President
White House and congressional staffers have wrangled over the details of a potential debt ceiling deal. Continue reading
At least seven companies declared bankruptcy in the last 48 hours, a reported 15-year record.
Among the firms seeking Chapter 11 protection were digital media group Vice Media and — as reported here Monday (May 15) — private equity-backed healthcare firm Envision.
According to a Bloomberg News report, this was the largest number of bankruptcy filings recorded for a two-day stretch since at least 2008. Continue reading
When Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it allocated $80 billion to modernize the IRS after the agency had been historically underfunded by Republicans for decades. These funds will help the IRS target billionaires and large corporations that avoid paying their fair share in taxes. It will also make Tax Day easier for Americans by upgrading decades-old computer systems and adequately staffing the agency’s help line. Continue reading
A man enters the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York City on Friday.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden is expected to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday about the debt ceiling, with just about two weeks until the country could run out of money to pay its bills.
Economists and administration officials have warned that a potential default on the national debt — for the first in U.S. history — would amount to financial disaster, wreaking havoc on the domestic economy and rattling global markets, too.
“Our economy would fall into a significant recession,” Biden told reporters last week. “It would devastate retirement accounts, increase borrowing cost. According to Moody’s, nearly 8 million Americans would lose their jobs. And our international reputation would be damaged in the extreme.” Continue reading
Dollar General’s troubles have snowballed into cluttered aisles and stores forced to close by fire marshals.
Employees tell us what went wrong.
Dollar General stores, such as this one in Maryland, are overrun with unpacked merchandise sitting in aisles. Workers have said cuts to their hours are part of the problem. Alex Bitter/Insider
It was Christmas in May in the back room of a Michigan Dollar General last year… Continue reading
Every penny dropped atop the national debt causes it to weigh ever more heavily upon the body politic until it crushes our liberty.
Throughout medieval times until the early 18th century, one particularly excruciating European torture was peine forte et dure (French for “hard and forceful punishment”). The prisoner was bound, spread-eagled, face-up on the ground. A board was laid upon their torso, and heavy iron and stones were placed upon them until they ultimately asphyxiated. It could take several days for a victim to succumb. Continue reading
The U.S. dollar has been declining for several months, causing it to lose value and igniting fears that the country is heading for a recession.
According to Charles Schwab, the dollar has fallen by about 8 percent to 10 percent in both real and nominal terms since late last year.
Speculation that the dollar could lose its status as the world’s primary reserve currency comes from rumors that Communist China may move to use the yuan in commodity trades with several trading partners. Brazil and Argentina are also mulling over being a common currency worldwide. Continue reading
Woman in Bramslev stumbled on hundreds of 1,000-year-old silver coins in two buried treasure troves, archaeologists said and photos show. Photo from North Jutland Museums
Perhaps carefully planning ahead or rushed in a moment of panic, someone in Viking-age Denmark buried their treasure and never returned. A volunteer stumbled upon the artifacts 1,000 years later.
Jane Foged-Mønster went out with a metal detecting group to search a field in northern Denmark last fall, she told TV2 Nord, a local Danish outlet. Scanning the field, she unearthed a piece of silver. Nearby, she found several more pieces, the outlet reported on April 19. Continue reading
Nearly 12 years ago I penned a similar cartoon to this one. It featured the sad demise of ‘King Dollar’. The earlier cartoon showed the defeated old King Buck surrounded by his decaying kingdom. The forces of real money, gold and silver, rode triumphantly on horses in the background. Continue reading
“The reputation of economics and economists, never high, has been a victim of the crash of 2008. An even more serious criticism is that the economic policy debate that followed seems only to replay the similar debate after 1929. The issue is budgetary austerity versus fiscal stimulus, and the positions of the protagonists are entirely predictable from their previous political allegiances.
The preposterous claim that deviations from market efficiency were not only irrelevant to the recent crisis but could never be relevant is the product of an environment in which deduction has driven out induction and ideology has taken over from observation. Continue reading
