Means-ends and consumer choices
A major problem with the mainstream framework of thinking is that people are presented as if a scale of preferences were hard-wired in their…
Macro economic data: an instrument for government intervention
It is generally held that for an economist to be able to assess the state of the economy he requires macro-economic indicators which will…
Should governments impose stricter regulations on large firms?
Frenchman Jean Tirole of the University of Toulouse won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for devising methods to improve regulation of industries…
Fed introduces new economic indicator to better assess the labour market
Economists at the Federal Reserve have devised a new indicator, which they hold will enable US central bank policy makers to get better information…
Is an increase in capital goods orders always good for the economy?
Orders for US non-military capital goods excluding aircraft rose by 0.6% in August after a 0.2% decline in July to stand at $73.2 billion….
Does low US price inflation provide room for a more aggressive Fed?
The US Federal Reserve can keep stimulating the US economy because inflation is posing little threat, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Kocherlakota said….
Market expectations and long-term US interest rates
After closing at 3.03% in December 2013 the yield on the 10-year US T-Note has been trending down, closing at 2.34% by August this…
Yield curve and the US economy
So far in August the differential between the yield on the 10-year Treasury note and the yield on the 3-month Treasury bill stood at…
Why doesn’t monetary pumping help economic growth?
Despite all the massive monetary pumping over the past six years and the lowering of interest rates to almost zero most commentators have expressed…
Where is the US$ heading against major currencies?
Within the framework of our econometric model the key variable that drives a currency rate of exchange is the relative money supply rate of…