The Radford Free Press – Page 463 – All life is problem solving.

Economics / consumer confidence, Consumer Price Index, CPI, inflation, inflation expectations, wages /

Consumers Swoon; Inflation Flat; Weak Weekend

August 14, 2009

The flow of weak data continued this morning and leaves us all with plenty to ponder over the weekend: the economy may well be headed out of recession as inventories are adjusted, but beyond that the horizon is murky to say the least. The theme all week has been the abrupt ebbing of forward momentum […]

Economics / jobs, recession, recovery, retail sales, stimulus, unemployment /

Retail Sales and Jobs: Both Weak

August 13, 2009

For those in search of evidence that the recovery will be robust today is a distinct downer. The only good piece of news released today is that the inventory to sales ratio is still declining which tells us that businesses are getting closer to getting their houses in order, albeit at much lower levels of […]

Economics / Behavioral Economics, Bernanke, John Taylor, Martin Feldstein, Paradox of Choice, Robert Barro, Robert Lucas, Robert Thaler /

Astrological Economics: Just What is Bernanke’s Sign?

August 12, 2009

For a subject as dry and mathematically inclined as economics, at least in its orthodox version, the linkage between the real world an the merely imaginary is more tenuous than most laypeople would think. This occurred to me today when I read an excellent letter in the Financial Times. In it an MIT lecturer talks […]