The Return of Inflation- June 24, 2008 Forget the housing collapse, the "credit crunch" and -- in isolation -- higher oil prices. The real economic menace may be resurgent inflation, which is the broad rise of most prices. To understand why, some history helps. The government's worst domestic blunder since World War II was the unleashing of high inflation: In 1960, annual inflation was 1.4 percent; by 1979, it was 13.3 percent. This terrified Americans, who feared falling living standards. It also destabilized the economy, causing...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301830.html?nav=r... Learning From the Oil Shock- June 18, 2008 We all know that gasoline is at $4 a gallon and that oil is at $135 a barrel. But if you think that's the end of the story, don't talk to economist Jeffrey Rubin of CIBC World Markets. By Rubin's reckoning, we've barely passed the halfway point on a steady march upward that will take gasoline to $7 a gallon and oil to $225 by 2012. Despite fluctuations, the underlying rise, he says, will have pervasive and surprising side effects. Among them:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/17/AR2008061702010.html?nav=r... A Vote for McBama- June 11, 2008 For the party faithful, this is a sweet moment. They have their candidates and, whatever the obstacles, can still imagine victory in November. But the rest of us ought to remember that the politics of winning and governing often collide. The first involves maximizing popularity. The second requires farsighted choices that ultimately benefit the country but may initially hurt a president's approval ratings. What have we learned about the candidates' capacity for governing Enough, I think, to...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061002528.html?nav=r... Just Call It 'Cap-and-Tax'- June 2, 2008 We'll have to discard the old adage "Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." It is inoperative in this era of global warming, because the whole point of controlling greenhouse gas emissions is to do something about the weather. This promises to be hard and perhaps futile, but there are good and bad ways of attempting it. One of the bad ways is cap-and-trade. Unfortunately, it's the darling of environmental groups and their political allies.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/01/AR2008060101913.html?nav=r... |