From the Financial Times: Romer upbeat on US economy Ms Romer, chairman of the US president’s council of economic advisers, told the Financial Times in an interview she was “more optimistic” that the economy was close to stabilization. ... Ms Romer said stimulus spending was “going to ... Read more

The idea that there is the need for more inflation in order to revive the economy seems preposterous. The yearly rate of growth of monetary pumping as depicted by the Fed's balance sheet jumped from 3.8% in August last year to 152.8% by December 2008. At the end of April, the yearly rate of growth ... Read more

| Peter Klein | My colleague, coauthor on several forthcoming projects, and former PhD student John Chapman was on Hugh Hewitt’s show last night, talking about the US economy. Like me John blames the Fed, not hedge funds and derivatives markets, for the housing bubble and crash. JohnR ... Rea ... Read more

Well, big gap up, now sit and and wait until the Federal Reserve Board (shown) releases their proclamation. if you're wagering on a rate cut, you may be disappointed, although if the bank execs want negative Fed Funds, who am I to bet against it? Looks like a bad tick in the VIX this morning, ... Read more

It's good to see the New York Times finally caught up. In today's edition, the paper looks at how a Tax Break May Have Helped Cause Housing Bubble . It's a comprehensive review of the same topic blogged about here on Don't Mess With Taxes back in September in Did the Home ... Read the full pos ... Read more

In the latest Monthly oil report from OPEC , a dreary picture was painted for the US economy. Their assessment is that economy is in the gutter, with the September unemployment rate unchanged but likely to resume its worsening trend, the ISM index down with new orders from factories falling almo ... Read more