Normally I don’t pay too much attention to the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators. I’m not at all convinced that they have good predictive power; at best I think they reflect the overall trend in the economy at a particular point in time. But this story caught my attention: Economic indicator sinks for […]
In case you’ve missed it, last week The Guardian started “Operation Clark County.” The idea was that they would facilitate letter-writing from British citizens concerned about the US election to undecided voters in a semi-rural county in central Ohio. How has it gone? The Daily Telegraph (a right-of-center British newspaper) says not so well: British […]
As I’ve said many times, I think that Bush is not responsible for the weakness of the economy in 2001. A recession was bound to happen at the end of the long uninterrupted expansion of the 1990s – all expansions end with a recession, after all. And as Brad DeLong put it in a WSJ […]
From AP, via the Indianapolis Star: TEHRAN, Iran — The head of Iran’s security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in Tehran’s best interests, despite the administration’s “axis of evil” label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists, and threats of sanctions for the country’s nuclear ambitions. Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran […]
Here’s an economics paper just begging to be written: SALEM, Ore. (CNN/Money) – Less than two weeks away from Election Day, political signs on front yards are in full bloom. Lined up, they make quite an impression — suddenly, a neighborhood appears liberal, conservative or “politically diverse.” For some homebuyers, that is reason to give […]
The Economist notes some gathering distress over the price of oil. But Greenspan, in a speech last Friday, presented another incarnation of his seemingly boundless optimism. Some highlights from his speech: While there are concerns of seeming inadequate levels of investment to meet expected rising world demand for oil over coming decades, technology, given a […]
The other day, my 10 year old niece asked me why I am going to vote for John Kerry. I must admit that I was at a bit of a loss. I didn’t know where to begin. There are so many ways in which I prefer Kerry to Bush, after all, so I found it […]
Phew! I was starting to worry, but Greenspan tells me that it’s all okay: [T]he Federal Reserve chairman said the record level of debt being carried by American households does not seem to constitute a dire threat to U.S. economic well-being. He did note that high levels of personal bankruptcies gave him pause, as they […]
Joe Trippi promotes a book by Joe Scarborough: Rome wasn’t burnt in a day: The Real Deal on how politicians, bureaucrats, and other Washington barbarians are bankrupting America with a summary that can be found here and includes: In just three years since George W. Bush was elected president, your Republican-run Congress took a $155 […]
The BLS just released the September CPI report. It shows a bit of an uptick in the core rate of inflation (mostly due to an increase in the price of “lodging away from home”), which may be a signal that the economy is at least not weakening further. The rate of overall inflation was also […]