By Robert Romano — At $16.1 trillion , the U.S. debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio now stands at about 103 percent, an alarming figure reflecting that the national debt is now larger than the entire economy. Yet the interest rate on ten-year treasuries is just 1.7 percent as of this writing . Across the Pacific, Japan has an even higher debt-to-GDP ratio of 208 […]

Today’s unemployment report met the political threshold set by Obama of being below 8 percent. To reach this threshold, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics found that an astounding 873,000 people found full-time jobs last month.  This finding contradicts virtually every other economic indicator […]

By Bill Wilson — In this recession, the economy has lost a net 3.4 million jobs from its 2008 peak that have not yet been recovered. Meanwhile the working age population has grown by more than 11.1 million since then — creating a 13.5 million and widening […]

By Bill Wilson — Woe unto the next president, whoever he may be. Managing director and co-founder of the world’s largest bond trader Pimco, Bill Gross, has released a shocking warning to the U.S. that promised entitlements to citizens may not be worth the paper they’re printed on. He called the U.S. “an addict whose habit extends beyond weed or cocaine and who frequently pleasures […]

By Robert Romano –Here’s a new one. Speaking at the Economic Club of Indiana in Indianapolis on Oct. 1 , Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke claimed that quantitative easing and lower interest rates actually help savers. How? Well, certainly not by offering any tangible return on actual savings. Said Bernanke, “My colleagues and I know that people who rely […]

By Bill Wilson — One almost feels bad for Paul Krugman, who in recent days appears like the brilliant student in class who spots meaningful relationships between different sets of data, but then fails to fully apply the concepts. Of late, the New York Times columnist and […]

By Bill Wilson — This significant, .4 percent final revision of the 2ndquarter Gross Domestic Product measurement calls into question whether we are seeing more data manipulation by this Administration.  Going into the political conventions in August, this same Commerce Department produced a picture of a slightly […]

By Bill Wilson — Is competitive currency debasement by central banks causing a global economic contraction? According to data published by the International Monetary Fund , exports worldwide are down in 2012 by an annualized rate of 1.8 percent, led by a 2.6 decrease in emerging and developing economies. Put another way, worldwide exports in 2011 […]

NRD Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared at Forbes.com . By Howard Rich — “I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy, but that could change.” This quotation – routinely misattributed to “internet inventor” Al Gore – was actually provided to The […]

By Bill Wilson — As CNBC host Larry Kudlow is fond of pointing out, the Federal Reserve cannot print jobs. And based on the past performance of its prior $2 trillion of quantitative easing (QE), it is hard to imagine just how another $480 billion a year […]