Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Friday, July 16, 2010
World Cup Football Saves Spain's Economy from Collapse / Economics / Spain
The victory of the Spaniards over the Dutch in the World Cup will help the economy, experts say. The euphoria of the victory improves the mood of the population, and the population in a good mood begins to spend more money and shop more frequently. According to ING and ABN Amro banks, the gold medal of the Spanish national team will boost the country's GDP growth by 0.25-0.5%.
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Friday, July 16, 2010
Economics in Freefall / Economics / Economic Theory
I admire Joseph E. Stiglitz, because he has a social conscience and a sense of justice, the absence of which turns economists into monsters. Despite his virtues and Nobel Prize, Stiglitz sometimes falls down as an economist. Readers of my new book, How The Economy Was Lost, will be aware that I take him to task for the Solow-Stiglitz production function, which seriously misleads economics about the scarcity of nature’s capital.
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Friday, July 16, 2010
Government Policies Pushing U.S. Economy Towards Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
Despite several quarters of rising GDP, and the upbeat exertions of Administration spokespeople, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has yet to announce the recession is over. Their reluctance is well-founded. It is beginning to dawn on even the more optimistic analysts that the tepid growth we have seen over the past three quarters is only an interlude in an otherwise grave and prolonged recession. Moreover, the respite will cost dearly as the United States has racked up a generation worth of debt for dubious benefit.
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
Illinois Higher Debt Default Risk than Iceland / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
Illinois made headlines a few weeks ago when it overtook California as the worst credit risk among American states. Now, the fifth most populous state in the U.S. has officially overtaken Iceland in the default risk category as well. (See screenshot below from CMA site today)
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Fed is Steering U.S. Economy into Deflation / Economics / Deflation
The Fed is steering the economy into deflation. It's a political calculation that will keep unemployment high, increase excess capacity, and deepen the recession. C.P.I. continues to fall, bank lending is down 4 percent year-over-year, housing prices are slipping, business investment is off, and consumer credit continues to shrink. On Wednesday, the Commerce Dept reported that retail sales fell 0.5 percent, more than analysts expected. This is the second drop in retail purchases in the last two months signaling weakness in consumer demand.
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
Savings Are a Lousy Excuse for America’s Trade Deficit / Economics / US Economy
Everyone who’s been paying attention knows by now that Americans consume too much and save too little. This is statistically true, but it has unfortunately become the basis of a mischievous lie about the cause of America’s monstrous trade deficits. That is, many orthodox economists have been claiming that our trade deficit is really a savings problem in disguise.
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
Census Bureau Reports Fictional Hogwash About Retail Sales / Economics / US Economy
Today the Census Bureau posted its Advance Monthly Retail Sales and Food Services Report for June 2010.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Money Disillusion, 8 Ugly Facts About U.K. Inflation / Economics / Inflation
Behold the sad case of the poor British worker and saver...
PEOPLE BUY GOLD when they fear inflation ahead. But they also buy gold when inflation arrives and starts eating into their savings – which is just what it's done during the last decade.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Economics Is Easy Except for Academic Economists / Economics / Economic Theory
Sterling T. Terrell writes: I stumbled across an interesting article a few days ago. Written by Kartik Athreya, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the article is titled "Economics is Hard. Don't Let Bloggers Tell You Otherwise."
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
UK Unemployment Falls Inline With Forecast Trend Expectations / Economics / UK Economy
The previous Labour government's debt fuelled election bounce continues to have a positive impact on the UK economy as the number of unemployed for May fell to 2.47 million down by 34,000 in the three months to May. However whilst the ConLIb government may try and claim some credit from Labours lagging unemployment news, the headline figure masks several problem areas such as the rise in the long-term unemployed up by over 60,000 to 787,000.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
U.S. Economic Recovery and Weak Loan Demand / Economics / Economic Recovery
You have heard that loan growth is one of the critical elements of economic growth. The last recession saw total outstanding loans plummet as banks tightened up their credit standards and credit demand fell. So far, business loans remain weak indicating business of all sizes are not looking for more credit.
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Self-Defeat of the Keynesian Cross / Economics / Economic Theory
Predrag Rajsic writes: The Austrian business-cycle theory, initiated by Ludwig von Mises and further developed and elaborated by F.A. Hayek, is by many considered the cornerstone of this school of thought. However, in 1998, Paul Krugman plainly dismissed the theory as not "worthy of serious study."
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Inflation, The Runaway Train / Economics / Inflation
Inflationary risks have seemingly fallen out of the mindset of many investors recently, with the European debt crisis causing many to reevaluate their outlook for global economic growth in concert with record low headline CPI numbers being released. Despite this, gold, traditionally a hedge against inflation, continues to move up in price. Is this dynamic inconsistent? We don’t think so. Of course, some of gold’s price movement may reflect its safety aspect, given renewed concerns over the long-term health of the economy, but in our opinion, inflationary concerns are very much valid and should be front and center of any investment strategy going forward.
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Are We Trending Towards Deflation or in It? / Economics / Deflation
Paul Krugman is worried we are Trending Toward Deflation.
Read full article... Read full article...Inflation has been falling, but how close are we to deflation? I found myself wondering that after observing John Makin’s combusting coiffure, his prediction that we might see deflation this year.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
UK Inflation Falls to CPI 3.2%, Precisely inline with 2010 Forecast / Economics / Inflation
UK inflation for June 2010 registered a small drop from 3.4% to 3.2%, though remaining stubbornly above the Bank of England's upper limit of 3%, thus the BoE Governor, Mervyn King will write yet another letter to repeat that the high rate of inflation is just "temporary", though when does "temporary" high inflation stop being temporary? 6 months? a year? 2 years? as the country sleep walks into stagflation with all of the consequences for wage earners and savers.
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010
How to Fix the U.S. Economy? / Economics / Economic Stimulus
There are remedies for recession, and the remedies are well known. But fixing the economy requires special medicine, fiscal stimulus, and if the patient does not take the medicine, he will not improve. It's not enough to have the medicine sitting on one's nightstand. It must be ingested before recovery can begin.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
Recession, Deflation and Deficits Economic Outlook 2010 / Economics / US Economy
I look forward at the beginning of every quarter to receiving the Quarterly Outlook from Hoisington Investment Management. They have been prominent proponents of the view that deflation is the problem, stemming from a variety of factors, and write about their views in a very clear and concise manner. This quarter's letter is no exception, where they once again delve into the history books to bring up fresh and relevant lessons for today. This is a must read piece.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
U.S. Economy Dancing On Quicksand / Economics / US Economy
Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We control the horizontal and the vertical.(Old outer limits TV show intro)
Bernanke speaking to the heads of the reserve banks.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
Deflation becomes the Dominant Economic Trend / Economics / Deflation
One of the abiding fears since the government stimulus effort began in earnest last year has been the fear that runaway inflation will once again rear its ugly head. Legions of market commentators have predicted the return of inflation in spite of the deflationary environment we find ourselves in.Can we reasonably expect a return of inflation in the foreseeable future? The Kress Cycles say “No!” and tell us to expect just the opposite, namely a deflationary trend. This has certainly been the dominant economic trend since the credit crisis of 2008 and, in some areas, even before then.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
Obama Failed Economic Policy, No Recovery Without Job Creation / Economics / US Economy
There will be no recovery without jobs, and there will be no net job creation if small businesses, especially startups, do not lead the way.
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