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By Robert Romano “Except in the short run, real interest rates are determined by a wide range of economic factors, including prospects for economic growth — not by the Fed.” That was former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, very much downplaying the extent to which the nation’s central bank “controls” interest rates in his inaugural blog post for the Brookings Institution. […]

By Rick Manning What does the dismal unemployment report for March mean for the American economy? Are there reasons to be concerned that the optimism in the general media that the economy was finally picking up steam was misplaced? What do other economic reports say? Make no […]

By Robert Romano Does the national debt, now at $18.15 trillion, ever need to repaid? It seems an important question since, as far as the record is concerned, it has increased every single year since 1957 — more than 50 years ago. Except for brief periods in the 1950s, the 1920s, […]

By Robert Romano Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer let the cat out of the bag on March 23 when he told the Economic Club of New York that raising the federal funds interest rate from its near-zero levels “likely will be warranted before the end of the year.” Fischer’s comments were immediately followed by St. Louis […]

By Robert Romano You’re a slacker! That is Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore’s apparent take on young people failing to enter the workforce — reminiscent of the depiction of Principal Strickland in Back to the Future — writing an op-ed in The Washington Times, “Young Americans opting out of workforce.” In it, Moore […]

By Robert Romano Much has been made of the Federal Reserve dropping its “patient” stance against raising the Federal Funds Rate from its near-zero rate where it has stood since late 2008. Previously, the nation’s central bank had promised as recently as January 28 that “it can be patient in beginning to normalize the stance […]

By Robert Romano In December,  the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued controversial new regulations on union representation elections , significantly reducing the period between the filing of a petition and a union election occurring. Through shortened election periods, the agency is limiting the time an employer has to communicate with his or her employees about the implications of unionizing the […]

By Rick Manning “The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [CORPORATE OWNERS] ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the […]

By Robert Romano In February, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Whoop-dee-doo. But how many people are really finding work in this economy? Since January 2007 , before the recession began, the population of those aged 25 to 64 has increased by 7.8 million. But only 633,000 of […]