Great Recession

Dead cat bounce? Wild Wall Street week ends with Dow UP 330.44 points

Just as nearly all stocks were slammed again and again this week, most issues, whether good, bad or indifferent, still managed to gain some upside Friday. That led to hope that today’s action wasn’t the kind of misleading dead cat bounce we witnessed earlier this week.

Trump is right to roll back Dodd-Frank

The Dodd-Frank law is so restrictive that it has effectively put an end to normal, safe lending practices, particularly for the middle class and small businesses.

The Great Recession: End game for poor government policies

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2015 – In our previous article, we provided a short history of how the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank has generally dealt with inflationary and deflationary forces after its Great Mistake of 1937. Simply stated, the central bank’s policies after that point dictated easier, cheaper and more available money during hard times (recessions); ...

The Fed, interest rates and you: A controversial decision

WASHINGTON, December 18, 2015 – As a followup to Thursday’s Market Maven column, we promised to provide a little more insight as to what the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank decided to do this past Wednesday, why the nation’s central bank decided to do it, and what that might mean for investors as we look ahead ...

JP Morgan analyst: Stock gravy train nearing end of the line

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2015 – Trading on this last day of November is as lackluster and in some ways as nonsensical as it has been for much of this year. Traders and HFTs are still trying to game the ever-more-likely chance of a Federal Reserve interest rate increase this morning, even though it would seem ...

What’s really spooking the Fed and stock markets in 2015?

WASHINGTON, August 23, 2015 – To be sure, there have been corrections in the stock market’s long bull run, dating from the absolute bear market bottom of March 2009. The most notable of these occurred in 2011. But, as most charts of stock market averages going back to 2009 amply illustrate, markets have been grinding ...

Decline and Fall of America: The borrowing mania begins

WASHINGTON, August 16, 2015 – In our initial article, we featured an interesting and problematic chart purportedly illustrating the gradual moral equivalency of socialism and capitalism, liberalism and conservatism. The chart concluded that both progressions ended up in the same place. But the chart erred by missing an important point, namely that today’s “progressive” left ...

Paul Krugman shamefully attacks Alan Greenspan

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2015 − At any given time, economists often find it difficult to reach a complete consensus on the proper economic policy to implement. Most of this lack of agreement is based on differences about key assumptions, such as what the role of government should be in influencing economic activity. As a general practice, economists usually ...

Jobs and stocks are up, so why the recession gloom?

WASHINGTON, August 15, 2014 – The July jobs numbers were good. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000. The unemployment rate remained at 6.2 percent — not great, but the best that it’s been since 2008. The Obama Administration hopes that you appreciate those numbers. We are recovering ...