Economy & Budget

The Federal Reserve, seemingly following the path of the ECB, announces QE3 just after the Euros commit to unlimited backing of EU debtor nations.

Easy money is here to stay on both sides of the Atlantic.

We hear in London they are taking measures to rival Singapore as a renminbi center. Don't get this news in the U.S. — too busy running down stories of unimaginable triviality — but whenever I speak to sources outside the U.S. I hear financial stories about the Chinese currency positioning to be a rival reserve currency.

Wiser words were rarely spoken than in the call by former Sen. Judd Gregg, in a recent column in The Hill, for a return to governance and authentic bipartisanship along the lines proposed by former President Bill Clinton in his recent speech at the Democratic Convention. I hope everyone, on both sides of the aisle, will closely read and carefully consider the wise counsel of Sen. Gregg, who so ably represented New Hampshire in the upper chamber.

Gregg is a deep-rooted Republican and widely admired fiscal conservative who was respected by Democrats and Republicans when he served in the Senate. Gregg was "born at the creation" of both the Reagan and Clinton presidencies, and when he writes that both presidents overcame partisan and ideological divides to reach major agreements involving both parties, he is completely correct historically. I know; I was there, from the Democratic side, involved in reaching some of those agreements.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz has been busily traveling Europe trying to get the European Union to crack down on the use of tracking cookies that online advertisers depend upon to get the right ad onto the screen of the right person.
 
If you’ve ever wondered why the ads that pop up when you surf the Web seem to be tailored to your interests, it is because they are. As most people are aware, many common sites either track your activity within that site (Facebook), or purchase online ads based upon the proven interests of the individual computer user.

Much has been written about the fact that many American homeowners are under water. This simply means that they owe more on their mortgages than their home is worth.

Interestingly, the United States economy is also under water. Our national debt of more than $16 trillion, for the first time, is greater than our gross domestic product.

When a homeowner finds him- or herself in this dilemma, he or she has a difficult time borrowing money, and it affects virtually everything in his or her life.

No one in the late ’80s truly understood what any of the technology firms would produce before their boom and growth. The equity markets looked like a perilous place to speculate about the future. People had come back down to earth and were looking for a traditional method to accumulate wealth. They wanted something tangible, something familiar and certainly easily understood. Real estate seemed perfect. It was among the most tangible of all assets and historically one of the safest investments. Or so it seemed.

There is a psychological aspect to the fiscal cliff. Many analysts believe that individuals, investors and businessmen in this country are in economic limbo because they are concerned about the "fiscal cliff.” The business and financial community does not like uncertainty. They do not know whether the U.S. will go over the fiscal cliff and enter a recession. They prepare for the worst. Consequently, they save money and do not spend money today because in a recession, "cash is king.” If the fiscal cliff were to be eliminated, these individuals, businesses and investors might be more inclined to spend money. This would immediately help stimulate the economy.

Fewer Americans are employed today than when Barack Obama became president in January 2009. That’s right, the actual number of people with jobs is down by 86,000 since Obama took over the economy. In August alone, 119,000 fewer workers have jobs.

President Obama, for all his bloviating and bluster about caring for the underserved — that wonderful Beltway lobbyist boilerplate — is, in fact, regressively transferring wealth en masse. Every dime borrowed from anyone is a dime — actually, with interest, far more than a dime — borrowed from young Americans.

People have been remarking at how strange it is that people should express their support for free speech by purchasing fast food. On the contrary, it is strange, though unsurprising, that Democrats should try to restrict free speech by outlawing the fast-food companies they don’t like.

The monthly release of the nation’s unemployment data never ceases to amaze and, in some perverse way, amuse. Here are just a couple of examples that just make you scratch your head.