Mitt Romney's Economic Adviser Isn't Giving Very Good Advice
Repackaging the Bush agenda, just with austerity, is not the path to prosperity. More »
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Matthew O'Brien is an associate editor at The Atlantic covering business and economics. He has previously written for The New Republic.
Repackaging the Bush agenda, just with austerity, is not the path to prosperity. More »
This is not what a recovery looks like. This is what stall speed looks like. In other words, a lost decade in the making. (Actually, make that another lost decade in the making).The chart below compares core PCE inflation with the employment-population ratio since 2010. The former is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation -- it shows how much more households spend, minus food and gas costs -- and the latter is the percentage of adults with a job.… More »
Unemployment is above target and inflation is below target, and the Fed is doing nothing. What? More »
Companies and households aren't "doing fine" for a recovery, but they're doing better than normal. More »
Zombie banks don't eat people. They eat recoveries. More »
If you're reading this, congratulations. You survived the Great Currency War of 2007-12.What? You didn't realize there was a currency war? Well, there was. At least if you listened to Brazil. The gist was that countries would competitively devalue their currencies to try to get a trade advantage over their rivals. There's nothing wrong with doing this during a global slump -- it's how recovery started during the Great Depression -- but there is a tremendous risk.… More »
Do you like food? Yes? Well, I've got some bad news. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expects the historic drought hitting half the country to push up food inflation next year.But it's not as bad as you might think -- the jump in food prices, that is. The drought is a once-in-a-half-century disaster amidst once-in-a-century temperatures. The chart below from the USDA puts it in perspective.The drought has been particularly bad news for the corn crop --… More »
If Obama is a big government liberal, then what does that make Reagan? More »
The Fed says it wants to jumpstart the economy -- but not if that means jumpstarting the economy More »
The only thing worse than the endless euro crisis might be the end of the euro crisis. More »
Why would you buy puts for your arch-enemy right before a market crash? More »
Austerity might not be such a good idea now, hints Glenn Hubbard. More »
Is James Bond the most successful series of all time? Or could it be Star Wars? It depends how you measure their success. More »
There are few tax breaks more beloved than the mortgage interest deduction. It's the IRS's way of paying you to buy a house -- by letting you deduct your mortgage interest payments from your taxable income. There are also few tax breaks more wasteful than the mortgage interest deduction.The chart below, numbers courtesy of the Tax Policy Center, puts the mortgage-interest deduction into nice pictorial perspective. It shows what percent of the total dollar value of… More »
Remember when the U.S. was supposed to face a fiscal crisis within two year's time? That was a year and a half ago. Well, markets apparently haven't gotten the memo. Borrowing costs are at an all-time low. As in, they have never been lower going back to 1790. And this isn't a story about reserve currency status, either. Every advanced country that can print its own money -- and even some that can't -- have seen their bond yields fall to levels that would have been… More »
China's second quarter growth was its weakest since 2009. Should we worry? More »
Forget Jim Cramer. Here's a real hot stock tip. (Don't worry, I'll tell you more!) Buy equities right before the Federal Reserve announces its decisions. Then sell a day later.That's it. That sound you hear is the eTrade baby hitting a Staples easy button.Since 1994, something strange has happened. More than 80 percent of the equity premium -- which measures how much stocks outperform bonds -- has been earned in the day before the Federal Open Market Committee… More »
Taking a look inside Romney's Epcot of financial investments. More »
