Fred Siegmund

How China’s Fiscal Policy Affects American Unemployment

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

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

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?

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?

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

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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Can Internet Competition Open Up the Textbook Market?

The market for college textbooks has never worked well. In the age before the Internet, new books tended to be sold as a monopoly in the college bookstore. After the first semester of a new textbook, a used book market emerges that competes with new books sold at the bookstore. Used books remain as a […]

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Do the Wealthy Really Earn What They Produce?

In a comment from my post on How to Cut the Federal Deficit, there was objection to taxing the wealthy at higher rates. The comment said: “Remember ? they [the wealthy] worked hard for that money, and free markets determined what they do is of such high value.” I did not suggest it was fair […]

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Who’s to Blame for College Financial Aid Shortfalls?

The Education Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group, recently released a report titled “Opportunity Adrift” that criticizes the financial aid practices of public universities. The report used data from 2003 to 2007. The report accuses public research universities of increasing the amount of aid to students whose parents make at least $115,000 a year by 28 […]

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How to Cut the Federal Deficit

I clipped a news article way back on August 11, 2005 when the Associated Press reported President Bush’s comments on a new transportation-spending bill. According to the article, “President Bush calls the massive $286.4 billion transportation spending bill he signed into law Wednesday a job creator.” The article goes on to describe the bill that […]

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Ask the Readers: Does Corporate Campaign Financing Matter?

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to ban Congress from placing limits on corporate campaign financing riled up a long debated issue. Supporters claim monetary restrictions limit free speech regardless of content and detractors claim the court majority harms jurisprudence by legislating a political agenda from the bench. I can’t solve that debate, but I have […]

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Do Corporate Profits Produce the Right Stockholder Dividends?

This is the season when most of America’s corporations send their shareholders notice of the company’s annual meeting along with the 10-K report. The 10-K reports and the information in them are required as part of their corporate charter, although the companies often write additional summaries with lots of charts and photographs to highlight their […]

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Is It Time to Start Enforcing Antitrust Laws Again?

Antitrust Laws have entered the news again, with a recent editorial by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees discussing the NFL’s legal right to negotiate business contracts as a league instead of separate competing teams (“Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees weighs in on NFL’s Supreme Court case“). In this case, the contract is an exclusive deal […]

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Fred Siegmund

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