Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, November 07, 2009
Risk Trade Collapse Could Trigger Global Economic Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
A lot of focus was given to the central banks’ meetings this week.
That’s because a lot of people would really like to see target rates start moving up from their low levels.
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
Fed Signals “All Systems Go” for More Inflation / Economics / Quantitative Easing
I have been adamant recently in saying that the Federal Reserve would not … would NOT … signal an end to the easy money environment at this week’s policy meeting. These guys simply lack the political willpower and the inclination to do what’s right. They want to keep the booze flowing to inflate assets, the long-term consequences be darned.
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
Fed Attempts to Export Inflation Will Fail / Economics / Fiat Currency
If you think people are confused about monetary affairs inside the borders of the nation they live in, you should listen to their explanations of money outside the country, beginning with the idea of "money outside the country."
If you read the financial press, you will run across this phrase: "exported inflation." We never hear the terms "imported deflation" or "exported deflation."
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
U.S. Budget Deficit Debt Crisis, Austrian, East European or Glide Option Solution? / Economics / US Debt
The Present Contains All Possible Futures
The Ugly Unemployment Numbers
Argentinian Disease
The Austrian Solution
The Eastern European Solution
Japanese Disease
The Glide Path Option
The present contains all possible futures. But not all futures are good ones. Some can be quite cruel. The one we actually get is dictated by the choices we make. For the last few months I have been addressing the choices in front of us, economically speaking. Today I am going to summarize them, and maybe we can look for some signposts that will tell us which path we're headed down. For those who are new readers and who would like a more in-depth analysis, you can go to the archives at http://www.2000wave.com/ and search for terms I am writing about. And I will start out by briefly touching on today's ugly unemployment numbers, with data you did not get in the mainstream media.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
How Important Was the October U.S. Jobs Report? / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The Labor Department reported on Friday that 190,000 more jobs were lost in October, only slightly worse than the consensus forecast of 175,000 lost jobs, and job losses for August and September were revised to fewer losses than previously reported. Good news. The negative surprise was that the unemployment rate shot up from 9.8% in September to 10.2% in October, considerably worse than expectations that unemployment would rise to 9.9%.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
U.S. Unemployment Soars to 10.2% / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Two dissatisfied customers comment about a restaurant. One says, "The food here is terrible." The other replies, "I know, and such small portions!" In many ways, they could be describing our current employment picture. Not only are the portions shrinking, but the jobs themselves are steadily losing quality.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
Freaking Out over Global Warming / Economics / Climate Change
One of the ugliest battles in the blogosphere climate wars has involved the newly released Superfreakonomics, sequel to the best-selling Freakonomics. In their new book's final chapter, economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner set out to challenge the view that massively restricting carbon emissions is the only hope for averting planetwide catastrophe. Some of the most outspoken advocates for immediate "carbon legislation," such as Joe Romm and Paul Krugman, were appalled by the chapter.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
The Path To Runaway U.S. Inflation / Economics / Inflation
"I see green shoots," said Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on 60 Minutes back in March, doing his best rendition of Haley Joel Osment from the movie The Sixth Sense. Since then, every poor economic headline in the lapdog media has been preceded with the word "unexpected," as if the clueless chairman's pronouncements were suddenly the Gospel, and the economy had indeed recovered.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
Flashback: Bernanke on Unemployment: ‘we don’t think it will get to 10 percent’ / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Today’s unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics is anything but a green shoot. The official U-3 unemployment number is 10.2%. The broader and more comprehensive official unemployment number, the U-6, is at 17.5%. The U-6 counts all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, and all the people who dropped off unemployment benefits because their unemployment benefits ran out. John Williams at Shadowstats.com suggests that real unemployment is actually running at 22%, which, by our calculation, is approaching Great Depression unemployment numbers.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
October Unemployment Report to Spark Financial Market / Economics / Financial Markets 2009
Friday (November 6), the Labor Department is expected to release date on October unemployment. Forecasts call for 175,000 job cuts during the month, according to a poll of analysts by Reuters.
Experts predict that unemployment climbed to 9.9 per cent in October as it sits just on the fringe of an inevitable surge past ten per cent in the coming months. If the October estimate holds true, this would mark the 22nd month in a row of job losses, though the pace of losses has slowed significantly.
Friday, November 06, 2009
The Ultimate Conditions For Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
With the steady stream of claims toward an economic recovery, one must do a reality check from time to time. The Gross Domestic Product for 3Q2009 reflected a solid temporary push from the absurdly inefficient and costly Clunker Car Program, and an inventory drawdown that finally arrived. Both factors contributed to a lift in GDP that in no way testify to a recovery. The Productivity at 9.5% for Q3 is the latest story of a supposed recovery. Well, if the truth be told, the combination of business liquidation and significant worker cuts adds to output with the advantage of the negative incremental workers.
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), Are They For You? / Economics / Inflation
On November 4th, Bloomberg ran this piece: U.S. to Sell $81 Billion in Long-Term Debt Next WeekSame old same old, right? Another big treasury auction. Maybe it’s a bit more than that, this time.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
The Feds Have No Faith in Economic Recovery / Economics / Economic Stimulus
The stock market has enjoyed a significant rally since the end of the first quarter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last week that the economy grew at a 3.5% annual rate in the third quarter--a figure they achieved by that claiming inflation was running at only a 0.8% annual rate, despite a sharp drop in the dollar, a spike in commodity prices and record highs for gold.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Why Purchasing Power is More Important than Investment Profits / Economics / Fiat Currency
Growing your money is not the most important element of wealth. In fact, growth should come secondary to the preservation of wealth and purchasing power. Too often do investors get distracted with nominal changes in their personal wealth only to find that the thousands of dollars they have collected is worth considerably less than it was when the initial investment was made.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The Kiss of Debt / Economics / US Debt
Regular readers of this space will recognize this as the third in a series. Irregular readers will not recognize it at all. They will look at us as though we had come from Mars. Earthlings are all convinced that a financial crisis of cosmic proportions befell the planet last fall. Had the authorities failed to act with determination and speed, it would have been the end of the world. In the popular mind the politicians have saved capitalism from its own excesses.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Global Economy / Economics / Economic Theory
[Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Global Economy • By Joseph Schumpeter • New York, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2009 • 208 pages]
The most famous chapters of Joseph Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy have been republished in paperback under the title Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Global Economy.[1] Republishing these core chapters as a standalone text in a time of economic crisis is timely to say the least.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
U.S. Economy Returns to Growth, Media Premature Boasting of Glory / Economics / Economic Recovery
Last week, to the delight of its media cheerleaders, the government announced that economic growth had returned and the recession had ended. But before we start celebrating one quarter of modest growth, we should realize the only force driving this apparent recovery is an enormous increase in government spending. To finance its largesse, the government is now borrowing at a rate that has ordinary citizens and the international community extremely concerned.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
RIP the Private Sector Economy / Economics / Economic Stimulus
Long-time readers of Gains, Pains, & Capital know that one of our central themes is the REAL issues plaguing the US economy and how the powers that be have completely failed to do anything to remedy them.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Leading Economic Indicators Point to Continuing Economy and Stock Market Rally / Economics / Economic Recovery
The Conference Board Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) has a very good track record in forecasting recessions …
It gave advance warnings for each of the past eight U.S. recessions including the double-whammy recession of the early 1980s and the recent one.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Reasons Why Hyperinflation Hasn’t Hit the U.S. Economy…Yet / Economics / HyperInflation
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Everything we know about classic economic theory suggests the U.S. economy should be experiencing Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation right now, thanks to the nearly $2.2 trillion the U.S. Federal Reserve has pumped into the system.
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