And as usual, he says nothing new or interesting. But at least he’s right, for once. Warning that deficit spending can be a problem, Greenspan also noted that reduced spending would not damage the “recovery.” That’s nice, but aside from sending Paul Krugman into a rage , these words of Greenspan’s are profoundly safe things to say right now, and
This may be the first time I’ve seen news reports on increasing joblessness in which the worsening of the job market was not declared to be a “surprise.” (See here and here .) The fact that this lousy jobs report wasn’t declared “surprising” may be a sign of people coming to terms with reality. Just as a reminder: Total employment in the United
The people over at the Calculated Risk blog had a helpful post today that links to the BLS’s primer on the differences between the “Establishment” employment data and the “Household” employment data. Economist John Williams has often been referenced on these issues, and his site, Shadowstats.com is indeed helpful. However, if you want something
At one Colorado gold mine: Cash costs amounted to $482 per ounce in the first quarter, compared to a company-wide average of $619. Not surprisingly, the number of humans required to dig out an ounce of gold is just a fraction of what it was in the good ‘ol days, and today’s average gold miner (in the industrialized world, at least) has a much
Some errors die hard. In today’s CNN Money, an interview with economist David Rosenberg featured this distortion: The crisis came about because of excessive leverage, a misunderstanding of credit quality as linked to securitized products, and a general lack of appreciation for risk. Thanks to years of deregulation, the government created a wild
Historically, newspapers have made money in two ways. They make money from readers, and they make money from advertisers. Originally, most of the money that newspapers made came from readers. In the late 19th century and early 20th century the old newsboy sales model was based on incentives to move as many newspapers as possible at the highest
Zillow reports a double dip in real estate prices in 12 American cities, while The Federal Housing Finance Agency (formerly OFHEO) has released new data showing that housing prices nationwide are going nowhere. Meanwhile, Bank of America has announced that it will begin writing down the principal on $3 billion worth of loans. These are all good
Going through an ancient box of my father’s books that had apparently been undisturbed since the 1970s, I came across Good Cheap Food from 1973: Note that it is an “anti-inflation cookbook.” I’m not sure how a cookbook becomes “anti-inflation,” but my guess is that this labeling comes from the 1970s practice of defining inflation as a general
This piece at CNN Money falls into what is an entire sub-genre of business writing in which economists and business writers get together to explain why the latest development in government-induced market failure is not a problem at all. The piece explains why $3 gasoline is absolutely no problem whatsoever and is actually good for the economy.
Now, I’m not suggesting that Hoenig has a single Austrian bone in his body, and I doubt he would ever make such a claim. But, for years now, he’s been one of the few establishment economists who actually speaks some sense every now and then. On Tuesday, he once again spoke on the true threat of inflation, and noted that maybe, just maybe, massive
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.