Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, February 04, 2010
Greece Crisis Shows Global Debt Bomb Could Explode During 2010 / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
Martin Hutchinson writes: The big story in the international markets so far in the New Year has been the increasing shakiness of a number of countries' government bonds, with Greece right now being the most troubled of all.
Since U.S. investors tend to avoid foreign government bonds, many will dismiss this as an irrelevant development.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Does Anyone in Washington Know What Needs to Be Done to Create Jobs? / Economics / Employment
This is a question that I often get as I speak to groups around the country. Based on the ADP monthly survey of employment, small- and medium-sized firms (less than 500 employees each) are the fount (or black hole, as of recent months) of jobs in the U.S. economy (see Chart 1).So, rather than asking Washington career politicians what it takes to create more jobs, why don't we poll small businessmen and businesswomen?
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Retail Sales Discount Offers Are the Language of Action, Not a Trick / Economics / Economic Theory
Predrag Rajsic writes: In the last several months, retail stores have sales on all sorts of products. Discounts go as far as 90% off. Some of these widespread price reductions can be attributed to the holiday season behind us, while most of them, it seems, were triggered by the recent fall in consumer demand due to the macroeconomic downturn.
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
U.S. on the Brink of Bankruptcy? / Economics / US Debt
Martin Hutchinson writes: U.S. President Barack Obama's budget for 2011, presented on Monday, shows a deficit of $1.3 trillion for the fiscal year that ends that September. That shortfall is actually $287 billion more than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had projected less than a week earlier, when it had released a budget forecast of its own for that same fiscal year.
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Beyond Economic Stimulus, Fiscal Policy After the Great Recession / Economics / Economic Recovery
Andrew Jackson writes: As the communiqué from the Pittsburgh G20 summit put it, “it worked”. Unprecedented macro-economic stimulus in the form of ultra low interest rates and large government deficits has pulled the global economy back from the abyss, at least for now. But what comes next? Conventional economic wisdom is setting the stage for deep and damaging cuts to public expenditures if labour and the progressive left do not win the argument for public investment led growth and increased fiscal capacity.
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Global Insolvency, How will the U.S. Service its Debt? / Economics / US Debt
The recent election in Massachusetts of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate was a seminal event. It ended the Democratic administration’s ability to ram through legislation. It changed the game. The locomotive hit the bunter.
China saw the error of its ways in overstimulating its economy and halted bank lending. The Senate majority refusing to seat the new Senator Brown passed a tremendous increase in short-term government debt. Goldman Sachs and others thumbed their noses at the rest of America and distributed giant bonuses as the country wallowed in depression and 22.5% unemployment. Finally we have Paul Volcker proclaiming the end of too big to fail and stopping banks from trading their own accounts.
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Will the Inflationary Hurricane Blow Your Savings Away? / Economics / Inflation
Allan Meltzer wrote a very good essay for the Wall Street Journal on January 27. It dealt with the build-up in the Federal Reserve System's monetary base as a result of its purchases of government debt, especially Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt, in the fall of 2008. Its title and subhead tell the story:
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
A Mortally Wounded Private Sector / Economics / US Economy
The President’s 2011 budget proposal was so outrageously egregious that Obama had to hold a special conference on Monday just to spin the news.
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Dangerous Recession Economic Recovery Lessons of 1937 / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Jonathan M. Finegold Catalan writes: Many economists have already compared the years 1929–1932 to those of 2007–2009, and the current period of recovery to the time period 1933–1939. It was only a matter of time before they began to look for a comparison between the recession of 1937 and a potential "double dip" today.
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
U.S. Deepening Debt Crisis, Be Afraid of Bernanke Reappointment / Economics / US Debt
If the economy deteriorates in the L-shaped “hockey-stick” rut that many economists forecast, what political price will President Obama and the Democrats pay for having returned the financial keys to the Bush Republican appointees who gave away the store in the first place? Reappointing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may end up injuring not only the economy but also the Democratic Party for years to come. Recognizing this, Republicans made populist points by opposing his reappointment during the Senate confirmation hearings last Thursday, January 27 – the day after Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address.
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Sunday, January 31, 2010
US GDP: The breakdown / Economics / US Economy
U.S. government declared its fourth quarter GDP which grew at a 5.7% annual rate. This number didn’t result from actual economic growth per se, but from a slower rate of decline of inventories. Inventory numbers that were falling at a slower rate acccounted for approximately 3.4% of the 5.7% GDP growth at the end of 2009. There has been a decrease in inventories for seven quarters in a row. Private businesses decreased inventories $33.5 billion in the fourth quarter, following a bigger decrease of $139.2 billion in the third quarter and an even biggerdecrease of $160.2 billion in the second.
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Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Statistical Economic Recovery has Arrived / Economics / Economic Recovery
The Statistical Recovery has Arrived
This Time Is Different
A Crisis of Confidence
Greeks Bearing Gifts
Biotech, Conversations and Babies
"Our immersion in the details of crises that have arisen over the past eight centuries and in data on them has led us to conclude that the most commonly repeated and most expensive investment advice ever given in the boom just before a financial crisis stems from the perception that 'this time is different.' That advice, that the old rules of valuation no longer apply, is usually followed up with vigor.
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Friday, January 29, 2010
U.S. Economy Recovery, Is This as Good as It’s Going to Get? / Economics / Economic Recovery
It’s a major question for investors. Is this as good as it’s going to get? Has the economy peaked in its recovery for now? Has the stock market begun a significant correction to factor in a slower economy, or even a dip back into recession later this year?
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Friday, January 29, 2010
This is Like the Great Depression and Worse / Economics / Great Depression II
Wellington Letter publisher Bert Dohmen discusses the economy, stock markets, gold, China’s Dubai-style bubble, and forecasts for 2010 and beyond with the McAlvany Weekly Commentary.
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Friday, January 29, 2010
U.S Economy's Secret Weapon for Economic Growth / Economics / US Economy
Martin Hutchinson writes: The U.S. employment picture isn't pretty. At 10%, the unemployment rate is at its highest level in nearly three decades, and it's expected to move higher. American employers cut 4.2 million jobs last year, and nearly 15.3 million people are unemployed.
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Friday, January 29, 2010
We Can Have Zero Unemployment, Virtually Overnight / Economics / Employment
All this talk of unemployment is preposterous. Think of it. We live in a world with lots of imperfections, things that need to be done. It has always been so and always will be so. That means that there is work to be done, and therefore always jobs. The problem of unemployment is a problem of disconnect between those who would work and those who would hire.
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
China Reigns in Davos / Economics / Global Economy
The 40th World Economic Forum started working in Davos on January 27. Russia’s Vladimir Putin opened the forum last year, but neither Russian, nor US leaders are going to attend the event this year.
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
Chinese Quest for Shortcut to Economic Greatness / Economics / China Economy
The Chinese economy must be getting out of control, because the Chinese government is doing the unthinkable: It is desperately trying to put the brakes on the economy. When you pump a stimulus package that represents 14% of GDP through a fire hose into an economy, which was already on shaky bubble foundation, in a very short time you’ll have some serious unintended consequences -- you’ll get super bubbles.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Where Will US Job Growth Come From? / Economics / Employment
Despite the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary printing and the U.S. Government’s extraordinary spending measures during the last twelve months, it looks like the only job categories with growth potential are printing press operator, ditch diggers, ditch fillers, whatever they call the guys handing out trillions in government largesse, Treasury Department comedians tickling Chinese funny bones by saying they favor a strong U.S. dollar and people installing Stimulus signs at highway projects.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
PIMCO's Bill Gross Says Invest in 'Less Levered' Countries / Economics / Investing 2010
This morning we had Jeremy Grantham's much read quarterly letter, and now we have Bill Gross' widely followed monthly letter. In this month's missive, he essentially summarizes where we plan to be invested long for the next few decades - countries who act (relatively) fiscally responsible, with solid demographics, and either are modern commodity rich "Western" nations or developing countries who are akin to investing in the US in the 1950s, 1960s. Old habits die hard and people still believe the fiscally irresponsible, borrow / spend developed economies are still the place to be... they are "safe". bah.
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