America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
I could comment extensively on Ben Bernanke’s speech and Q&A at the National Press Club yesterday, as I partially and fully disagree on many of the comments he made. I find it unfortunate that official transcripts of this and previous Q&A sessions are not available. (speech video and transcript; Q&A video and partial transcript) One …
On January 7, The Wall Street Journal conducted an interview of Alan Greenspan. I found a few aspects of this interview to be interesting. Perhaps most notable was the following comment by Greenspan, seen at the 13:58 mark: “…the primary purpose of a central bank is to protect the value of the currency…” I will …
For a variety of reasons, I believe the economic forecasts previous to and during the “Financial Crisis” of late ’08 – early ’09 deserve scrutiny. I have assembled a variety of the more notable forecasts and opinions of the period in a document titled “Predictions.” Additionally, I would like to highlight the August 2008 Wall …
On December 27, I wrote a post about the latest Business Roundtable’s CEO Economic Outlook Survey and the Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. Subsequent to that post, the Conference Board released its 4th Quarter CEO Confidence Survey. The overall measure of CEO Confidence was at 62, up from 50 in the third quarter. An …
Here is an update on various indicators that are supposed to predict and/or depict economic activity. These indicators have been discussed in previous blog posts: The January Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)(pdf) updated as of January 27, 2011: – The Consumer Metrics Institute Contraction Watch: – The USA TODAY/IHS Global Insight Economic Outlook Index: …
U.S. Dollar weakness is a foremost concern of mine. As such, I have extensively written about it. I am very concerned that the actions being taken to “improve” our economic situation will dramatically weaken the Dollar. Should the Dollar substantially decline from here, as I expect, the negative consequences will far outweigh any benefits. The …
As those familiar with this blog know, I am very concerned about the vulnerability of the U.S. Dollar to a substantial decline. I have written extensively about this situation. I think the following quote on the subject of currency debasement is particularly noteworthy. It is from John Maynard Keynes, from his book Economic Consequences of …
I found last night’s State of the Union Address to contain many noteworthy comments. While I could comment extensively on many parts of the speech, for now I will indicate excerpts that I found most relevant, and may comment upon them at a future point. I am highlighting these excerpts for many reasons; it should …
The January 17-January 23 Bloomberg BusinessWeek issue had an article titled “Back to the Economic Future.” The article notes “John Maynard Keynes and Fredrich Hayek, who battled over the Depression, are getting a fresh look as the Long Slump lingers on.” It discusses the current state of the (macro)economic profession and theoretical trends within the …
I recently wrote of “10 ‘Front and Center’ Problem Areas That Pose a Threat to the Economy” on the Seeking Alpha site. (an additional link on the Global Economic Intersection site can be found here.) I haven’t posted this material to this blog as those familiar with this blog would likely find it repetitive. However, …