Charts and tables don’t always tell you important things about the economy. But sometimes they do. And the other day I ran across three tables suggesting where our national country might be heading—and indeed should be heading. These tables showed on a state-by-state basis delinquency rates on auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards during the first quarter of this year. On all three tables North and South Dakota had the lowest rates of delinquency. It must be emphasized here that these...

I’m not a big fan of the cap and trade approach to limiting climate change just passed by the House of Representatives. I much prefer the old tried and true cap and enforce approach, employed in every successful environmental effort since the 1960s. While there’s disagreement today about whether cap and trade or cap and enforce is the best way to go when it comes to addressing man-made changes in the climate, however, there’s no disagreement when it comes to the primary criticism...

There’s definitely good news here in Glimmerland. Like the U.S. economy, which according to many recent reports from government and private analysts is stabilizing, personal finances in this country also appear to be nearing a bottom. You may have lost your job. But if you can’t find another one, that simply means your job prospects haven’t gotten worse. They have bottomed out. Stabilized. Lost your home to foreclosure? There’s now an amazing opportunity to move into a FEMA...

The Pennsylvania legislature is now debating whether or not to legalize gay marriage. One hears the usual, the predictable arguments from both sides in this debate. But the other day I heard one argument from people opposing the right of gays to marry that had never occurred to me—the possibility that if we allow this to go forward in Pennsylvania it would put us on a slippery slope that could lead to legalizing inter-species marriage. I like to think of myself as a pretty liberal guy when it comes...

The Dow dropped 3 percent last week. Today it is also sinking on reports from the World Bank and others that a supposed recovery later this year may be delayed for quite awhile longer. Could this be the end of the bull run that began in March and has featured the biggest percentage market jump in more than 70 years? One sure sign that this may be the case is a story on today’s Bloomberg website that tells of “insiders” (CEOs of large publicly traded companies) bailing out of their...

I was reading an article about health care reform when my train pulled into the station. The platform was crowded. I looked around. It took just one quick glance to see the major missing piece in today’s great health care debate. The people on the platform, a mix of young and old, black and white, richly dressed and otherwise, a perfectly random sampling of urban Americans, didn’t look all that healthy. One teenager appeared to be about five feet six inches tall and nearly as wide. And...

For years the world has been distressed and not infrequently appalled by the behavior of Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Everyone has always known, of course, that he wasn’t the real power in Iran, that he didn’t call the shots on really big issues. This was the prerogative of the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. There was nonetheless a commonly held notion, or perhaps a commonly held hope, that the President and the Supreme Leader weren’t in...

I find myself continually writing dour things about the U.S. economy. I can’t help it. I want to see green shoots and glimmers. I want things to be stabilizing. I hanker for the return of growth and other good economic tidings sometime later this year. I want to be happy and upbeat like Ben and Timmy, the gang on Wall Street, and those analysts who are endlessly surprised and delighted when their economic expectations are surpassed—which these days is almost always. My problem is that I’m...

I was watching the evening news last night and they had a story about credit cards. It seems a lot of people are no longer able to service them. In response, in hopes of getting at least something back on their bad loans, card issuing banks now often cut deals for a lot less than outstanding balances. This is not a very surprising phenomenon, given the way the economy has tanked. Banks made an enormous number of foolish credit card loans because they thought they had gamed the court and legislative...

Maybe you’ve been wondering. Where has all the money gone? With governments around the world, led by our own, pumping literally trillions and trillions of dollars into addressing the economic crisis, why hasn’t this money dribbled down to you and me and most everyone else we know? One reason, of course, is that the banks have scooped it up. Money given to these institutions in hopes they would turn around and lend it to businesses and consumers has been kept in house instead. They receive...

Today’s Great Recession, now into its 19th month, is certainly not as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s—at least not yet. But as happy talk about glimmers and green shoots has gradually been morphing into suggestions that the recession will likely end sometime this summer, and that a recovery will begin then, it’s worth wondering what kind of economy might emerge during this “recovery”. Some hints in this regard might be found by looking to the 1930s. —Depending...

Will Pfizer prevent social revolution in this country? This question came to mind on a recent day when two seemingly unrelated events occurred. I finished reading a book about the decline of the Roman Empire. And a drug company announced an unusual giveaway plan. With regard to Rome. You think Bush and Cheney were bad? Think Nero and Caligula (the latter a nickname, by the way, that roughly translates as bootsie or half-boots…but I digress). Now that was bad governance! Throw in lead water...

As I’ve been hearing about the doctor who was recently murdered for performing later term abortions, I realized for hundredth time how cleverly the self-proclaimed “Pro-Life” people have outwitted the Pro-Choice people when it comes to using language to advance their cause. Dr. Tiller was referred to over and over again on the news as an “abortion doctor.” He wasn’t. He was a gynecologist, one of whose services (a relatively minor one) was to perform abortions....

On the shores of the Potomac By this river’s murky waters Policy is shaped and crafted Opposition views ignored. In the chambers of the mighty Where once issues were debated When the deficit is mentioned Legislators just look bored. Will such policies so ditzy Be allowed to last forever Will our Asian banker lenders And the markets turn blind eyes To a spending binge so flagrant Only Beltway types will marvel When these lenders pull the debt plug And the fun time ups and dies. http://www.wallstreetpoet.com...

On Friday a report from the government found the U.S. economy had shrunk 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009. GM, once this country’s largest company, will go into bankruptcy on Monday, according to another report. More than 12 percent of U.S. homes are at least one month behind on mortgage payments or actually foreclosed, said yet another report, the worst showing since offical records started being kept in the 1970s. The Dow nonetheless rose another 96 points on Friday. Why? In part...

I think present optimism about an improving economy is far, far too optimistic. But that’s me. Let’s look at what the experts have to say, the ones in Washington and on Wall Street. Experts who seem strangely in tune about a lot of things these days when it comes to prospects for better times. None of these experts is saying things are actually improving in the overall economy, merely that the “fall off the cliff” episode has ended and “things are stabilizing.”...

Politically speaking, environmentalism has been part of a laundry list of good causes since the 1960s. If you thought protecting nature was an important priority, it has long been assumed you also support higher minimum wages, gender parity, lifting up oppressed minorities, and kindred causes. But as the reality of a new environmental economics takes hold, such a moral and ego-gratifying synergism faces increasing intellectual challenges. Yes, greening is certainly a more evolved form of economic...

Sure, the marketplace is swayed a great deal by psychology. And all the recent golly talk about recovery, green shoots, glimmers, turnarounds, no longer falling off a cliff, et. al. have made many people a bit more optimistic, while turning some investors positively glassy-eyed and slack jawed with glee. But when push comes to shove, there’s only one that that brings an economy alive: Spending. Seventy percent of spending in our economy comes from individuals, 30 percent from businesses, mostly...

What’s the most immediate Middle East worry? With Israel’s new right-wing PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, now in Washington, some people might think it’s that country’s intransigence over peace talks with the Palestinians. No. That’s a problem that will drag along for some time to come. With the growing concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, some people might think this issue will come to the fore very soon. No. This one will also likely be percolating for months to come. And...

Talk about a party that’s out of touch with the times! This morning on Public Radio I heard a blip from Charles Boustany, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, giving his party’s view on health care policies. And his big pitch was that any new legislation must keep health care decisions in the hands of patients and their doctors, and out of the hands of “government bureaucrats.” Forgetting for the moment that all too many health care decisions today are actually made by...