Just as the ghost dance of the Sioux failed to bring back the buffalo, so the declining dollar and the high price of gas have failed to bring back American manufacturing. To be sure, with the dollar down, exports are up, and with the price of shipping goods from Shenzhen to Los Angeles rising with the cost of oil, Chinese imports have slowed. Nonetheless, as The New York Times' Louis Uchitelle reported Monday, most of the rise in U.S. exports has come in corn, wheat and other agricultural commodities, not in aircraft or machinery. ...more

August 24, 2008

Shares of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued their plunge Wednesday as investors became increasingly convinced that the stocks will drop to zero if the government bails out the troubled companies. ...more

August 21, 2008

Whether or not the government is actually on the verge of taking over mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, investor fears that a bailout is imminent could turn such a worst-case scenario into reality. ...more

August 20, 2008

Before it was rudely interrupted by Russia's invasion of neighboring Georgia, much of the national campaign - whether for president or any of the contested seats on Capitol Hill - revolved around the tax code, a dreary topic except that it tends to reveal the nature of the electorate. ...more

August 17, 2008

Our school superintendent announced that the county has received the first application for a charter school in years. ...more

August 15, 2008