China’s Peg
Some countries do not follow Milton Friedman’s freely floating exchange rate advice (see my recent blog). Instead, they peg their currency to the U.S. dollar. Sometimes they have logical reasons for doing so. Usually, this […]
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Some countries do not follow Milton Friedman’s freely floating exchange rate advice (see my recent blog). Instead, they peg their currency to the U.S. dollar. Sometimes they have logical reasons for doing so. Usually, this […]
Read moreIt has been 57 years since Milton Friedman wrote his paper “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates” where he argued that the benefits from a market economy and a free trade system would be enhanced […]
Read moreThe February United States jobs report sent the equity markets up this morning while respected commentators like Edmund Phelps, (Columbia, Economics Nobel in 2006), remark that they worry that the “recovery” might not have legs. […]
Read moreVince Reinhart released a fascinating piece on February 25, 2010. I highly recommend reading it in its entirety. Here, I’d like to talk about two paragraphs: How will the Fed raise the short-term market interest […]
Read moreA lot of people who watch trade flows think that the United States is making a mistake by losing its manufacturing activities to other countries. They recognize that other countries can provide some manufactured goods […]
Read moreData released today reveal a United States economy that remains unsettled. Mass Layoffs The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report shows a 2 percent uptick in January seasonally-adjusted mass layoffs from December. The jump in mass […]
Read morePrices The January Producer Price Index (PPI) data released yesterday February 18, appeared to show that price pressures were building up again with finished goods prices rising 4.6 percent over 12 months ago, and rising […]
Read moreToday’s not-much-noticed Industrial Production data release showed that January’s Industrial Production was up a bit from December. This report also indicated that capacity utilization increased a bit in January from December. Notice, charts below, capacity […]
Read moreI’ve seen lots of proposals on how to accelerate our economic recovery, but I haven’t seen any investment tax credit proposals. Maybe there are some out there, but I haven’t seen them. The idea has […]
Read moreThe Eurozone is a confederation of 16 European countries. When joining, countries abandon control of their currency to the European Central Bank, and they agree to significant constraints on their monetary policy. Why would they […]
Read moreThe January United States jobs report contains mixed results that, to us, provide hints of a recovery to come. More on the recovery later. The bad news from the jobs report first: long term unemployed […]
Read moreDavid Ricardo, the British economist who died in 1823, gave the world two deep economic insights. The first, the concept of comparative advantage, became economic gospel, used ever since to justify specialization and trade. The […]
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