I mentioned yesterday that we should evaluate the effects of any stimulus package through the lens of the ‘multiplier effect’. The notion is that any money spent by the government passes through several pairs of hands as it circulates the economy. Spending creates demand which creates jobs and thus more demand. And so on. One […]

Some of you have complained that banks are wrong not to have loaned the money they received from the government bailout program [‘TARP’ for short]. There is plenty of angst in Congress over the same issue, so let me explain what I think has been going on. Only about half of the money set aside […]

The collapse of retail sales continued into December. The size of the decline surprised most analysts who had been expecting the slide to extend to the end of the year, but had not anticipated quite the drop we saw. Here’s the press release from the government: ADVANCE MONTHLY SALES FOR RETAIL AND FOOD SERVICES: The […]