Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
How Inflation Picks Your Pocket / Economics / Inflation
By: MISES
Daniel James Sanchez writes:
In the denouement of the film There Will Be Blood, the antihero Daniel Planview dramatically reveals to his nemesis that he has secretly siphoned away all of the latter's underground oil.
"Drainage!" he bellows, as only Daniel Day-Lewis can, "Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching? And my straw reaches across the room, and starts to drink your milkshake. I... drink... your... milkshake! [sucking sound]"
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, May 15, 2014
U.S. Economic Confusion / Economics / US Economy
By: Fred_Sheehan
The Producer Price Index for April was released May 14, 2014. The one-month change was +0.6%, after it rose 0.5% in March (revised to that figure in the April report). Foods rose 2.7% (+1.1% in March). In "All the Junk Food You Love is Pricier This Year," Max Nisen writes on Quartz: "Chipotle's [Grill - CMG: NYSE] food prices were up 34.5% last quarter in total, with big increases in [beef, cheese, avocado, and pork]." Chipotle's CFO John Hurtung laments: "While we want to remain accessible to our customers, we're at a point where we need to pass along these rapidly rising costs." Chipotle's stock price was $505 at the close on May 14, 2014, up from $49 at the great liftoff on March 9, 2009.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, May 15, 2014
What Bugs University Academic Economists / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Gary_North
For over 40 years, I have watched university economists attack Murray Rothbard in print. They never laid a glove on him.
They had certain things in common. They never published anything comparable to his book, Man, Economy, and State (1962). They never published anything comparable to America’s Great Depression (1963). They did not publish widely in any mainstream scholarly journals. Their existence was not acknowledged by Keynesians. But they knew Rothbard was a second rater, and some of them even said so.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Feudalism and Cronyism in Machiavelli’s Italy / Economics / Economic Theory
By: MISES
Jo Ann Cavallo writes: Although liberty is a recurring concern in Machiavelli’s writings, there is no consensus regarding either the definition of the concept or its relevance for his overall political thought. One direction of Machiavellian interpretation that has gained prominence in recent decades has focused on the concept of “libertas” in relation to a republican mode of government, even though Machiavelli’s use of liberty cannot be simply equated with republicanism. In tracing the various occurrences of the term in Machiavelli’s political works, Marcia Colish has pointed out that in the context of internal affairs “Machiavelli often connects libertà with certain personal rights and community benefits that characterize free states regardless of their constitutions.” She specifies, in fact, that “he clearly identifies freedom with the protection of private rights.”[1]
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
China Economy Will Drag Us All Down With It / Economics / China Economy
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Yeah, no kidding, as if reports from the US weren’t bad enough, with soaring student debt – that drivers debtors out of the housing market-, collapsing mortgage originations, increasing household debt and slumping retail sales. But still, today, the major news comes from China once again. The government issued a batch of data overnight that shine yet another and clearer light on what is going wrong in the Chinese economy. The numbers are so ugly you wouldn’t want to feed them to your dog. Many sources picked up on this, and not everyone comes up with the exact same numbers – is it 24 or 27 months of inventory? – but we’ll put that down to journalists having to speed read. Let’s do a series, shall we? First up, Bloomberg:
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
The Japanese Debt Economy / Economics / Japan Economy
By: BATR
What does the United States have in common with Japan’s economy? Demographics of an aging population have consequences for both countries. As Japan News reports, National debt hits record high.
"Japan’s national debt totaled a record-high ¥1.02 quadrillion as of the end of March, up ¥33.36 trillion from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said.
The central government debt, which increased ¥7.01 trillion from the end of December last year, kept rising mainly due to ballooning social security costs in line with the aging of the population."
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
The Fed's Economic 'Growth Buying' Scheme Is Failing / Economics / Quantitative Easing
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: The numbers are in. And they are ugly...
Based on preliminary first-quarter data, U.S. GDP (gross domestic product) growth is 0.1%.
That's not much.
But then again what do you expect for $3.4 trillion dollars of Federal Reserve spending to boost the economy?
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Yellen’s Wand Is Running Low on Magic / Economics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Casey_Research
By Doug French, Contributing Editor
How important is housing to the American economy?
If a 2011 SMU paper entitled "Housing's Contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) quot; is right, nothing moves the economic needle like housing. It accounts for 17% to 18% of GDP.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, May 12, 2014
How Consumers Rule In a Free Economy / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Christopher_Westley
One of my favorite economists in the history of economic thought is the great Austrian, Carl Menger (1840-1921). While the mainstream of the economics profession acknowledges Menger’s place due to his contribution to the Marginalist Revolution in the 1870s, it otherwise ignores him because his theoretical framework does not lend itself to policy prescriptions. In an era in which the economics profession largely views itself as a shadow branch of government which is itself charged with managing the economy, thinkers like Menger (and those who work in his tradition) are not going to be extolled or studied in the same way that thinkers like Irving Fisher, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, or Paul Krugman have been.
Monday, May 12, 2014
European Financial Market Forecasts - Sentiment Gauge in Reaches Epic Proportion / Economics / European Stock Markets
By: EWI
A visual history of complacency and fear as seen by the 10-year spread over German Bunds
The one-two punch 2014 winter storms that battered the southeastern United States left $13.5 million in damages in Georgia alone and thousands of residents displaced due to burst pipes and power outages. I am one of the displaced. Three months after the flood, I'm still living out of suitcases in a hotel while my apartment gets rebuilt.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, May 12, 2014
U.S. Employment - The Bed-Pan Economy / Economics / Employment
By: Fred_Sheehan
Data portrayed in the "Employment in Total Non-Farm" payroll (NFP) chart is used by central bankers and Wall Street strategists to assert economic strength. They either think the trend demonstrates morning in America, or, they know otherwise, but cannot fashion anything better.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Just How Distorted are Those GDP Economic Numbers? / Economics / Economic Statistics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I want to share two graphs that Tyler Durden posted yesterday and let you make up your own mind as to what they mean. We’ve all been able to see how US Q1′s official GDP growth was revised to 0.1%, after which Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan said they put the number at -0.6% and -0.8%, respectively. But Goldman, not to be outdone by itself, or that’s the impression, then comes out with a new prediction for Q2, for a rise of no less than 3.9%, or 4.5 % above their own Q1 number. Durden caught that one too:
Saturday, May 10, 2014
China Economy Needs Serious Reform; Russia's Heading in a Bad Direction / Economics / Emerging Markets
By: Bloomberg
On this week's "Political Capital with Al Hunt," airing tonight at 9:00PM/ET, Bloomberg Television anchor and Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt, interviews United States Department of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Sec. Lew said to Hunt, China must avoid postponing long-term economic measures, "they obviously have to worry about their short-term economic situation. What they can't do is treat the long-term reforms as something they can just put off. They need to be serious about it."
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
U.S. Jobs Report and the Band Played On / Economics / US Economy
By: Peter_Schiff
After three months of consistently disappointing jobs numbers, the markets were as keyed up for a good jobs report as a long suffering sailor awaiting shore leave in a tropical port. The just released April jobs report, which claimed that 288,000 jobs were created in the U.S. during the month, provided the apparent good news. But you don't have to go too far beneath the surface to find some troubling trends within the data. Even this minor excavation was too much for the media cheerleaders and Wall Street pitchmen to handle.
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Americans Find A New Source Of Spending Money / Economics / US Economy
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Hurray! Americans have found a new source of spending money; after ATM-draining their home equity till even the roofs were underwater, and maxing out every single little shred of plastic they could lay their hands on, “families looked around for what was left”, and now it’s time to empty out 401(k)’s until there’s really nothing left at all anymore. Then it’ll be recovery or die, presumably. But a recovery is not going to happen, and certainly not for society’s bottom rung. Oh well, maybe there’s some form of slavery they can enter into. Not surprisingly, the US government is quite content with this new development:
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Demographic Trends in the 50-and-Older Work Force / Economics / Demographics
By: PhilStockWorld
Courtesy of Doug Short: In my earlier update on demographic trends in employment, I included a chart illustrating the growth (or shrinkage) in six age cohorts since the turn of the century. In this commentary we’ll zoom in on the age 50 and older Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR).
But first, let’s review the big picture. The overall LFPR is a simple computation: You take the Civilian Labor Force (people age 16 and over employed or seeking employment) and divide it by the Civilian Noninstitutional Population (those 16 and over not in the military and or committed to an institution). The result is the participation rate expressed as a percent.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Who’s Going To Help The Economic Recovery Recover? / Economics / Economic Recovery
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Hey, say what you will, but I’m not one to dodge the more difficult questions. And in the case of this one, I have no idea what the answer would be either. I think calling what we’ve seen to date a recovery is far too much of a semantic stretch in the first place, but even then, even if we assume a hypothetical economic recovery has occurred in America, it’s just about literally in a world of trouble.
Monday, May 05, 2014
Underappreciated Indicators to Guide You through a Debt-Saturated Economy / Economics / US Debt
By: F_F_Wiley
If you’re my generation or older, you may remember taking the original Pepsi Challenge – the Coke versus Pepsi taste testing booths that you would find at sporting events, fairs and similar venues. I took the Challenge and stuck with Coke. The majority of people went the other way, as confirmed by even Coke’s private tests. Nowadays, though, I’m guessing the public version of a Challenge booth would bring heckling from the nutrition-conscious folks at the Just Juice stand. The bigger challenges for Coke and Pepsi are health risks linked to their flagship products. Researchers are zeroing in on a handful of ingredients that may be harmful, such as sodium benzoate and phosphoric acid.
Monday, May 05, 2014
The Emerging Market Game Changer Is Here / Economics / Emerging Markets
By: Money_Morning
Peter Krauth writes: The group of five nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, otherwise known as the BRICS - is making some intriguing financial, economic, and political moves.
They're committing tens of billions of dollars each to organize their own versions of an IMF and World Bank.
Many observers thought the BRICS nations would encounter too many obstacles to collaborate effectively.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, May 05, 2014
How Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) affects America and its Partners / Economics / Global Economy
By: Sam_Chee_Kong
TPPA or Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is a trade agreement between 11 countries namely Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, America, Peru, Mexico, Chile. Details are vague due to the secretive nature of the whole process and not much is being reported in the media. The first round of talks was held in Melbourne Australia in March 2010. Since then there are already 19 rounds of talks with the last one in Brunei Darussalam. It is believed that TPPA operates within the same scope of other Free Trade Agreements. It involves free trade policies such as opening up of the domestic market, subsidies, tariffs, copyright rule, intellectual property rights and enhancing legal protection for foreign investors.