Tag Archives: Inflation

Dynamical System for Economic Growth

Posted on by Ronald Grey

Wolfram MathWorld:

Dynamical system — A means of describing how one state develops into another state over the course of time.

Barack Obama

Phillips curve from 2008 through 2011 (top) and related misery index from January 2009 through March 2012 (bottom) with linear regression:

\mathrm{Misery} = 0.10 \times \mathrm{Month} + 8.73

More misery under Obama helps explain why Americans say the economy is in recession.

Ronald Reagan

Not only did misery decrease during the same amount of time under Reagan. The rate of decrease was twice the rate of Obama’s increase – despite worse initial conditions at the beginning of Reagan’s term:

\mathrm{Misery} = -0.20 \times \mathrm{Month} + 19.27

Unemployment also fell another 2.1% in 1984, the last year of Reagan’s first term.

And middle-class families in America made more money: Continue reading →

U.S. Housing Debt and the Global Economy

Posted on by Ronald Grey

Source: Peterson Institute for International Economics

Guaranteed to Fail:

The real accounting trick in keeping GSE securities on the Fed balance sheet is the same as the one that underlay why Fannie Mae was privatized in 1968 in the first place: to keep its assets and liabilities unfunded from the current presidential administration’s standpoint. Continue reading →

How Economic Policy Can Subdue Gas Prices

Posted on by Ronald Grey

Figure 1. Change in monthly inflation (Source: U.S. Department of Labor)

Volatility in energy prices can be due to ineffective policy from an out-of-touch celebrity politician like Mitt Romney or Barack Obama

Weak Policy

Inflation may not be so subdued after all.

Barack Obama’s weak-dollar policy virtually guarantees that prices for imported oil and gas will be volatile compared to American money, as Forbes explained:

The danger of a weak dollar policy is in the total incoherence between its objective – to make Americans more prosperous – and its prescription – to make Americans poorer by increasing the price of our imports while reducing the value of what we sell in exchange.

That’s why looking back, yesterday’s statement from the Federal Reserve may have been of interest to anybody worried about the higher cost of living under Obama.

Energy Inflation

Continue reading →

Is the Supreme Court Ignoring the Bigger ObamaCare Mandate?

Posted on by Ronald Grey

Both Mitt Romney's health spending at the state level and ObamaCare have more negative than positive impact on Americans, according to Gallup.

This week the Supreme Court begins hearing arguments about Barack Obama’s signature health-spending plan, commonly known as ObamaCare. A decision is expected within months, based on procedural and substantive issues focused on Obama’s controversial individual mandate.

But with its focus on the individual mandate, some fear the court may be overlooking a lesser-known mandate in ObamaCare, one that may have a bigger impact on the struggling economy.

Inspired by a health-spending plan from Mitt Romney, who restricted incentive for job creation in Massachusetts, ObamaCare mandates that businesses limit job creation to 200 full-time workers or pay to subsidize a so-called “Shared Responsibility for Health Care” between employers and their workers.

And Americans across the country are paying the price. High unemployment from Obama’s economic policy already includes millions of similar workers who are only marginally attached to the labor force.

 

Continue reading →