(1/1/2015) This is the third and final installment of an interview on the outlook for the New Year.
Part 3. Forecasts for International Currency and Commodity Markets
Currency and Commodity Markets in 2015
Category Archives: monetary policy
The US Economy in 2015
Following the first installment of a year-end interview on the global outlook, I turn in the second installment to the domestic economy.
Part 2. The US Economy
Q – As economic adviser to President Clinton, you oversaw one of the most prosperous periods in recent U.S. history. How do you assess the economic strategy of the Obama administration? What would you have done differently were you an adviser?
Why Are So Many Commodity Prices Down in the US… Yet Up in Europe?
Oil prices plummeted 43% during the course of 2014 – good news for oil-importing countries, but bad news for Russia, Nigeria, Venezuela, and other oil exporters. Some attribute the price drop to the US shale-energy boom. Others cite OPEC’s failure to agree on supply restrictions.
But that is not the whole story. The price of iron ore is down, too. So are gold, silver, and platinum prices. And the same is true of sugar, cotton, and soybean prices. In fact, most dollar commodity prices have fallen since the beginning of the year. Though a host of sector-specific factors affect the price of each commodity, the fact that the downswing is so broadly shared – as is often the case with big price swings – suggests that macroeconomic factors are at work.