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
Over the past 40-some years the U.S. economy has become largely service based. At more than $40 trillion in debt with about $1T added every 100 days, it's instructive to look back on how many earlier financial warnings we ignored.