The United States and China continue to bicker over trade issues. We criticize China for keeping its currency artificially cheap compared to the dollar. President Barack Obama made that point forcefully in various settings on his recent trip to Asia.…
Category: Other
Shades of gray dominate Black Friday forecasts
Ancient Roman soothsayers killed pigeons and examined their entrails to predict the future. In the modern United States, we tabulate retail sales immediately after Thanksgiving. The two forecasting methods are about equally reliable, yet we adhere to our token rituals…
Bailouts imperfect but beat the alternative
Often when people get mad as hell, they are mad at the right people for the wrong reasons. That is the case with much of the widespread fury directed at Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke over…
It’s a day for giving thanks–and taking stock
My wife and I are thankful for many things this year. Good health is one. We both have secure jobs that pay us to do work we love. Our retirement funds hold their own. Our 109-year-old house has its quirks,…
Even when it’s personal, someone decides the cost
From the reaction to new guidelines released this week recommending that women under 50 may not need annual mammograms, some might conclude the government-named panel of experts had decided the lives of a few hundred women with breast cancer didn’t…
AIG bailout critics need to consider the panic factor
Could the government have struck a tougher deal with financial institutions owed money by AIG? The report made public this week by Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, concludes it certainly could have. But the…
Price discrimination: Free market at work
You never hear the term ‘price discrimination’ in the debate about restructuring U.S. health care financing, but it is a key issue. One manifestation of price discrimination is the recent news story about Scott Hawkins, a California State College-Sacramento student…
A true supply-side candidate is a rare commodity
It is obvious that many politicians who call themselves supply-siders really don’t understand what the term means. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is running hard for president — though not officially — apparently falls into that category. In a speech in…
Much-needed middlemen must be managed
As a boy, I heard people condemn ‘the middleman’ for low farm prices, but as an econ teacher, I appreciate the underappreciated functions middlemen perform for society. This is as true in financial services as it is in milling wheat…
Low interest hurting retirement accounts
Swooning stock markets are not the only threat to baby boomers’ retirements. Having just finished a periodic update of retirement income projections, it is clear my wife and I won’t be as flush in retirement as we had expected just…