma David Boren has introduced his new book, “A Letter to […]

“Trade is a real test of leadership since its benefits are often less obvious than its downsides.”–David Ranson, H. C. Wainwright Economics, Inc. in the Wall Street Journal, 2-6-08. How true, and how difficult for the Republican Party, which, at least at the Presidential level, has been the leading free trade party for many decades, while the […]

I was struck over a year ago by comments by the CEO of General Motors who, in defending the company’s appeal for relief of its crushing legacy costs for health care and retirement benefits for its retirees, in effect said that it should not be expected to bear these costs in their entirety because they […]

A couple of announcements caught my attention recently. One was that Tom Freidman of the NY Times and “the earth is flat” fame will be releasing an update of his popular book in August; the other was that widely-followed economist and advisor to Democratic presidential candidates Alan Blinder, who has been one of the more […]