The natural geopolitical arrangement is for Europe to be part of Eurasia especially for Germany to develop trade and investment relationships with Russia.
The world's politics are in turmoil not to mention the Mideast where the US has mounted attacks from Libya to Iraq to Syria and ISIS is attacking governments in today's pipeline rivalry.
if you increase living standards you make labor more productive. This is why Asia today is becoming more productive than the United States.
Every government from the Obama administration right through to Angela Merkel the Eurozone and the IMF promise to save the banks not the economy.
The vast majority of $100 bills are abroad not in the United States. So yes of course there's a use here but nowhere near as much as there's a use for $100 bills abroad.
People are putting their money into treasuries because they worry that the risk of putting their money into the bond market the stock market or even the money markets is very high.
Nothing could be better for the economy than to get rid of fracking.
I think the less fracking there is the better it is for the economy and society.
A bubble is only called that after it bursts after the insiders get out leaving the pension funds and small investors Canadians and other naïve investors holding the bag.
There really isn't a recovery and no signs of it on the horizon because people have to pay the banks. It's a vicious circle - or rather a downward spiral.
In order to be an economist these days you have to participate in this fairytale that somehow we can recover and still make the banks rich. And it is a fairytale.
I think we're in the take-the-money-and-run stage of the economy. So the banks may go under but the bankers who make the policy clean up.
You're having government spending on the economy being cut almost everywhere. That means that the only source of spending for growth has to come from borrowing from the banking system.
Normally if someone goes bankrupt you wipe out the debt and get a fresh start. But that's not permitted with student loans. So the effect is to impoverish many graduates with very high debts.
Mathematically debts grow exponentially at compound interest. Banks recycle the interest into new loans so debts grow exponentially faster than the economy can afford to pay.
Small banks that lend to consumers are fine.
Paying debt service to banks leaves less income to buy goods and services.
The economy is being run primarily by the banks for their own interest.
To save the banks you would have to turn the entire Eurozone into Greece.
In fact there's no way that banks can be paid everything that they're owed.
When you say "paying the banks " what they really mean is paying the bank bondholders. They are basically the One Percent.
What's bad for the frackers usually is good for the rest of the world.
We're still in the collapse that began after 2008. There's not a new collapse there hasn't been a recovery.
You have a choice. Either you can have more oil or more clean water. Fracking is not good for the water supply.
We go forward with our heads held high but look back and remember where we come from.
To the deficit commission a depression is the solution to the problem not a problem.
The companies aren't hiring because consumers don't have enough money to buy the goods and services.
The one sure mark of a con though is the promise of free money.
Actually high housing prices don't help the economy. They raise the cost of living.
There are so many currency exchange rate problems that people are buying gold as a safe haven. Right now gold looks like a safe haven if international exchange rates break down.
If you look at payments to labor as a proportion of national income or gross domestic product you find profits going way up investment and savings going up.
Basically unless you're willing to write down debts and save the economy you're going to have deflation and a steady drain in purchasing power - that is shrinking markets.
Europe is acting in a very self-destructive manner but is doing so because it's trying to be loyal to the United States.
Most of the European leaders look at themselves as having to follow the United States because if the US opposes them there will be a regime change.
Europe is creating the flight of refugees that's tearing it apart politically and leading rightwing nationalist parties to gain power to withdraw from the Eurozone.
Either you can save the economy or you can save the One Percent from losing a single penny.
If the economy is growing people want to employ more workers. If you hire more labor wages go up.
No price is too high to pay to try to make the financial system go on a little bit longer. But ultimately it can't be saved because of the mathematics that are involved.
I don't think that governments should permit speculation in raw materials because they're what the economy basically needs.
Inflation usually helps the economy at large but not the 1% if wages rise. So the 1% says that it is terrible.
When we say "people worry" about inflation it's mainly bondholders that worry. The labor force benefitted from the inflation of the '50s '60s and '70s.
As you have to pay more interest and amortization on what you owe you're left with less and less money to buy goods and services - unless you borrow even more and go further into debt.
If a lot of money goes into the stock market it'll push up prices making money for stock speculators. Then the insiders can decide that it's time to sell out and the market will plunge.
When Hillary Clinton said she's going to do just what Obama does and we're going to continue to recover most people know that we're not recovering at all. We're shrinking.
A derivative is a bet on whether a stock or a bond or a real estate asset is going to go up or down. There's a winner and a loser. It's like betting on a horserace.