By Robert Romano The Senate Budget Committee Republicans tweeted out an interesting piece from the New York Times’ Claire Cain Miller , which in part notes a dramatic drop in labor force participation in the U.S. economy. It quoted a key portion of the piece : “More than 16 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 54 are not working, up from 5 percent […]

  By Robert Romano So far, the story that has been written on the dramatic drop in the price of oil has been that of an increase of supply. This part is true, based on data compiled by the Energy Information Agency. Worldwide production of oil is in fact up year over year as of August , from 89.9 million barrels […]

By Rick Manning The free market miracle that is U.S. domestic energy production keeps going as domestic oil production, particularly that generated by hydraulic fracturing shale, has produced a massive economic stimulus. How much stimulus?  CNN/Money quotes Stephen Stanley, Chief Economist Amherst Pierpont as pinpointing it at $1 billion […]

By Robert Romano Bank bailouts. It is one of those issues where the left meets the right. Something so universally despised from the tea party to Occupy that for a politician to come within ten feet of the issue might be to eventually risk a primary challenge. […]

By Robert Romano A picture is worth a thousand words. “Walmart: Now hiring, $17 per hour.” No, that is not Photoshopped. It is an actual help wanted sign from Williston, N.D. The story is the shale oil boom taking place there that has resulted in an explosion […]

By Robert Romano The saying “so goes retail” should be ringing in everyone’s ears as we head into the Christmas shopping season, kicking off with so-called Black Friday on November 28 — the day retailers supposedly go “in the black” after being “in the red” all year […]

By Robert Romano Adjusted for inflation, the U.S. economy has not grown above 3 percent since 2005. That’s a near nine-year losing streak, marked by a financial crisis, record deficits, quantitative easing, and ultra-low interest rates. As a result, we have seen three wave elections in as […]

By Robert Romano Six years after the financial crisis, the economy is still a top concern for the American people. In a September 25-30 Gallup survey , 86 percent of Democrats and 91 percent of Republicans said the economy was their top issue. 89 percent of Democrats and 83 percent of Republicans said […]

By Robert Romano “[T]he Committee decided to conclude its asset purchase program this month. The Committee is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at […]

By Robert Romano Consider the following factors. North American oil production is experiencing a boom , largely driven by the shale oil miracle. China is slowing down, including its demand for oil. Europe is still in the thick of a major recession. Overall, oil consumption in the OECD is down this year . As a result, the trade deficit should begin going down, meaning less dollars exported […]