Over the past several weeks, we’ve once again seen how the Federal Reserve’s stimulus policy has done nothing to help the economy. Fourth quarter growth for 2015 was a disappointing 0.7 percent, and there are no obvious signs of improvement in sight for 2016. Nonetheless, as the U.S. economy continues to smolder, the Fed acts […]
As predicted, the economy had a very weak fourth quarter. Economists were predicting 0.8 percent growth but it actually came in at 0.7 percent. That means a 2.4 percent growth for 2015. It means that this recovery continues to be weak, the weakest actually. Unfortunately, this issue was not covered during the Republican debate last night. That’s a failure […]
Let’s start with the few positives. On the issue of raising the national minimum hourly wage to $15, Hillary Clinton said she took “seriously” former Obama White House economist Alan Krueger’s warning on the riskiness of such a steep increase. Clinton also didn’t seem much interested in the super high income tax rates — 70%? 90%? […]
Sclerotic growth is the overriding economic issue of our time. From 1950 to 2000 the US economy grew at an average rate of 3.5% per year. Since 2000, it has grown at half that rate, 1.7%. From the bottom of the great recession in 2009, usually a time of super-fast catch-up growth, it has only […]