Fred Siegmund

Inside Greece's Economic Problems, and Why It Matters to Us

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Over the last 3 or 4 months, several news analysts have described the debt and deficit problems of Greece. Many of these same analysts decided to compare Greek debts and deficits to the United States. They cited data on Greece that shows a high and rising ratio of debt-to-Gross Domestic Product that increases the risk [...]

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How China's Fiscal Policy Affects American Unemployment

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The Obama administration continues to struggle with Chinese currency politics and policy. Some in Congress are accusing China of currency manipulation, saying the Chinese undervalue their currency, which hurts jobs and companies in the United States. The Chinese currency is known as the Yuan, although it is officially the Renminbi. To Americans, the price of [...]

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Why Credit Default Swaps Should Regulated as Insurance

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Congress continues to discuss financial reform, but so far have come up with nothing. Last fall, Senator Dodd of Connecticut introduced long and elaborate legislation to reform America's financial system, but the law and regulation is essentially the same as it was during the 2008 financial collapse. Lately, though, I keep reading short reviews about [...]

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How to Get Rid of the Health Insurance Industry

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Will health care reform really keep costs down? In order to find out, we need to know exactly where costs keep on increasing. Shortly before the passage of the new health care bill, a spokesman for Anthem Blue Cross of California said this: "All health plans are in the same situation in trying to deal [...]

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How Much are Replacement Jobs Helping the Economy?

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America?s high unemployment rate will come down as total spending picks up and the economy recovers. Some of the unemployment is the result of the recession, but some is the result of long-term trends. Since 2000, manufacturing jobs have fallen by 5.4 million, and when the economy comes back, manufacturing will not recover much ? [...]

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Where's the Real Financial Reform?

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The new credit card rules will make it difficult for banks and credit card processors to be tricksters, which is my word for their erratic and arbitrary fees and penalties. But despite the hostile opinions reported in the popular media, banks continue to have their way in financial matters. Take the student loan program, where [...]

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It's Time for an Employment Revolution

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Unemployment continues to be one of the biggest problems of the great recession. Despite its recent fall, it is still at 9.7%. But if we look at labor force and employment trends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey back to 2000, the employment situation looks even worse. The civilian labor force drifts [...]

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