Here we go again. From late March 2020 till almost the end of last year, stock markets had been on an extraordinary tear. When the pandemic exploded, market plunged close to 30% in a matter of weeks. What the markets giveth, they taketh away.
Read moreWhy We Should Stop Freaking Out About Inflation
For the first time in decades, we are in the midst of a bona-fide inflation scare. Recent numbers came in at 6.2%, the highest since 1990. Much of the world is beset by high demand for goods that have created massive supply-chain bottlenecks, with not enough ships and capacity at ports leading to long delays and higher prices for almost everything.
Read moreIf We’re Serious About Saving the U.S. Economy, We Need to Bail Out the Cities
As the United States heads into its grim pandemic winter, Congress remains deadlocked on passing a new stimulus bill.
Read moreAs Congress Fails to Act, Only the Fed Can Save the Economy
With COVID-19 surging across the country, and state after state enacting new restrictions as individuals adjusting to a more widespread contagion, these programs could be needed in the coming months, just as Mnuchin is attempting to end them.
Read moreIf We Don't Move Fast, the Economy Is Going to Get Much Worse
Regardless of the electoral outcome, doing nothing until February 2021 after a new Congress and President are sworn in could well plunge the country back toward the depths of March when a major depression seemed upon us.
Read moreThe Ugly Partisan Truth Behind President Trump's Stimulus Roadblock
That fact alone would suggest the need for further government stimulus, but hope for that faded after the president announced that he was uninterested in further stimulus bill until after the election, though he then backtracked and suggested he was open to some action.
Read moreAmerica is a Tale of Fractured Economic Realities and That's Stopping Us From Fixing this Crisis
Given how much economic damage the pandemic continues to cause, it seems astonishing that Washington has been unable to muster any action since the spring.
Read moreLearning to Love Stagnation
Economic stagnation, in short, has had little impact on the Japanese public’s high quality of life. This realization has led to a wave of new thinking in Japan that emphasizes a “degrowth,” or post-growth, model and focuses on well-being rather than income or output.
Read moreThe Envestnet Edge, January 2016
The Envestnet Edge from January 2016
Read moreReality Has No Partisan Bias
In the wake of last week’s job report, there has been a flurry of new debate about what precisely is keeping job creation in the United States so anemic.The pivotal issue is whether the challenges facing the job market are cyclical or structural. The cyclical hypothesis is that we are still suffering an employment hangover from the financial crisis and sharp recession of 2008–09, made worse by limp or insufficient government responses.
Read moreStormy markets, smooth seas
It came and went like a summer thunderstorm, but unlike meteorological events that inflict actual harm, the sharp gyrations of financial markets exist in their own never-never land of self-fulfilling prophecies and conventional wisdom.
Read moreLatest Record Results Show Apple a Bigger Global Power Than Most Nations
Yet again, Apple announced record sales and earnings. Yet again, its “Jobs report” stood in stark contrast to the monthly official jobs report. For the past four years, as the U.S. economy has stumbled, Apple has soared. As millions have lost jobs or stayed underemployed, Apple has sold more phones, iPads, and computers than most thought possible. While its success certainly has come at the expense of competitors such as Research in Motion (maker of the BlackBerry) and Nokia, it has generated tens of billions in revenue and sold tens of millions of devices by reaching new customers and not simply taking market share. And it has seen its most dramatic success during one of the worst economic slumps in the developed world.
Read moreFlash Crash: Markets No Longer Reflect Economic Reality
Over the past 48 hours, global markets have lived a life cycle, from panic and fear through uncertainty and confusion, and then, finally, euphoria. The individuals and machines placing the trades have been along for the ride, and if you stepped away for lunch or coffee, you risked exiting the movie at a crucial plot point, asking distracted friends and colleagues, “What just happened?”
Read moreThings Are Bad Unless You’re Amazon, Starbucks or Expedia
Unemployment Report: Why Jobs Won’t Be Coming Back Soon
So yesterday’s monthly employment report, which showed a net gain of merely 18,000 jobs, once again confounded the expectations of economists—and sorely disappointed those in Washington by showing precious little job creation in the United States.
Read moreWE ARE NOT IN A GREAT DEPRESSION
It has now been firmly established—and endlessly repeated—that the world is mired in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In the past weeks alone, there have been headlines announcing the "worst industrial production numbers since World War II" and the greatest contraction of prices since the middle of last century.
Read morePolitical Expert View - Is the Stimulus Plan Big Enough to Succed?
Political trends expert Zachary Karabell assesses the impact of a new economic-stimulus package and whether it will be big enough to succeed.
Read moreThe Economic News Isn't All Bleak
The recent economic news has been dismal, and it's now almost universally assumed things will get worse before they get better. Conventional wisdom also dictates that this recession will be longer, deeper and cause more long-term pain than any financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Read moreTHE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
You've heard the story. On the heels of tumbling shares and dire warnings from the U.S. president, as well as business and government officials across the globe, the British prime minister says, "The world economy is facing its greatest risk in decades." To halt the slide, he calls for a global response to prevent the crisis from spiraling out of control.
Read moreWall Street Chaos Won't Tank Main Street
In the space of ten days, the U.S. government took over two mortgage-bond behemoths, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and assumed de facto control of one of the world's largest insurance companies, AIG. But is this worthy of all the panic?
Read more