Author - The Durango Herald

Financial crisis contained – at least so far

The “official” dates of the U.S. financial crisis were 2007-08. Since then, we’ve had a few additional crises, in particular, the Euro crisis. But overall, the global financial crisis seems ...

DATE: May 19, 2014 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

Bailing banks out: We don’t like it, but we do it

The first “recorded” financial crisis in the U.S. occurred in 1792. That’s just five years after the Constitution was adopted. Seems the crisis happened when Alexander Hamilton decided to es...

DATE: Apr 21, 2014 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

School trumps minimum wage as income booster

In one of the 1980 presidential debates, Ronald Reagan (in)famously asked: “Ask yourself, ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’” The answer was supposed to be “no...

DATE: Feb 25, 2014 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

Supply, demand of pot sales may follow path of ‘Cheesepocalypse’

On Sunday, football lovers will witness the first ever “Bud Bowl” celebrating the legalization of marijuana by Colorado and Washington as the Broncos play the Seahawks. Kismet? Po...

DATE: Jan 27, 2014 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

Economic trends erasing world’s middle classes

One of President Harry Truman’s famous economics quotes is: “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.” Economists have a pretty go...

DATE: Dec 3, 2013 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

Local, national economy shows improvement

So where are we? Have we dodged yet another bullet as Congress and the president reached a tentative and temporary détente with respect to spending? Certainly, we have seen that t...

DATE: Nov 5, 2013 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

Federal shutdown puts the hurting on U.S. economy

Well, after a short “sabbatical” from writing this column, it’s time to put to paper recent follies. While it may be tempting to, once again, berate our fearless leaders over rece...

DATE: Oct 8, 2013 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

EU welcomes my summer home – well, sort of

A common theme of mine during the last couple of years is the growing disconnect between economic policy, politics and the economy. This juxtaposition is more prevalent where I cu...

DATE: Jun 17, 2013 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

Cause and effect in a changing economic world

Some things don’t really cross one’s mind too frequently. For example, just how does Jell-O get that wobbly consistency? Or what if Genghis Khan were a vegetarian? Simi...

DATE: May 21, 2013 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way

The dismal science is an inexact thing

Hot on the heels of my last column about statistics gone awry, a new “scandal” has gripped the economics profession. I refer to the recent revelations of a graduate student’s find...

DATE: Apr 22, 2013 | CATEGORY: Thoughts Along The Way