By Robert Romano At the height of the Great Recession, by December 2009, 8.4 million jobs were lost. It has taken six years to recover to the 146.4 million January 2008 pre-downturn jobs level. Today, 146.6 million people have jobs, according to data compiled by the Bureau […]

By Robert Romano It was 1932 all over again. The economy had collapsed right before the 2008 election, and, as a result, Democrats swept to commanding majorities in the House and Senate, and claimed the White House from an unpopular incumbent Republican. It had all the makings […]

By Rick Manning Urge Congress to end sugar subsidies the right way! Federal government sugar support or subsidies have been part of our national policy since the First Congress of the United States in 1789 legislated a foreign sugar tariff to help fund the fledgling government . Sugar subsidies, supports or tariffs have existed virtually non-stop throughout our nation’s history since this initial act of Congress.  From the last half of the 20th Century to today, […]

By Robert Romano Baby Boomers led the march out of the civilian labor force in the past year, data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Those not in the labor force increased by 1.9 million from 90.6 million to 92.5 million since September 2013 using non-seasonally adjusted numbers. 70.5 percent of them, 1.3 million, were […]

By Robert Romano One of mainstays in the postwar economy, and in particular, the post-gold standard economy after 1971 has been the dollar’s unchallenged status as the world’s reserve currency. It has been called the exorbitant privilege . At the time, as the story goes, to help resolve to the 1973 oil shock, Richard Nixon convinced Saudi Arabia to only accept dollars for payment of oil in return for protecting […]

By Robert Romano “This is what happens when prices go up, it’s elementary.” That was Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” explaining how if home prices rise too fast, it can have an adverse impact on home sales as they become increasingly unaffordable. And then, it eventually impacts on home […]

By Robert Romano Pimco CEO Bill Gross has left the company he founded, the largest bond fund in the world with over $2 trillion in assets under management, and that has everyone wondering what’s next for interest rates. Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle has an interesting pieced entitled , “Gross gets out of bonds just in time,” […]

By Robert Romano The Federal Reserve’s tapering of quantitative easing continues, dropping from $25 billion a month of securities to $15 billion, according to the central bank’s latest statement . Since August 2007 when the financial crisis began, the Fed has dramatically expanded its balance sheet by $3.5 trillion, from $907.5 billion to $4.493 trillion . Today’s total […]

By Robert Romano “I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing.” That was then-Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) in […]

By Robert Romano Household debt has outpaced household median income for almost 40 years, and we’re paying the price, the latest figures from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Census show. While median income for households grew by $929 to $51,939 in 2013, the amount of debt per household remained elevated at $106,921. […]