The Gold Standard 

The world’s needs a twenty-first century money. Ironically, that money has been around for a long time – since virtually the beginning of civilization.

Back in 2006, former Cleveland Fed President Jerry Jordan wrote an essay entitled: “Money and Monetary Policy for the Twenty-First Century.” Jordan began his essay: Modern market economies would not be possible without financial stability. However, as events around the world in the past decade demonstrated, financial institutions are not sound and payments systems are not Read more

Politicians need demons.  It’s easy to blame one’s opponent for creating all the evils of the world, but not always convincing.  So politicians and voters seek a more convenient and/or credible target for their frustration.

Writing recently in USA Today, the Rev. Henry G. Brinton noted that “demonization helps us when we are fighting Hitler but hurts us when we are choosing the next president.  So, like addicts who begin their recovery by honestly admitting that they have a problem, we need to accept the fa Read more

In the ten days between the South Carolina primary won handily by yet another GOP presidential candidate and the next primary to be held on January 31 in the Sunshine State, economic and political winds were frenzied.

The IMF declared that there is a greater threat of a second, double-dip recession.  As reported by the Washington Post, the IMF said,

“In a sobering trio of reports on growth, public debt and financial stability, the agency described global trade and investment as waning and depicted the world Read more

If the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 proved anything, it is that the implausible can become plausible, and the plausible can as quickly become implausible. Consider conductor Alan Gilbert who recently won kudos for his executive leadership in an implausible circumstance.

Gilbert recently stopped a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony in mid-symphony. The cause was an annoying cellphone set to perform “Marimba” as an alarm. Gilbert decided not to compete with a cell phone. Apparently, one mu Read more