Watching, monitoring, and analysing the economy and her markets is as much about tracking discourses (and how they change) as it is about perusing data material on various leading and lagging indicators. And thus, as I am still knee deep into putting the last touch on my thesis [1] I thought that I might as [...]

The policy of credit card companies charging an annual fee for those cardholders with solid credit is a good proxy for the state of the nation, and also a microcosm of both the progressive (read socialist) movement in this country and the unintended consequences of an economic policy destined to fail — or succeed if [...]

Friday 25 September 2009 had two significant events.  First, there was a full committee hearing on Ron Paul’s bill H.R. 1207 to audit the Federal Reserve.  Second, Chief Judge Edith Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, directly under the United States Supreme Court and covers Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, [...]

There is a fascinating article in The Economist about how the world of derivatives has shaped up through the crisis.
I often encounter misconceptions about hedging. The one line that summarises the issue is this: The job of a hedging strategy is to combat extraneous economic exposure. Let me focus on currency exposure as an example, [...]

Despite humanity surviving and thriving for thousands of years using commodity currencies the fiat currency proponents have effectively marshaled the press and academia to equate those in favor of a commodity currency with those counting down to Armageddon.  When looking back through the corridors of history one lesson is clear from humanity’s experience:  at all times and in all circumstances [...]

There is a standard joke among economists that equity markets have predicted about 10 of the last 5 recessions. As the joke acknowledges, equity prices embody predictions of future earnings and this implies that they also embody predictions of economic growth rates.
So, what is the rate of economic growth implied by current equity prices?
A good [...]

When the U.S. government refused to bail out Lehman Brothers and no buyer could be found for the tottering investment bank, traders and investors around the world realized something terrifying: their profits—worse yet, their capital—were at risk, and the Fed’s lack of action proved no one was going to save them.
Results Round One
The result was [...]

Fact, fiction and speculation run rampant in the wake of the Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that shook the worldwide financial community September 15. The impact ranging from Wall Street to London to Hong Kong and beyond was as devastating as the events of 9/11. The end of the continuing saga remains to be [...]

On the face of it, it seems very unfair: prices in the inner-city, where people have the least money to spend, are typically higher than in middle-class suburban areas in the same state. Is this an example of corporate exploitation of the poor, or is there another explanation?
<p>Dr. Walter Block, an Austrian economist, wrote about [...]