by William K. Black, New Economic Perspectives

It is always a disaster when devotees of theoclassical economists speak their minds in front of what they think are friendly audiences. Mitt Romney’s attack on 47% of Americans as leeches that it was his job not to represent were he elected President was the final nail in his self-constructed electoral coffin. We now have Niall Ferguson, a history professor at Harvard and Hoover fellow whose theoclassical views have proven so influential with Prime Minister Cameron’s government’s adoption of austerity policies that have killed the UK recovery.

Ferguson has had a terrible last 10 years. He was a strong proponent of invading Iraq and pines for us to stay indefinitely in Afghanistan. He was a Romney supporter who wrote an anti-Obama screed in Newsweek that demonstrated his contempt for facts. He was an advisor to Senator McCain’s campaign for the presidency. Because of his record of getting every important policy issue wrong he was paid a great deal of money to speak to an “alternative investment” conference that began, with no small irony, on May Day. Ferguson was presenting his thesis that the West has become “degenerate.” He certainly proved that point about himself.

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by Lee Adler, Wall Street Examiner

This post is part 2 of The Essence of Hilsenrath

I came across a material error of fact in the Jon Jerry Mahoney Hilsenrath piece that has caused such a stir in the financial wackosphere this weekend. Being the good citizen that I am, I felt that it was my obligation and responsibility to notify Mr. Hilsenrath of the error. I knew that he would want to correct the record.

The error regarded two statements that he juxtaposed that implied that employment had improved as a result of QE, which is not true.

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by John West, Asian Century Institute

The US economy is wobbling slowly forward. Europe is just plain wobbling. And China has moved onto a slower growth path.

But China's role in the global economy is also changing fundamentally, providing America with new growth opportunities, a "Chinese dream".

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Terminal Velocity, Part 7

Written by Adam Whitehead, KeySignals.com

In Terminal Velocity (6)^[i], the controversy surrounding the absence of Ben Bernanke at Jackson Hole later this year was introduced as a "dangerous precedent":

"since it will now make the event a forum for speculation over his successor and the policies that they will follow......

Jackson Hole therefore becomes a diversion, distraction and dilution in varying degrees. No doubt the "Helicopter" will be spotted there, but the conditions will not be appropriate for it to land."

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Written by Hilary Barnes

Le Figaro's shock-horror front page for May 3 read:

"One year later and Hollande is isolated in Europe".

On page 2, lined up to say much the same thing, were editors from Spain's El Mundo, Corriere della Sera, and on page 3 echos from Germany.

I can see that I am about to put myself in a minority of one, but no matter. No one has stopped to look around. If they had they might have noticed that Hollande's view on Europe appears to be winning the argument, aided and abetted by Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the IMF.

Hollande has argued all along that the policy of austerity, as conceived by the Euro zone, is wrong, it is too precipitate, is doing more harm than good and must be supplemented by policies to stimulate growth.

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