My column this week deals with one of the more important but less commented-on aspects of the American financial system: the way government policy encourages individuals and companies to take on debt. Given that too much debt was at the core of the recent financial crisis (as it’s been at ... Read more

We debated President Obama's jobs summit plans on last night's Kudlow Report . Joining me were Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary and Casey Mulligan, University of Chicago economics professor. ... Read the full post ... Read more

Blockbuster (BBI) gives every appearance of dead man walking. The latest earnings release celebrates their refinancing which was done at loan shark rates. Can they make the vig regularly. In the first nine months they could not break $2 Billion. The arithmetic is all wrong. So when it explodes what ... Read more

This is an update to an earlier post . As I've noted for some time, housing leads the economy and is the best leading indicator for the economy - both into and out of recessions. Employment lags the economy, and the following graph shows the relationship between starts and unemployment. ... Rea ... Read more

The federal bailout of the nation's financial sector will "almost certainly" result in a loss for taxpayers, the inspector general overseeing the program said yesterday. "We need to temper or be realistic about our expectations, a dollar-for-dollar return is just highly unrealistic," Neil M. ... Read more

The financial elites were responsible for putting through the Fed as a governmentally created and sanctioned cartel device to enable the nation's banks to inflate the money supply in a coordinated fashion. ... Read the full post ... Read more

... reward their worst customers : The Federal Reserve today announced new rules that will ban banks from charging overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions unless a consumer opts in to an overdraft program. "The final overdraft rules represent an important step forward in consumer protec ... Read more