Japanese central bankers are even worse than Westerners when it comes to deflation-phobia. 

Politicians break campaign promises with hardly any hesitation and usually they get away with it. Americans have come to put up with broken promises for so long, they hardly even seem to notice. Last week, however, voters noticed. They showed the Republican party just how angry they were over President Trump’s decision to attack Iran and how angry they were with Congress for abandoning its Constitutional authority over matters of war and peace.

The results were dramatic. Voters even turned Texas blue, as Democrats took firm control of both the House and Senate.

It’s the economy, stupid: Forty-five percent of Hispanics believed the economy was the most important issue facing the U.S., while 15% said immigration. 

Democrat Scott Colom wins Mississippi Senate race, giving the Dems a 55-seat majority in the Senate. 

The “implied rate is around 4%, well above wage gains of 3.1% in the past year.” Real wages are still falling. 

Former US vice president Mike Pence resurfaced last week to remind everyone that the Republican Party is sticking to the same slogans it has been using for 30 years. These slogans about small government and a “strong America” are what the Republicans have been repeated for decades, all while fighting to send federal spending through the roof, spend trillions of dollars on endless wars, and relentlessly expand the federal surveillance state.