By Rick Manning — “The monthly unemployment rate has become a meaningless statistic that no longer reflects the reality of America’s economy or even the state of our nation’s employment.  Shockingly, the stated rate of 8.3 percent does not include the  4.4 million Americans who have dropped […]

By Bill Wilson — Is the European debt crisis over? Since the latest €130 billion bailout of Greece was agreed to on Feb. 21, rates on Italian and Spanish debt have seemingly stabilized, dropping from 5.44 percent and 5.11 percent respectively to 4.8 percent and 5.05 percent. Granted, yields on […]

By Bill Wilson — At more than $49,000 per person using the most recent data from the U.S. Treasury and Census , we have a higher debt per capita than any of the PIIGS nations. Elected officials and other central planners attempt to comfort themselves with the false notion that the debt never needs to be repaid . That this […]

By Bill Wilson — As part of the resolution to the 1973 oil shock, the petrodollar was born when Richard Nixon convinced Saudi Arabia to only accept dollars for payment of oil in return for protecting their oil fields and a guaranteed return on investments in U.S. […]

By Bill Wilson — Obama thinks the current run up in gas prices is a good sign, evidence that the economy is improving. Except, in 2011, the global economy slowed down while oil and gas prices were rising along with a broad range of other commodities including […]

By Bill Wilson — In high-brow business seminars as well as casual conversations and in every form of discourse in between, there is a strong sense of foreboding; a nagging sensation that something is fundamentally wrong. There is, of course, no end to the partisan and ideological […]

By Bill Wilson — Once again, the Obama Administration is proposing to borrow another $1.3 trillion to pay for unsustainable increases in government spending , which under the budget will not be cut on a net basis any year over the next decade. There are no real reforms proposed to prevent entitlement programs from dragging the Treasury into the Abyss of insolvency. Meanwhile, he […]

By Bill Wilson — How is it that a hard Greek default — a tiny country that comprises less than two percent of Europe’s Gross Domestic Product — poses such a systemic risk to the European and, indeed, the global financial system? The American Enterprise Institute’s Alex Pollock has the answer , citing a little-understood danger created by the weakening of capital requirements after the financial crisis by the Bank […]

By Bill Wilson — Once again, the civilian labor force participation rate has declined, from 64 percent to 63.7 percent in a single month. Since January 2009, it has declined from 65.7 percent, resulting in approximately 4.7 million people no longer being counted towards the unemployment rate. […]

By Bill Wilson — Today’s announcement by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that approximately 240,000 jobs were created by the engine of the U.S. economy, America’s private sector businesses and entrepreneurs.  These job creators are moving forward because they trust that the Republican led House of Representatives […]