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 […]

By Robert Romano Pulling a modern day Marie “Let Them Eat Cake” Antoinette, Brown University professor Mark Blyth and hedge fund manager Eric Lonergan boldly propose to do what no central bank has done before: Just print money and give it to people. Seriously. You can’t make […]

By Tom Toth Tesla Motors, the American car maker created in 2003 by “engineers who set out to prove that electric vehicles could be awesome,” has been banned from opening stores in Michigan to advertise and sell its vehicles. The “anti-Tesla” bill prevents auto makers like Tesla, […]

By Robert Romano You’ve heard it a bazillion times. The end of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve — since August 2007 it has added $3.6 trillion to its balance sheet — will mean interest rates have to rise. Because, well, they have to. At first, there […]

By Robert Romano “When former Fed chief Ben Bernanke has trouble refinancing his mortgage , you know there’s a problem.” That was Bloomberg View’s Barry Ritholtz on October 17, commenting on the supposed shortage of mortgage credit in the current U.S. housing market. “Banks have avoided making loans to many […]

By Robert Romano CNS News’ Terence P. Jeffrey reports that the 89.2 million full-time private sector employees’ share of the $17.86 trillion national debt hit $200,258.81. That’s interesting, but Congress has no intention of ever balancing the budget. Plus, with the auto spending we’ll once again be adding $1 trillion to the debt by decade’s end as the retirement wave hits full […]

By Robert Romano “A quarter of Italian industry has disappeared. Our currency is overvalued and there is nothing we can do about it within the euro.” That was Five Star movement co-founder Gianroberto Casaleggio in an exclusive interview with the UK Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard , describing the incompatibility of Italian membership in the Eurozone. The tepid austerity […]