The Debt Distraction
Senate bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That was the headline in the New York Times as the Senate debated Donald…
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Essays
Writing by John Tamny and Parkview contributors, from the latest commentary to the collected archive.
20 essays · Newest first
Clear filtersDonald Trump, Free Trader
Strategy and Tactics in the Global Trade War Strategy : A plan of action designed to achieve a long term or overall aim. Strategy guides the entire endeavor. Strategy generally won’t change unless…
Have Interest Rates Peaked?
Well Morgan Stanley sure seems to think so : The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield has peaked for 2018 as trade worries, weaker emerging markets and a strong dollar cap the prior move upward in…
The Rent, Gas & Groceries Are Too Damn High
A week ago, Rex Nutting had an article at MarketWatch entitled, "The only things going up in price are the bare necessities". The article was subtitled, "With wages flat, many workers are running to…
Bond Bears: You’re Worrying About The Wrong Thing
I see the headlines every day and I’m sure you do too: The Bear Market in Bonds Is Just Getting Started – Scott Dorf, Bloomberg Bond Bear Markets Exist (And May Be Right Around The Corner),…
Does Anyone In DC Know How To Make A Washing Machine?
The Trump administration is about to impose its third set of tariffs later this week, this time targeting steel and aluminum. The administration previously imposed tariffs on Canadian soft lumber,…
Chart Of The Week: Is It All About Oil?
Where would we be without the shale oil boom? The US economy has, since early in this century, become dangerously dependent on the energy industry. Core capital goods orders are now highly correlated…
Will Faster Growth Mean Lower Stock Returns?
Will Faster Growth Mean Lower Stock Returns? That might seem a ridiculous question but it isn't as easy to answer as one might think. A conventional analysis says the recent tax cuts will create…
Two Markets Diverge: TIPS, Gold & Growth
Gold has been highly correlated with real interest rates in the past. In particular the relationship between the 5 Year TIPS yield and gold has been very tight. This chart shows the 5 Year TIPS yield…
Politics & Your Portfolio: It’s Complicated
With the emergence of the Graham-Cassidy bill to repeal Obamacare, I've been getting questions about what it means for portfolios. Some have said that the bill is likely to pass and that its passage…
America Faces Critical "Colonel Jessup" Moment
Jessup : You want answers? Kaffee : I think I'm entitled to them. Jessup : You want answers? Kaffee : I want the truth! Jessup : You can't handle the truth! Scene from A Few Good Men , written by…
Optimism For Fiscal Reform Fading
There was a lot of hoopla last week about the stock market having doubled since the financial crisis low, but if the rally is to continue, it is critical that the political class ends the posturing…
Economic Malaise: A Failure of Policy, Not Rhetoric
There has been a lot of commentary recently about whether the Fed's latest round of quantitative easing will be effective in raising the growth rate of the US economy and therefore reducing the…
Punishing the Victims of the Financial Crisis
As the new Obama administration prepares to enact the mother of all “stimulus” packages, it seems that some still can’t get straight what caused the current worldwide recession. Outgoing Treasury…
How About a New Bretton Woods?
This weekend President Bush will host an economic summit of the G-20 nations. This summit has been compared to the conference at Bretton Woods, NH that convened in 1944 to rebuild the global…
In Times of Crisis, Trust Capitalism
The US government is executing a coup d’etat of capitalism and I fear that we will pay the price for many years to come. Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and a host of others tell us the credit market is…
The Choice: Capitalism or Regulation
Americans face the most important choice of a generation. Our economy is not performing as we would like. Inflation is too high yet home prices are falling. The credit markets are frozen as banks…
Fear and Loathing in the Markets
We were somewhere around 14,000 on the Dow when the delusions began to take hold. The economics babe was talking about how she hadn’t had so much fun since ‘99 and the bear visions had diminished to…
A Strong Dollar Will Reduce Oil Prices
In less than one month, oil prices have fallen nearly 22%. That drop happened during a period when our leaders in Washington accomplished exactly nothing of importance that could account for the…
I'm Mad, and I Guess I'll Stay Mad
In 1976, Howard Beale, a character in the movie Network , urged Americans to get up, go to their windows, open them and yell out, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” The…