“Macroeconomics” on The Daily Caller

The current economic environment reminds me of the great old soul singers who used to drop to their knees to scream, beg and shout as they pleaded for their baby’s love. Sadly, the likes of Ray Charles, James Brown and Solomon Burke are gone, but there has been plenty of pleading, begging and beseeching afoot as central bankers, government officials and ordinary citizens lament the woeful state of the world’s economy. For the last two years the volume has been rising and the only thing missing seems to be a chorus of back-up singers like the Raelettes. I wonder if Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd can carry a tune? We may be about to find out. (more)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Three economists — including one rejected by the Senate as too inexperienced to work at the Federal Reserve — have won the Nobel prize in economics for their work in explaining why markets sometimes don’t work so well. (more)

Friday’s unemployment report for September, the last before the election, brought more bad news for the Obama Democrats. (more)

President Obama has repeatedly voiced his opposition to extending the Bush tax cuts for “rich Americans,” though he favors extending the Bush tax cuts for individuals making less than $200,000 and families with incomes below $250,000.  His persistent class warfare and continued demonization of the successful is hurting the recovery. (more)

U.S. consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in seven months in September, underscoring lingering worries about the strength of the economic recovery. (more)

Fed head Ben Bernanke and the FOMC dropped a new policy bomb at their meeting this week. Now they say inflation is too low. That’s the real problem. And the solution? Punch up the money supply and punch down the dollar — or what I used to call King Dollar. No more. (more)

College kids have an excuse for being indignant about free trade. They’re largely ignorant–young idealists who’re still learning about the real world. They don’t realize, for example, that most “sweatshop” jobs in Central America pay more than prevailing wages in those countries. And, while these jobs are tough, they are less horrible than subsistence agriculture. In other words, third-worlders actually want sweatshop jobs. The alternatives may be prostitution, starvation or crime. (more)

“The movers and shakers of our society seem…oblivious to the terrible destruction wrought by the economic storm that has roared through America.” Thus writes the New York Times’ Bob Herbert, who notes in a weekend column that “nearly 44 million people were living in poverty last year, which is more than 14 percent of the population. That is an increase of 4 million over the previous year, the highest percentage in 15 years.” (more)

Is the recession’s great irony that government spending killed Keynesianism? With economists, bankers and investors perplexed over the economy’s continued funk, we cannot be blamed for looking in odd places for answers. Could it possibly be that continuously increasing spending over eight decades has left little ability for government spending to affect the economy? (more)

TOKYO — Japan moved Wednesday to prop up the U.S. dollar and weaken the yen in a bid to protect its export-led economy, intervening in international currency markets for the first time since 2004. (more)

There is really not much difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to economic policies, is there? (more)

Would John Maynard Keynes himself even agree with the perpetual deficit-spending that has been going on for the past 40 years in America? (more)

Corporate profits are at all-time highs and bond rates in the Treasury market are virtually at record lows. That’s a good combination for stocks, and it helped trigger a 255-point rally in Wednesday’s trading. What’s more, a surprisingly positive read on the ISM August manufacturing report delivered a strong blow to the double-dip recession pessimism that has plagued investors for many months. (more)

Rising job losses and “unusual uncertainty” within the economy have prompted the Federal Reserve and other major financial institutions to slash growth projections for the rest of 2010, leaving Americans worried about the possibility of a dreaded “double-dip” recession. But it’s another “D” word that currently has investors spooked—deflation. (more)

The economy is suffering from something like a summer swoon. In the words of business columnist Jimmy Pethokoukis, the recovery summer has gone bust. We all know this from the sloppy statistics coming in for jobs, retail sales, and most recently manufacturing. But market-based indicators are telling the same story. (more)

While the global economic downturn continues to take its toll, a new United Nations agency report contends that young workers may have been hit the hardest, pointing to a dramatic rise in the number of unemployed youth around the world. While analysts list a host of reasons why young people can’t find jobs, there is one culprit, at least in the United States, that some economists say continues to rear its head: The federal minimum wage. (more)

Will higher tax penalties on investment really spur jobs and faster economic growth? Most commentators would say no. It’s really a matter of economic common sense. But Tim Geithner says, Yes! (more)

Americans are spending more on electronics like iPads and flat-screen televisions and less on durable goods like furniture, washing machines and lawn mowers, according to government data released Tuesday. (more)

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman often writes that only by authorizing much more of exactly this kind of government spending can we pull out of the current recession. Apparently, the way to economic growth is to have the operator of the Post Office, rather than private individuals, invest money. Hearing this, I can’t come to any conclusion except that the field of macroeconomics is lost. (more)

A subtle but significant shift appears to be occurring within the Federal Reserve over the course of monetary policy as the economic recovery is weakening. (more)