photo: yy yeung A healthy economy requires a fluid labor market. Even when total employment and output are stable, the labor market is in constant motion. Jobs disappear when firms close or downsize. Other jobs appear when new firms open or old ones expand. People move freely from one job to another in search of career […]
photo: Rui Duarte The unemployment rate published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is one of the most widely watched of all economic indicators. But why? What does it really measure? The news media, politicians, and voters tend to see the unemployment rate as an index of the social stress of joblessness. There is ample […]
The International Monetary Fund said global crude oil prices have been relatively lower because of the growth in oil supply from North America. With U.S. oil production on pace to eclipse 9 million barrels per day near term, the trend should continue through next year. Nearly all of the growth in global oil production is […]
President Obama is on his way to join Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Enrique Pena Neito in the bustling city of Toluca, Mexico, for the 2014 North America Leaders Summit. The meeting could not come soon enough for the “Three Amigos.” In the 1986 movie, “¡Three Amigos!,” Steve Martin’s character explains how […]
Most historians date the Railway Age as beginning in 1830, when the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened, providing the first steam passenger service, proving the viability of rail transport. Its fuel – wood. As the 19th century wore on, wood was replaced as the fuel of choice by coal, which had a higher caloric content. […]
The negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have be shrouded in secrecy. But the on-goings of Iran’s oil ministry are providing insight into the dynamics at play on the Iranian side, and it is about time someone starts connecting the dots. It is no secret that Iran seeks the return of Western international oil […]
U.S. oil production last month reached its highest monthly total in 25 years. South of the border, the story is different, though Mexico’s decision to end a state oil monopoly in place for 75 years may consolidate the America’s supremacy over the international energy market. Mexican legislators passed a reform ending the 75-year state grip on the […]
The energy renaissance in the United States and Canada has left Mexico largely behind. While American and Canadian crude production has jumped over thirty percent in the last decade, Mexican production has fallen by over a quarter. This trend has not been lost on the Mexican government, which this past summer announced plans to dramatically […]
Writing in the New York Times, Stephen King, the chief economist of HSBC, quotes Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. “It is in the progressive state, while the society is advancing to the further acquisition, rather than when it has acquired its full complement of riches, that the condition of the labouring poor, of the […]
Last week Washington tripped over its own power cord and in the process shut down the main power source of the Republic – the “continuing resolution.” Sadly, the past week and, no doubt, the week to come, remind me of how discussions over other politically sensitive topics unfold. Each side comes to the party with […]