Category Archives: Economic fundamentals

The Fed and the “Soft Landing” – Policy or Luck?

The Fed has little to do with the fall in inflation. Limited labor bargaining power and easing supply chain problems were more important.

Richard Wolff and Michael Hudson: West’s Colossal Failure: Peace Summit in Switzerland, US Decline, Rise of BRICS

Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff, in fine form, discuss the remarkable US success in driving its strategic rivals into alliances.

Fall Fashion’s Economic Forecast

A sampling of fall/winter women’s frocks does not make for an upbeat economic forecast.

Is It Climate Change or Genocide?

The case that the elite lack of willingness to address climate change amounts to genocide.

Who Holds All These US Treasuries? Update on the Investors in the Ballooning US National Debt in Q2

As the Fed unloads Treasuries, others are purchasing them…including foreign central banks.

Days After Rate Cut, S&P’s Flash PMI Sees Rising Inflation and Exhorts the Fed to “Move Cautiously” with “Further Rate Cuts”

S&P: “The “reacceleration of inflation” suggests “the Fed cannot totally shift its focus away from its inflation target.”

The Fed’s Reactive-Looking Half-Point Rate Cut

The Fed’s half point rate reduction was unseemly large. What gives?

Cheapflation and the Rise of Inflation Inequality in 2021-2023

Big companies victimized poor consumers via cheapflation: imposing greater price increases on low price goods than higher priced items

BRICS and De-Dollarization: An Alternative or Potential Disaster?

A discussion of some proposals for the BRICS de-dollarization project, suggesting a lack of convergence of ideas among key players.

Local Decline and Populism

Would prettying up small city high streets in decline ward off dreaded right wing populism?

The EU Retreats Further into a World of Self-Delusion

Mario Draghi calls for Europe, decimated by self-inflicted energy crisis and social austerity, to go on borrowing spree to pay for endless fight against Russia.

Putin Calls for Sanctions Revenge, Threatens to Cap Uranium Exports

Russia is considering restricting commodities exports such as uranium to what it has called “unfriendly” countries.

Official US Poverty Rate Declined in 2023, but More People Faced Economic Hardship

The arguably better official measure of US poverty says the poor are getting poorer.

No Solid Scientific Basis for Degrowth

Two economists depict degrowth studies as analytically weak and advocating political infeasible ideas.

A Short Overview of Making Colonial Empires by European Powers from the Time of the Vienna Congress up to WWI (1815−1914)

A high level recap of how European powers built out their empires in the century before the Great War.