Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Friday, June 25, 2010
Europe’s Fiscal Dystopia: The “New Austerity” Road to Financial Serfdom / Economics / Euro-Zone
Europe is committing fiscal suicide – and will have little trouble finding allies at this weekend’s G-20 meetings in Toronto. Despite the deepening Great Recession threatening to bring on outright depression, European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet and prime ministers from Britain’s David Cameron to Greece’s George Papandreou (president of the Socialist International) and Canada’s host, Conservative Premier Stephen Harper, are calling for cutbacks in public spending.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
Why Investors Must Keep an Eye on Spain / Economics / Spain
Jon D. Markman writes: Greece is not the big story of Europe anymore - just a smoke screen.
The big story is Spain and the United Kingdom, and the news is getting worse.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
How to Profit From Europe’s Stealth Economic Recovery / Economics / Euro-Zone
Martin Hutchinson writes: European countries - both inside and outside the Eurozone - are slashing their budget deficits.
Greece, Portugal and Spain - three of the so-called "PIGS" - have to do so, of course. But Germany - generally reckoned to be in excellent shape - is also cutting its deficit, as is France, which hasn't run a budget surplus in 40 years. Britain, too, with no need to protect the euro (it's not a Eurozone member) just introduced a budget that cut the deficit by $140 billion over four years.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
The Case for a Second Round of Economic Stimulus / Economics / Economic Stimulus
Alan Greenspan has joined the ranks of the deficit hawks and is calling for austerity measures to reduce government spending. In an op-ed in last Thursday's Wall Street Journal titled "U.S. Debt and the Greece Analogy", Maestro Greenspan made the case for fiscal belt-tightening and disputed leading economists, like Nobel prize winners Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, who believe that the Obama administration should provide a second round of stimulus. In the opening paragraph, Greenspan dismisses the idea that cuts in government spending will push the economy back into recession. Here's an excerpt:
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Thursday, June 24, 2010
Trichet Says No Deflation or Economic Stagnation in Europe / Economics / Deflation
A sure sign that something is either on the way if not already happening is denial by a central banker of the risks. With that idea in place, this headline speaks for itself: ECB's Trichet says austerity plans don't risk stagnation
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Thursday, June 24, 2010
Central Banking in Crisis, Twenty Countries on the Verge of Insolvency / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
Cycles were created for the accumulation of wealth. A boom occurs and you get wealthy from investments on the way up and even wealthier on the way down, because the elitists are controlling the supply of money and credit and interest rates. That is the real underlying mission of the Fed, which is owned by banking and Wall Street. All the power to control markets and create inflation and deflation lies with the Federal Reserve. Politicians do not create monetary policy, the Fed does. The politicians do as they are told. They know from time to time there will be economic pain, but the payoffs are so good they learn to live with it.
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Thursday, June 24, 2010
U.S. Fears Economic Stimulus Measures Will Choke on Europe’s Drastic Budget Slashing / Economics / Economic Stimulus
Kerri Shannon writes: While U.S. President Barack Obama will be gunning for more economic stimulus measures at this weekend's Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Canada, European lawmakers continue drastic efforts to rein in spending.
The coordination of global efforts to promote economic recovery will be the main issue at the weekend's meeting, which was set to spotlight the value of China's currency before Beijing announced Saturday that it would allow the yuan to appreciate. The United States and Europe's differing views on the most effective strategies to maintain global economic growth and slash bloated government budgets are increasing tensions between leaders.
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Thursday, June 24, 2010
We Cannot Afford a Double Dip Economic Recession / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
By Alex Daley, Senior Editor, Casey Research writes: Talk of a double-dip recession is seemingly increasing these days. Home sales have dropped like a brick since the end of the special tax breaks for buyers. Weekly job reports are showing much larger rises in unemployment claims than previously expected by whoever it is that decides what exactly is expected - 427,000 new filings in just the last weekly report.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Two Leading Economic Indicators Point to Another Recession / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
There are two well-known and important leading economic indexes for the U.S. economy:
• The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI), and
• The Weekly U.S. Leading Economic Index published by the Economic Cycle Research Institute.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Money vs Wealth / Economics / Economic Theory
When discussing financial matters, people often conflate money with wealth. Although such loose language may be perfectly fine in everyday conversation, it's important to occasionally go over the basics and make sure we are thinking about these issues in the proper way.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
UK Budget 2010 Analysis, Consumers, Public Sector and Benefit Claimers to Carry the Weight / Economics / UK Tax & Budget
George Osbourne delivered his first budget flanked by Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander on either side, and clearing the uncertainty of the past 6 months which allows business's and individuals to make long-term decisions. The primary objective of the emergency budget is to address the unsustainable £156 billion annual budget deficit that risks bankrupting Britain, in this respect the budget appears to have succeeded in projecting that over the term of the parliament this deficit will be reduced to £20 billion per year.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
What's the Point of Macro Events Research in Forecasting? / Economics / Economic Theory
I am back in Tuscany and will head to Milan tomorrow early, give a speech at the Bloomberg offices and then back home. But it is Monday and that means it is time for another Outside the Box. And I have found a most excellent offering. Dylan Grice from Societe Generale in London wrote on value for an OTB a few weeks ago, and he follows that up with more thoughts on the use of macro trends versus value investing. This is a real think piece, and worthy of more than one read.
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Monday, June 21, 2010
UK Emergency Budget 2010: George Osbourne's Wage Inflation Price Spiral VAT Increase / Economics / UK Tax & Budget
George Osbourne, the Coalition governments chancellor looks set to announce deep spending cuts and significant tax rises in tomorrows budget. However what will be the lasting impact of the budget will be the changes to the rate and scope of VAT with the aim of raising at least £15 billion extra revenue per year, that will come to be seen as the budget that sparked the wage price spiral.
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Monday, June 21, 2010
101 Scary Thoughts about the U.S. Economy / Economics / US Economy
1. The crucial objective factor promoting economic growth in a private property social order is per capita investment.
2. Americans save less than 5% of household income.
3. The Federal Reserve System runs the show economically; Congress doesn't.
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Monday, June 21, 2010
Systemic Crisis of the World Economy, Global Geopolitical Dislocation / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
GEAB write: Each day the news confirm the extent to which the global systemic crisis has now entered into the phase of global geopolitical dislocation, even if the media only timidly begin to interpret the historic upheavals which unfold before our own eyes. For LEAP/E2020, the second half of 2010 will thus correspond to a new step in the global geopolitical dislocation, characterized by an acceleration in the process of strategic, financial, economic and social convulsions centered on four single points of failure (1) of the international system analyzed in this GEAB issue.
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Monday, June 21, 2010
Consumer Deleveraging: the New “wall of worry” / Economics / US Economy
Everywhere one turns it seems that fear lurks just behind the corner, just waiting to pounce. Every day we’re bombarded by fear in the news headlines, be it from a financial, economic or geopolitical perspective. Nowhere is this more apparent than the current fear campaign over the U.S. debt situation, specifically, consumer deleveraging.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Following the Worst Crisis Since the Great Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
It’s easy to lose perspective on where the global economy stands … to be confused by the daily deluge of information.
So today, in the first of a two-part series, I want to give you some perspective on the big-picture and where we are today, because as an investor the “big-picture” is critical for you. It can mean the difference between making and losing a lot of money.
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Saturday, June 19, 2010
Deficits and Economic Growth, GDP = C + I + G + (X-M) / Economics / Economic Recovery
"Everyone" is upset with the level of fiscal deficits being run by nearly every developed country. And with much justification. The levels of fiscal deficits are unsustainable and threaten to bring many countries to the desperate situation that Greece now finds itself in. We must balance the budget is the cry of fiscal conservatives. But there are unseen consequences in moving both too fast or too slow in the effort to get the deficits under control. Today we look at them as we explore what a fine mess we have gotten ourselves into. (I am working without internet today so the letter will be shorter with fewer references than normal.)Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Economic Depression Solutions, Krugman vs. Greenspan / Economics / Economic Theory
Courtesy of Calculated Risk here are a pair of articles, one from Krugman and another from Greenspan on the limits of debt.
That ’30s Feeling
Friday, June 18, 2010
Talk of Double-Dip Recession No Longer Crazy? / Economics / Double Dip Recession
Just a month or two ago opinions that the serious recession that ended in the last quarter of last year, will return in a double-dip later this year were blown off as crazy.Read full article... Read full article...