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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 […]

By Robert Romano “We do not get to add 16 years of deficits and then add that to one year of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is what is being done there. If we close the trade deficit then ceteris paribus … we might be able to […]

By Robert Romano A piece on currency manipulation by this author, “China and the world’s trade war against the U.S. — and why we’re losing” apparently warranted a response from the popular economics blog, Cafe Hayek, “An Open Letter to Robert Romano,” by George Mason University Economics Professor Donald Boudreaux. It is quite an honor, actually. Professor Boudreaux is world-renowned in his field, and usually one has […]

By Robert Romano The U.S. has been in a trade war with the rest of the world for years. We just have not been fighting back. Foreign investors and governments currently hold about $6.2 trillion of U.S. treasuries , $872 billion of so-called agency debt (mostly Fannie and Freddie mortgage securities), $3.2 trillion of corporate debt and $6.2 trillion of corporate stocks in Dec. 2015, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Treasury. […]

By Robert Romano Since 2000 labor force participation in the U.S. — that is, the percent of people working or looking for work — which has been dropping almost every single year, from an unadjusted average annual 67.07 percent in 2000 to 62.65 percent in 2015. The […]