Trump Kills the Tea Party
After claiming to be the greatest at just about everything, Donald Trump has finally found an area where he can stake a credible claim. By negotiating a disastrous budget deal with Democrats, the President could become the greatest creator of government debt in the history of the country. While Trump is selling the two-year deal […]
Laffer Gets Laughable
While the willingness to abandon long held beliefs for political gain has always been a common trait among public figures, the spectacle has recently taken on shocking levels of casual audacity. The contempt for even minimal levels of intellectual consistency has allowed Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden for his past opposition to Federally mandated […]
The Fed Stops Pretending
Well, it didn’t take much and it didn’t take long. After years of delays, a tentative start, many cautious pauses along the way, and a top speed that never really hit cruising velocity, the Fed has taken the first available off-ramp on the road towards policy “normalization.” In a speech on Tuesday this week in […]
Trump’s Last Stand
General George Custer met his doom charging into a battle he thought he could win, against an opponent he did not understand. Based on his views about the fast-emerging trade war with China, it looks to me that Donald Trump, another blonde with a very high opinion of himself, is charging into an economic version […]
Growth That’s Bought But Not Paid For
Very clear warning signs are now flashing that the U.S. economy could be heading for trouble and that the longest expansion in recent memory may soon end. But as usual, financial media and mainstream investors are once again flushed with optimism as the stock market plows higher. Last week, the Fed gave a narrative confirmation […]
Democrats’ Children’s Crusade Sets up 2020 Election
Over the years, I have always thought that the left’s obsession with global warming was really just an excuse to push through a fully socialist economic agenda. After all, the radical changes that would be required for businesses and consumers to rapidly reduce our carbon footprint could only come about through government mandates and force. […]
The Hawks Surrender
They say that there are no atheists in fox holes. Recently it has also become clear there are no monetary hawks in bear markets. For much of the last decade many conservative market analysts have decried our reliance on monetary stimulus to prop up the economy and the stock market. But in the final months […]
The Stock Market Economy
Currently, some market watchers have begun to openly question whether the bull market in stocks has finally come to an end. They certainly have cause to worry. Valuations are frothy after a record run-up in the last few years. Bond yields across the yield curve are rising sharply, as the Fed Funds Rate breaks into […]
The Branded Economy
Last week Donald Trump, in his own estimation, succeeded in replacing what he claimed to be the “worst trade deal in history” with what he claims was “the best trade deal in history.” If true, this would not only make good on one of his central campaign promises, but it would be a genuinely significant […]
A Pound of Cure
This week, as investors and economists fixate on record highs set by major stock market indices, they have ignored much more significant developments that emerged from the Federal Reserve’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a speech that somehow was almost universally interpreted as a reiteration of his commitment to […]
