Free Republic

Amid the wreckage of the bloodiest U.S. stock market rout since the early 1970s, some economists are saying the United States is paying a price for Alan Greenspan's decision to not stand in the way of an inflating stock price bubble... Tackling the question of who might bear the blame for a bubble building, editorial writers at the Wall Street Journal last week pointed at Greenspan and his colleagues. "One suspect would have to be the Federal Reserve itself, for feeding the economy too much liquidity for too long," the paper opined.... Greenspan has also drawn criticism for looking to...

LOS ANGELES — With no obvious driver to power an economic recovery, economists with the UCLA Anderson Forecast predict that the national economy is looking at a “very sluggish period ahead,” with considerable risk of another recessionary dip. In his report titled “This is Our First Business Cycle,” Edward E. Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, and economics professor at The Anderson School at UCLA, notes that past recoveries have been fueled by consumer spending on goods and real estate - essentially “consumer cycles” driving the economy. But since these key sectors have remained steady throughout the recent recession...

The US Federal Reserve in January considered a variety of "unconventional" emergency measures to be taken if cutting short-term interest rates failed to arrest a US recession and prevent Japanese-style deflation. One of those steps may have been a plan to buy US stocks. According to minutes of its January 25-26 meeting, the Fed's policy-making Open Market Committee agreed "unconventional policy measures might be available" to deal with a situation in which "the economy were to deteriorate substantially in a period when nominal short-term interest rates were already at very low levels", although, it said, the efficacy of such measures...

The worst attack ever on the continental United States -- the terrorist assault of Sept. 11 -- supposedly changed the nation forever. But a mere six months later, the change is hard to see. Indeed, the landscape looks depressingly familiar. Church attendance has settled back to usual levels. Travelers still smuggle dangerous objects past airport security guards. American culture remains superficial (celebrity boxing was a ratings smash!) and self-absorbed. And politicians continue their short-sighted quest for self-preservation. With elections looming, Congress caved in to both Big Business and Big Labor (aligned on this issue) to resist raising the fuel-efficiency standards...

<p>But like everything else these days, the personal is political. Some people say my weight problem is your problem and vice versa. Obesity is related to higher risks of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and lots of other unpleasant outcomes.</p>