My Comments: While I had some reservations about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), I agreed with it in principal and was encouraged when the Obama administration signed on last December. Then along came the ultimate deal maker and we withdrew from the agreement. In my opinion, more than anything imaginable, that withdrawal effectively ceded global …
Continue reading The TPP is up and running without us, and we’re losing out on its opportunities
My Comments: Did you read the news bulletin last week that GE was terminating 4,000 salaried employees this week? There’s a reason for that and it’s described here. This problem is not just about GE, but about thousands of corporations and government entities that exist in the US. A pension plan like the one at …
My Comments: It really helps to sometimes see life from 50,000 feet. This article does that for me. We get caught up in the crisis of the moment, which happens all the time. And depending on our age, we focus on what we need to do today. My focus is helping people create a worry …
Continue reading You’ll Never Get ‘There’ When It Comes To Your Finances
My Comments: readers of my posts know that I’m a progressive, whatever that actually means. As an economist, I choose to call myself a social capitalist, in that I strongly believe unfettered capitalism is as dangerous and corruptive as communism. This is written before trump appears on national television to tell us why his wall …
Continue reading The Coming Bankruptcy of the American Empire
My Comments: Yesterday, I posted Part I of a three part series from the staff of Fortune magazine. I was struck by it’s relevance in today’s America in terms of it’s expose of where we are as a nation, both politically and economically. In my opinion we have roughly two years to figure out whether …
Continue reading The Shrinking Middle Class: How We Got Here, And Why
My Comments: I’ve always enjoyed the traditional greeting associated with today: Happy New Year! And so I offer you my heartfelt wishes for a HAPPY NEW YEAR! But the reality is that for many millions of Americans, 2019 will not be a happy year. And so I offer an apology for spoiling the fun with …
Continue reading The Shrinking Middle Class: The Current State of Affairs
My Comments: What is described here is gut wrenching for me. Much of that is because the Democratic Party was, and perhaps remains, tone deaf to the malaise that gripped working people across the country as we approached 2016. As before, we cannot remake the past, only influence the future. My efforts to make positive …
Continue reading The death of our Siemens factory is the result of another Trump lie
(and What It Will Mean for the Economy) My Comments: I’ve written previously about the danger of income inequality. You only have to look at countries in the middle east to understand the chaos and turmoil in countries where the middle class barely exists. Any population without a realistic ability to rise above poverty is …
Continue reading Why the American Middle Class Is Disappearing
My Comments: My observations and memories of economic and financial forces over the past five decades has led me to fundamentally distrust the moves made by those who profess to Make America Great Again. My instincts told me they were pushing us in the opposite direction, ie Make America Irrelevant. It started with us withdrawing …
Continue reading How Donald Trump Is Shaping The Next Global Economic Recession
My Comments: We’re now almost three weeks past the midterm results. And the markets have been mostly negative. Now the discussion is about how far it will drop, and when, before the inevitable bottom and return to reality. My frustration is that I’ve been expecting a severe drop now for over 3 years; it makes …
Helping Define Your Financial Future 