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The Fed's Inconsistent Numbers
As was widely expected, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised its short-term interest rate target one-quarter of a percentage point on December 13 to a range of 1.25 to 1.50 percent. The...
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Corporate Tax Changes Will Lead to International Tax Battles
With its plan to reduce the corporate tax rate and enact temporary expensing of capital outlays, Congress is poised to put US firms on a better competitive footing than many of their rivals based in...
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Brexit Readiness Update: The Players Improved Their Score
In the past three months the possibility for an orderly Brexit has increased markedly. In particular, the European Union and United Kingdom have negotiated a transition period lasting two years . And...
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Is the Prospect of a Trade Deficit Reduction an Accounting Illusion?
Will the new US tax overhaul passed by Congress reverse a longstanding incentive that causes multinational corporations to shift profits away from their US operations into affiliates in low-tax...
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A New Roadmap for EU Reform in 2018
Despite the political stalemate in Germany, the recent publication of the European Commission's new roadmap for completing the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) signals that progress toward economic...
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Ryan Avent's "The Wealth of Humans" and the Future of Work
Despite low unemployment rates in the United States, more Americans than ever are either not working or not even looking for work. Because of these trends, and also because of wage stagnation for the...
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An Unusually Balanced US Recovery
Economic expansions come to an end in many ways. Usually they succumb to an unanticipated, adverse shock. Sometimes however, they die from their own dynamics, from imbalances that sustain the expansion...
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Corporate Tax Reform Favors Domestic Production, Not US Multinationals
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) signed into law by President Donald Trump in December slashed the US corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, starting January 1, 2018. The new law makes the...
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A Look under the Hood of the Precoalition Deal in Germany
Three and a half months after German voters dealt a setback to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and their coalition...
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Mixed Reviews for the Single Resolution Board
The establishment in 2015 of the Single Resolution Board (SRB), a new agency of the European Union, is one of the most significant European banking reforms of recent years. The SRB was set up to...
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Initial Coin Offerings Require New Regulations
The term “initial coin offering” (ICO) has entered the lexicon to describe the method used by thousands of individuals and businesses to raise more than $3 billion in bitcoin and other digital...
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Venezuela's Ill-Advised "Cryptocurrency" Scheme: An Update
Beset by political and economic crises, the Venezuelan government provided more details in early January about its plan to issue a new so-called cryptocurrency called the “petro,” which it hopes to use...
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Coming Soon: More Brexit Confrontations
Since early December, phase 1 of Britain's negotiation with the European Union over the terms of its exit have seemed to be on track, thanks to Prime Minister Theresa May's capitulation on payments to...
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Trump's "America Is Open for Business" Speech at Davos—Annotated and Explained
*/ President Trump delivered his highly anticipated speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 26, with high praise for America's growth since he was elected: "America is open...
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Janet Yellen's Term as Fed Chair Was Uneventful—in a Good Way
The last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) chaired by Janet Yellen, which took place on January 31, did not change the stance of monetary policy or make any meaningful changes from...
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