Liberal Talk Radio

And it’s helpful to remember that, you know, our entire freakin’ economy is based on trucking: Ricardo Caraballo was having a familiar American experience at the filling station the other day, groaning as the pump clicked up, up, up. By the time he finished it read $505, and his tank was only half full. A [...]

Thank you Dominic Holden for pointing out what should be obvious: if housing prices are up month-to-month, but down year-over-year, they probably haven’t gone up. Housing prices are cyclical. There are months that people tend to buy and sell houses and monts that they don’t. Spring-summer is a particularly busy time. Thus, “Housing market perking [...]

Yes, it’s bad. Seattle’s even worse. All of this was predicted months ago by the Professor on our podcast. That is all.

On this week’s podcast, we talked about how inflation and a general increase in the cost of basic necessities — fuel, health care, etc. — are conspiring to prevent most Americans from seeing any real wage increases. Well, it looks like we can now add food costs to the list: While had Campbell reported a [...]

James Fallows’ piece in the Atlantic — about the Chinese government’s efforts to keep its economy out of control by a really strict policy of buying dollars — is really good. A teaser: The dollar’s value has been high for many years—unnaturally high, in large part because of the implicit bargain with the Chinese. Living [...]

He’s making sense: “One of the concerns that I have is that we’ll probably end up borrowing this $150 billion from the Chinese,” he said. “And when we get those rebate checks, most people are going to go out and buy stuff that’s been imported from China. I have to wonder whose economy is going [...]

If you’re someone who studied economics [like me!], then chances are, you’ve probably taken at least a class or two about the monetary crises of the ’70s. For the rest of you … did you know? Richard Nixon was responsible for the first major inflationary event of the ’70s? ‘Tis true. He took us off [...]

At this point, nearly 7 full years into the Bush regime, there’s hardly a malediction I can hurl in Monkey Boy’s direction that hasn’t been spoken before.  And yet somehow I’m still amazed at the idiocy of both Bush and the toadies with which he’s managed to surround himself. Faced with the prospect of stagflation [...]

Heading to Europe for a business trip in a few days. Thankfully, most of it will be on an expense account: The 13-nation euro hit a fresh record against the dollar — rising to $1.4729 — before falling back. The dollar lost ground following word that a senior Chinese political figure said China should spread [...]

Another crazy week on Wall Street as Bernanke decides a little inflation is a small price to pay for keeping his banker buddies in reach of their seven figure bonuses. It’s too bad Congress can’t get its collective head out of its collective dupa long enough to actually consider policy anymore, or this guy would [...]