Economic Trends
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The Incoherence of ESG: Why We Should Disaggregate the Environmental, Social, and Governance Label
“Conceptually, no reason exists for why the fundamental ideas within the ESG label should correlate with one another.” ~Paul Mueller
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Business Conditions Monthly July 2024
“The key question, moving forward, is whether the Federal Reserve’s shift to accommodation will be sufficient to counteract the emerging signs of economic contraction.” ~Peter C. Earle
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Fed Rate Cuts Are Unlikely to Goose the Stock Market or Prevent a Recession
“Rate cuts based on hindsight instead of foresight can confirm a recession but can’t prevent it.” ~Richard Salsman
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Business Conditions Monthly May 2024
“Ongoing data noise driven by pandemic policies, unstable prices, Fed rate hikes, consumer fatigue, and stubborn disinflation early in the year, in combination, broadly suggest an economy experiencing mixed signals.” ~Peter C. Earle
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The End of Restaurants as We Know Them?
“If accelerating US unemployment registers the impact of contractionary monetary policy measures on the broader economy, the current difficulties faced by the restaurant sector are likely to escalate.” ~Peter C. Earle
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Foot Voting Reconsidered: How Should I Think About Leaving?
“Compared to ballot voting, moving has larger individual impacts, which mean greater incentives to acquire knowledge; it provides a better signal to both the country you’re leaving and the one you’re joining.” ~Joakim Book
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Business Conditions Monthly February 2024
“Amidst mixed economic data reminiscent of most of the past two years, there are pockets of strength which are nevertheless overshadowed by inflation concerns and speculation regarding monetary policy actions in the coming quarter or two.” ~Peter C. Earle
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“Stabilization” Is Just Bad Old Rent Control
“Just about the worst way to ‘help’ renters is by punishing property owners for providing rental housing, which is just what rent caps do.” ~Jason Sorens
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Childless China: Coercive Population Plan Implodes
“That China’s downfall stems from its own collectivist policies is no small irony, but it should come as no surprise. It stems from the same flawed thinking that led to the fall of the last communist empire.” ~Jon Miltimore
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The Fed (Almost) Ruined Black Friday
“A record $1.3 trillion in credit card debt may be masking a weaker economy than the top-line spending numbers suggest, as consumers accrue debt to maintain a standard of living being crushed by rising prices in housing, groceries, and energy.” ~Spence Purnell
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Another Year, Another Crisis
“From inflation to a Fed tightening cycle, to banking losses and now real estate tremors, we again find ourselves climbing tenuously out of one hole only to collapse limply into another.” ~Peter C. Earle
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China is Scaring Away Investors
“Xi expects business as well as people to serve the CCP. As authoritarian controls metastasize throughout the economy, everyone suffers.” ~Doug Bandow
