Anthony Randazzo: No, This Is Not A Housing Recovery

Those saying we're in a housing recovery are wrong. We have not reached the bottom of the housing market. I hate to say it. I really do hate to always be the pessimist. And I don’t say this because I’ve been steeped in a couple decades' worth of bitterness as a Red Sox fan. The numbers are just not adding up to recovery. It is all the rage these ... MORE

VIDEO: What Are the Dangers of Too Much Debt?

Gene Epstein: Our Cheap Debt Will Come Back To Haunt Us

Fed policy certain to fuel inflation. You may have heard by now of the Federal Reserve's "dual mandate." Not content to merely protect us against the ravages of price inflation (mandate No. 1), our fearless Fed is equally committed to fostering "maximum employment" (No. 2). And right now, with the unemployment rate still at 8.3%—far too high to meet anyone's ... MORE

Charles Kadlec: FED Seeks To Devalue The Dollar By 33%

Purchasing power of dollar headed downward.    The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official:  After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years.  The debauch of the dollar will be even greater if the Fed exceeds its goal of a 2 percent per year increase in the price level.     ... MORE

James A. Dorn: The Federal Reserve's Crony Capitalism

Private virtue is being penalized by public vice.   The Federal Reserve’s decision to release forecasts for short-term interest rates is supposed to clarify monetary policy and reassure the public.  By keeping the federal funds rate close to zero for three more years, and switching from shorter to longer-term securities, the Fed hopes to spur investment ... MORE

Binyamin Appelbaum: Fed Sees Rates Staying Near Zero

Bernanke favors keeping lid on boiling pressure cooker. The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it intended to hold short-term interest rates near zero “at least through late 2014,” extending its most basic and longest-running response to the financial crisis by at least another 18 months. The decision means that the Fed does not expect the ... MORE

Investors Business Daily: Fed Looks To Print More Money

More Fed meddling won't help.  The media have busied themselves with touting the big economic rebound they see brewing in the U.S. We hope they're right. But if they are, why is the Federal Reserve getting ready to print even more money? The media argument goes like this: After years of struggling, the economy is finally churning out jobs. Last month ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: How Liberals Distort Austrian Economics

Lame campaign to discret the Austrian school. When a presidential candidate declares, as Ron Paul has, “We’re all Austrians now,”  it’s inevitable that his critics would try to discredit him—whether they understand what he’s talking about or not. That’s what Matthew Yglesias does in his Slate piece “What Is ‘Austrian Economics’?” I recommend the piece because it's ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Payday Loans

Borrowers trapped into never-ending cycle of debt? California is a great place for studying the thinking -- or lack of thinking -- on the political left. The mindset of the left was recently displayed in a big, front-page story in the October 30th issue of the San Mateo County Times. It was an investigative reporter's expose of the "payday loan" business and its lobbyists.    ... MORE

Cash-Flooded Banks To Impose Fees On Depositors

Interest-earning days will soon be forgotten. This story did not break on some freakishly obscene Halloween website, but last week, CNBC ran the story that banks are now flooded with cash and that depositors are being charged fees just to slow the flood of money into the bank (article here). This means that negative interest rates appear to have arrived. Savers will ... MORE

Spooky: U.S. Debt To Surpass GDP On Halloween

from the Daily Caller. As children across America costume themselves as ghouls, ghosts, goblins and former North African dictators Monday night, they may have missed the most spine-chilling scare of the day. According to calculations based on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, on All Hallows’ Eve the United States’ total debt will surpass ... MORE

Tim Cavanaugh: How Long Will It Take Keynes To Die?

Ignorance is a stubborn beast. It’s been many years since I’ve read The New York Times. Like most readers, I got discouraged by the shrinking page size, the self-confident erroneousness that becomes apparent whenever America's newspaper of record covers a topic I’m familiar with, and the lack of a comics page. Sure there are occasions when you can’t avoid it—usually when ... MORE

VIDEO: Unintended Consequences of Price Controls

Prof. Antony Davies explains that prices are not levers that set value, but rather, are metrics that respond to value. Therefore, since government cannot legislate value, attempts to control prices will generate unintended consequences. Using the minimum wage as an example, Davies demonstrates that minimum wage laws increase unemployment rates amongst low-skilled workers.

Housing Decline: Only Halfway Home

When Reuters and CNBC.com announced the awful housing numbers from February, most observers were surprised. The housing market appeared to have found a bottom last fall, and many economists were expecting small but predictable improvements every month.The Commerce Department, however, doused whatever positive expectations there were when they announced that new home ... MORE

John Stossel: Students Who Get It!

I went to Princeton in 1969, where they taught me that government could solve the world's problems. Put the smartest people in a room, give them enough taxpayer money, and they will fix most everything. During those years, I heard nothing about an alternative. How things have changed! I recently spent time with several hundred college-aged people at a Students for Liberty  conference in Washington  ...  MORE

Micheal Pento: Interest Rates On The Launch Pad

The bottom line is that a massive increase in the supply of debt coupled with a rising rate of inflation will always place upward pressure on interest rates.  

A few months ago, the chorus sung by the recovery cheerleaders reached a crescendo when expanding consumer credit statistics and surging US trade deficits provided them with "evidence" of an economic rebound. In declaring victory, they overlooked ... MORE