By Don Todd Fast Food Forward, an advocacy organization, makes an eloquent emotional plea for the wellbeing of restaurant workers: “In America, people who work hard should be able to afford basic necessities like groceries, rent, childcare and transportation.”  Who can argue with that? Similarly The Fight for Fifteen organization comes up with this argument, “ We Work, We Sweat, Put $15 on Our Check !” How […]

By Robert Romano “While I would not completely rule out the use of negative interest rates in some future very adverse scenario, policymakers would need to consider a wide range of issues before employing this tool in the United States, including the potential for unintended consequences.” That was Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen in a letter to […]

By Robert Romano “[W]e are not going to get back to 3 percent [growth] with anything we know how to do now.” That was former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf, ominously warning that the 15-year slowdown of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — wherein the […]

By Robert Romano Global trade is collapsing. In March, the U.S. trade deficit took a big hit, dropping 13.8 percent amid an $8 billion contraction in imports and a $2 billion shrinking of exports, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau . That’s usually not a good sign, U.S. Commerce Department data shows. Narrowing […]

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By Robert Romano First quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is in, and well, the U.S. economy still stinks, growing at a paltry, inflation-adjusted rate of just 0.5 percent annualized . Unsurprisingly, the lack of growth falls well below the already dreary Federal Reserve expectations for 2016, which is projected in December 2.4 percent for the year. Which still […]

By Robert Romano Lewis Lehrman and John Mueller had a very interesting oped on exporters that use currency devaluation to boost exports, “Monetary reform or trade war,” and how Congress might deal with it in the future — without resorting to tariffs. In it, Lehrman and Mueller call for G-20 economies including […]

By Robert Romano The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) still cannot come to terms with cutting oil production at its latest meeting Doha, Qatar over the weekend. This, despite months-long low demand for crude oil amid a weakening global economy that has led to a dramatic correction in oil prices — dropping more than […]

By Robert Romano Voters in the UK may be ready to leave the European Union (EU), a new poll conducted by ICM from April 8 through April 10 finds , with 45 percent favoring what has been dubbed a “Brexit.” So, naturally, days later the Bank of England has issued a fresh warning that such a move by Britain would […]

By Robert Romano In the 2000s, a common complaint against China was its weak peg against the dollar and its accumulation of foreign exchange reserves including dollar-denominated assets, which devalued the yuan against the dollar, cheapening the prices of its exports to the U.S. while increasing the […]