The current crisis is not one that has shallow roots. The economy has had a series of imbalances for a long time. The deficit on foreign trade has been persistent for over a decade. The Federal deficit has ballooned during the last eight years. Domestic savings have fallen to unsustainable levels. And then, of course, […]

Now that the stimulus package has taken shape, and the Senate has acted on it, we can give a better assessment of its likely impact. My first reaction is huge disappointment. The debate that we all followed last week ended with a small group of Senators, the so-called ‘centrists’, cutting away some of the spending […]

Today’s New York Times hyperventilates about financial industry bonuses. There are no fewer than three articles, each with an angle on what appears to be a major topic. So I think we need to take a deep breath and approach things more calmly. First: we should not conflate the entire financial industry with Wall Street. […]