New Year's Day 2015 marked the 20th anniversary of NAFTA's implementation. The North American Free Trade Agreement became infamous when independent presidential candidate Ross Perot remarked in 1992 that the passage of NAFTA would create a "giant sucking sound" of American jobs lost to Canada and Mexico. NAFTA, however, is hardly in history's rear-view mirror. It …
Continue reading Fast Track Push for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implies it’s a Raw Deal
For all the talk of Wall Street reform and consumer protections the problem of predatory lending has not been eliminated. Subprime lending continues in the auto financing industry and elsewhere, and unlike conservatives' criticism of the housing market there are no federal subsidies to finger. Policymakers have, indeed, caused the problem but for reasons other …
Continue reading The Bubble Economy and the Rationality of Irrationality: Recapitalizing Virtue
The rhyme and the reason behind the lingering Great Recession spelled out 13 years beforehand by a billionaire who also correctly predicted the 1987 stock market crash. The housing bubble predicted six years before it burst by a prescient law school professor and Obama Administration financial reform advisor…