In my last post I gave several reasons why I think the ‘good society’ is a useful concept. There is another reason. The concept of a ‘good society’ may help us to think more clearly about progress.
What is the problem with progress? I am just about old enough to remember the 1950s when the most [...]

Writing an op-ed for NY Times, Nouriel Roubini discusses the role of Ben Bernanke in this year’s recession (link).
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The Chicago ISM survey of area purchasers was released on Wednesday. The purchasers manager’s index (PMI) rose sharply, up nearly 4 points to 60.0. This Chicagoland index has now posted gains for three months straight — all at accelerating rates (60.0 Dec, 56.1 Nov, 54.2 Oct).
The new orders have also held to over 60 for [...]

In thinking of protectionism, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and what might come next, here are two interesting angles.
Governments with their backs against the wall
Ideally, stabilisation using monetary and fiscal policy, alongside actions by the private sector, should restrain the decline in consumption, and yield conditions which are not too harsh for households. At [...]

Brian Wesbury is one of the more optimistic professional economists out there. He’s proud of being dubbed “Mr. Sunshine.” Wesbury is chief economist at First Trust Advisors of Chicago and his assessments on the economy are quite in line with what you read here at the Good News Economist day after day.
He even has a [...]

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Churchill 1942
Summary

The extent, so far, of the internal devaluation process depends on the time period used for analysis. Using Q3-2007 as the beginning of the economic crisis suggest that Greece and [...]

Last week markets were subdued as many economists and investors on Wall Street and Main Street took several days off to prepare for holiday celebrations.
The data that did arrive was mostly reminiscent of the spirit of St Nick – slipping coinage into stocks without their owner’s knowledge.
A report on the Tuesday before Christmas showed that [...]

The recent gold upleg has proceeded fairly predictably based on previous trends.  Like the Octrober correction and consolidation the December correction and consolidation has laid a firm foundation for the third round of the upleg.
FIRST ROUND
With gold trading around $995 on 9 September 2009 in Gold Party Barely Started I wrote, “This puts $1,300 gold [...]

Foreign Policy composed the rank of the most influential global thinkers (link).
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Howard Davies was a deputy governor of the Bank of England, and the first head of the UK FSA. He is one of the world’s leading thinkers on financial regulation and monetary policy, and one of the people who combines skills in both finance and monetary economics. In a recent article, he focuses [...]