There are times I want to grab some tea party folk by the neck and try and shake some sense in them. Many of them are, indeed, unreasonable and illogical. Advocating not raising the debt ceiling, forcing the government to cut about 40% of the budget in one year, may not be terrorism but they might as well support detonating an atom bomb in New York City considering the similar effect it would have on the economy....

Going Forward: More Fiscal Stimulus or Debt Reduction? by Steve Suranovic As we come out of the debt ceiling debate in the US Congress and face the prospect of a world economy that seems destined to remain in the doldrums for some time to come, the debate over what to do next is heating up. Should we ignore the budget deficit and debt issues and go all in for anther massive government spending program to kick...

Olle Johansson, Sweden This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

LONDON — The first week of August 2011 will be remembered as a singularly irrational, wasteful and shameful moment in the political and economic history of the United States. It reflected much of what is wrong with the priorities of our political elites and the obsessions of those who now hold effective veto power over our government. It began with the world hanging on to every development in the...

There is a wonderful spring-fed swimming pool a short drive from our mountain retreat that even during the dog days of summer is refreshingly cool. The regulars who congregate there include a half dozen folks in their seventies and eighties. Most are widows. The only guy is a retired Air Force fighter pilot and Vietnam veteran. The gals include two retired school teachers and a librarian. All are moderates,...

As the subject seems to have finally changed in Washington, It may be time again to consider the actual problem with the economy, jobs. Yeah, sure, some tell us government debt, size and regulation are the problem. Some say jerking the safety net out from under the poor and elderly is the problem. When we are quiet and sitting in our thinking chair however, we all know we have a jobs problem. Yep, contrary to...

The event: massive riots in London. Those who did the damage: thugs. The reason: some think its the increasingly bleak financial outlook. Reuters reports: London picked itself up on Sunday from some of the worst violence seen in the British capital for years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over rising financial hardship. Rioters throwing...

They just threw America’s credit rating off Boston harbor. The privately owned profit-making agency that fueled the economic crisis of 2008 by ranking Wall Street collections of junk-mortgages AAA has downgraded obligations of the United States to AA+, after a half-day delay to consider a Treasury Department notification of a $2 trillion error in their math. In the world we live in, this move will shake...

Business Week has an intriguing article on how many of our current problems stem from the 1971 Gold Shock (which in turn stems from Bretton Woods) I’ve long been arguing that it is wrong to blame our current woes on any one party or President because global economics is a decades long process. This article examines how BW contributes to the current mess in Europe which in turn contributes to our own messes.

The New Era of Hostage Politics by Michael Winship When I arrived in Washington this past Sunday, just as the debt ceiling crisis was approaching its climax, all the flags surrounding the capital’s Union Station stood at half-mast. I blackly joked with my brother and sister-in-law that maybe they’d been lowered to mark the death of the New Deal. (In fact, they honored the recent passing of former...

How badly does the United States want to maintain the value of the dollar? According to columnist Nazanin Amirian of Publico, what has been behind most recent U.S. wars is not human rights or weapons of mass destruction, but the imperative of beating back all challengers to the dominance of the greenback as the world’s currency. For Publico, Nazanin Amirian writes in part: When Bush invaded Iraq in...

What message should the United States government take away from the first credit rating downgrade in its entire history? According to this bluntly-worded editorial from Xinhua, the state news agency of America’s largest creditor, the U.S must break its ‘addiction’ to borrowed money, the political ‘wrangling’ in Washington must end, and China’s dollar denominated assets must be protected. The...

The American economist, Kenneth Rogoff, suggested this week that we stop referring to our present economic woes as The Great Recession, and instead label the present situation The Second Great Contraction. The first Great Contraction occurred in the 1930′s. The same thing is happening again. The problem with our present terminology, Rogoff writes, is that it assumes that our present situation is just...

The Great Concessionair by Will Durst Sorry if you settled into your recliner ready to enjoy the blessed silence destined to descend on the political playing field in the aftermath of the Debt Ceiling Death Match. Lasted as long as the life cycle of an adult mayfly. That momentary, blissful peace was rudely broken by a cacophony of squeaks and grunts and shouts as each camp tried to out-blame the other for...

China has now served notice on the United States: the “good old days” of borrowing are over: China bluntly criticized the United States on Saturday one day after the superpower’s credit rating was downgraded, saying the “good old days” of borrowing were over. Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S. long-term credit rating from top-tier AAA by a notch to AA-plus on Friday over...

In an interesting mailing I just received from a political group—Democratic, I believe—I find some points that I think merit some discussion by the experts among you. (I was going to say “among us,” but I will readily admit I am not one when it comes to economic issues.) So, let me just “throw it out there,” after deleting or modifying some of the more partisan words and claims. First,...

Update1: Twitter response: #StandardandPoorsThroughoutHistory Update2: Who owns Standard and Poors? McGraw-Hill. Who runs McGraw-Hill? See the Board of Directors, courtesy TheyRule.net, tip @dartdog Th Apr 13, 2011: Moody’s, S&P Caved In to Ratings Pressure From Goldman, UBS Over Mortgages – Bloomberg Fri Apr 14, 2011: Moody’s, S&P Triggered Financial Crisis, Congressional Report Finds...

Paul Zanetti, Australia This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

As Joe G has alread reported Standards & Poors has officially downgraded the US Treasury bond rating from AAA to AA+. However reports are coming out of Washington that this action may be based upon math errors. Being interviewed on MSNBC Congressman Barney Frank has pointed out that S&P was among the worst agencies in miscalculating the value of junk bonds during the time leading up to the financial...

Just what many feared happen has now happened: Standard & Poors has just downgraded the United States once-stellar debt credit rating: Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday downgraded the credit rating of the United States, stripping the world’s largest economy of its prized AAA status. In July, S&P placed the United States’ rating on “CreditWatch with negative...

Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

There has been a lot—perhaps too much—written about the debt reduction bill, its potential impact and its implications—long on rhetoric, but short on facts and details. If you are as confused as I am, you may want to read the following concise and straightforward summary I just received from the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). It is preceded by: The agreement, signed by the...

Republicans Should Be Embarrassed by Debt Increase Vote by Floyd and Mary Beth Brown Washington is obsessed by picking winners and losers. But the establishment media has the story all wrong again. The Republicans, they say won this skirmish over debt. But actually Republicans displayed a total lack of commitment to their principles. The only winner in the “Budget Control Act of 2011″ is massive...

Amid a widespread fear that the July jobs report would be yet another tidbit of bad news, there is finally a (brief…small) bit of good news: the July jobs report is better than anyone expected: The job market strengthened in July, a welcome piece of good news that sharply contrasted other recent readings pointing toward an economic slowdown. Employers added 117,000 jobs last month, well above the 46,000...

Decades ago, when I worked for one of America’s richest men, Norton Simon, he told me, “I stay out of the stock market. You could spend every hour trying to figure out what they’re thinking and still be wrong half the time.” That advice comes to mind as stocks continue to dive in the days after a “conservative victory” in the debt-ceiling fight that should have cheered up markets by avoiding a default,...