Category: Business Columnists

A Recession of the Human Spirit

July 27, 2022
AnalysisBusiness & MarketsBusiness Columnistsinflationlabor force participationlockdownsOpinionrecessionstagflationU.S. economyunemployment rate
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Commentary As predicted, the Biden administration has spent the better part of the week explaining that tomorrow’s GDP report on the 2nd quarter, even if it is negative, does not mean we are in a recession. In his ham-handed way, Biden made it very plain: “We’re not going to be in a recession.” These days,…

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The Small Print That Destroyed America

July 26, 2022
AnalysisAnthony FauciBusiness & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsCDCcoronavirusCOVIDCOVID-19Deborah BirxDonald TrumplockdownsmandatesOpinion
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Commentary In a maddening interview yesterday, Anthony Fauci performed his usual song and dance when faced with even the most mild questioning. He stonewalled in his trademarked way. He spoke in long, drawn-out sentences, emphasizing the word consonants, punctuated by pauses and silences that convey the sense of precision without the reality. He strung together…

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Heat Waves: The Hidden Cost of Heat

July 26, 2022
Business & MarketsBusiness ColumnistseconomyheatinflationOpinionrecessionViewpoints
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Commentary  It is the middle of summer, and the weather has been unavoidably hot across the globe and the free world. Here in Atlanta, where I am based, the summer heat is impossible to escape. Apart from certain mountain communities in the southern Appalachians, Atlanta is completely surrounded by similar geography and heat indexes. It…

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How to Make Money

July 26, 2022
Business & MarketsBusiness ColumnistseconomyMarketsmoneyOpinionrecessionViewpoints
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Commentary If you’re looking for advice about how to make a profit or a capital gain, then my apologies for the clickbait: this post is about how money itself is created. This should be common knowledge: capitalist economies are inherently monetary, and you’d think that, after a few centuries of capitalism, we’d understand how money…

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Recession? They Will Tell Us That It’s Misinformation

July 25, 2022
AnalysisBusiness & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsinflationmisinformationOpinionrecessionU.S. economy
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Commentary Last week, this space speculated that the next recession may never be called what it is. Government agencies rely entirely on the National Bureau for Economic Research to call it either way. In October 2020, the NBER posted a clarification that it does not accept the textbook definition of two successive quarters of output…

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Pass the CHIPS, Then Pop the Champagne

July 24, 2022
Business & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsChinaChina and TaiwanCHIPS Actdefenseindustrial policyOpinionSpecial TopicsTaiwanTech CompetitiontechnologyThreat from Communist ChinaUS-China relationsViewpoints
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Commentary NEW YORK—It’s rare that one would find socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and conservative Fox News commentator Steve Moore on the same side of an issue, let alone legislation, but the CHIPS bill, expected to go before the Senate next week, is just such an instance. I happily oppose both of them, though Moore more so…

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Enjoy the Modest Dip in Gas Prices While It Lasts

July 24, 2022
Business & MarketsBusiness ColumnistseconomyenergyExecutive Branchgas pricesGold and CommoditiesMarketsOpinionPoliticsUSViewpoints
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Commentary “We’ve been working really hard to bring the price down,” a COVID-stricken President Joe Biden claimed regarding gasoline prices in a virtual meeting with some of his energy and economic aides on Friday. It begs the question: how hard did he and his team work to bring the price of gas up over his…

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Forecasting Economic Crises

July 23, 2022
Business & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsinflationInvestmentMarketsOpinionStock Market ReactionViewpoints
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Commentary Why have economic crises ‘sneaked up’ on us humans for so long? Sure, there have always been lonely voices warning about an approaching collapse, but they have usually been met with laughter and ridicule. Nothing is naturally more rewarding for a forecaster than earning the ability to say “I told you so” without ever…

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No One Wants to Drive Down This Memory Lane

July 22, 2022
Business & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsgasolineOilOpinionViewpoints
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Commentary  One month ago, all anyone would—or could—talk about were gas prices. What the country was paying for fuel was outrageous, it seemed. Despite oil prices settling a touch after the big spike in March, this wasn’t the case for Americans paying only more at the pump. By the middle of June, the price per…

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Americans Aren’t as Mobile as You Think

July 22, 2022
AmericansBusiness & MarketsBusiness Columnistsdomestic migrationOpinionremote workThinking About ChinaViewpoints
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Commentary The exodus from big cities and blue states has become a familiar theme over the past couple of years, with COVID restrictions, rising crime, and ruinous costs prompting a significant migration of people and businesses out of urban areas and into suburbs, small towns, and booming Republican-leaning states. Paradoxically, though, government data indicates that…

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