By Robert Romano On March 14, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a press release stating its intent to “transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community” from its current contractor, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The plan is to “transition the current role played by NTIA in the coordination of the Internet’s […]

By Nathan Mehrens As originally published at the Salt Lake Tribune. Main Street retailers have faced tough competition from online competitors and federal government rules have worked against them. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz is leading an effort in the U.S. House of Representatives to find a way to restore state control over sales […]

By Robert Romano Since 2007, the amount of credit outstanding, that is all debts public and private, has increased a whopping $30 trillion to $100 trillion in mid-2013, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Half of that increase has occurred in China alone, with an increase […]

By James Hall Debt is everywhere but it just does not seem to matter. Thanks to the folks at Zero Hedge, you get the account “Global Debt Crosses $100 Trillion, Rises By $30 Trillion Since 2007; $27 Trillion Is ‘Foreign-Held’” – “Total global debt has exploded by 40 percent in just 6 short years from  2007 to 2013, from “only” […]

By Robert Romano Senate Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee have agreed in principle on a plan to unwind the nearly $5 trillion Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) and to, they say, “create a mortgage insurance fund for the system to protect taxpayers against future bailouts.” Under the proposal, S. 1217 , supported by the Obama administration, lending institutions will be […]

By Robert Romano Global debt outstanding, that is, all debts public and private, reached $100 trillion in mid-2013, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) quarterly review revealed . Credit outstanding has grown by more than $30 trillion since the financial crisis began in 2007. When compared to data compiled by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. share […]

By Rick Manning Apple CEO Tim Cook blew a gasket at a shareholder meeting when someone had the audacity to ask him a pretty basic question about whether he would commit only to projects that are explicitly profitable. His answer should be an instructive warning sign to […]

By Rick Manning The 2014 Farm Bill has finally been put to bed.  One of the most contentious pieces of legislation that faces Congress every five years, the headline from this latest round in the fight against agriculture subsidies is more of the same. Millions of dollars […]

By Rick Manning As originally published at TheHill.com. If President Obama has his way on increasing the nation’s minimum wage, 500,000 Americans will see their wages cut to zero, their jobs eliminated by this feel-good government mandate, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s just another half million people’s hopes and dreams […]

By Robert Romano The precipitous drop in the nation’s labor participation rate has fueled a debate amongst economic prognosticators about what it means for America’s economy.  Some, like the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s Shigeru Fujita , say the rate is declining naturally due to our nation’s population aging and Baby Boomers hitting retirement age. Others, […]