Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Green Energy Policies Would Cripple the Economy / Economics / Renewable Energy
Will a green energy industry be an engine of economic growth? Many want us to think so, including our new President. Apparently a booming green economy with millions of new jobs is just around the corner. All we need is the right mix of government “incentives.”Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Five Signs the Economy is Recovering / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
What a relief. The markets are up. We're all saved. It's time to spend again. Borrow away. The panic's over. A recovery is coming in 2010. We're home free, right?
If you listened to Fed Chairman Bernanke today that's what we would be led to believe. He said “there is a reasonable prospect” the recession will end this year.
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
How the US Economy Was Lost / Economics / US Economy
Paul Craig Roberts writes: The American economy has gone away. It is not coming back until free trade myths are buried six feet under. America's 20th century economic success was based on two things. Free trade was not one of them. America's economic success was based on protectionism, which was ensured by the union victory in the Civil War, and on British indebtedness, which destroyed the British pound as world reserve currency. Following World War II, the US dollar took the role as reserve currency, a privilege that allows the US to pay its international bills in its own currency.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
China's Internal Divisions, Economic Crisis and the Stimulus Plan / Economics / China Economy
Due in large part to fears of dire consequences if nothing were done to tackle the economic crisis, China rushed through a 4 trillion yuan (US$586 billion) economic stimulus package in November 2008. The plan cobbled together existing and new initiatives focused on massive infrastructure development projects (designed, among other things, to soak up surplus steel, cement and labor capacity), tax cuts, green energy programs, and rural development.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Economic Crisis / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The more they do, the worse it gets, and world headlines confirm it. Recent ones include:-- The New York Times, February 17: "After Manhattan's Office Boom, a Hard Fall;"
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Monday, February 23, 2009
Mainstream Economists Retarded Embrace of John Maynard Keynes' "Paradox of Thrift" / Economics / Economic Theory
Mainstream economists and the mainstream media continue to embrace John Maynard Keynes' notion of the "paradox of thrift." While most economists subscribe to the view that the pace of long-run economic growth is a function of productivity and thrift (saving), short-run growth can be retarded by too much thrift. According to this view, if households in the aggregate decide to cut back on their current spending, i.e., save more, aggregate economic demand will be negatively affected. Hence, the paradox of thrift. A little later in this commentary, I will try to dispel the notion that thrift retards growth in aggregate demand in the short run.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Global Economic Outlook: 2012 and Beyond / Economics / Global Economy
Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar writes: It is said that today is pregnant with tomorrow. What and how we have done things in the past has shaped out today and what and how we do things today determine the shape of our future. To see into the future of our economies, with some small degree of certainty, we have to pay attention to what is happening around us and what we do.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 23, 2009
There's only one Cure for a Depression / Economics / Economic Depression
In contrast with a depression, a recession is relatively easy to bring to an end. The genesis of a recession is caused by excessive credit creation on the part of banks and the Fed. The superfluous money drives prices higher and the rate of inflation begins to increase at a pace that makes the Fed uncomfortable. The Central bank then begins to raise rates in order to soak up that liquidity and put an end to its easy monetary policy.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Debt Addiction Depression Destruction / Economics / Credit Crisis 2009
Modern economies were created by the collusion of bankers and government. The banks are now collapsing and only the governments are left. It's like watching a two legged man trying to stand on his one remaining leg. How long will he remain upright and in what direction will he fall?
Recently on the Oprah Winfrey Show, one of the most popular TV programs in America , a family of five—a father, mother, their two teenage sons and a baby—were featured because all, except for the baby, were addicted to heroin.
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Sunday, February 22, 2009
The Grand Economic Stimulus Experiment and the Catastrophic Flaw / Economics / Economic Stimulus
Welcome to the Weekly Report. I have seen much head-scratching about the methods being employed by the US authorities in the attempt to turn off the road to depression and onto the highway to prosperity. Many have heard President Obama talk of the failure of government spending to turn around both the US '30s and the Japanese '90-current depressionary eras because the actions taken back then were too slow and too small.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Deflation - What You Should and Should Not Do / Economics / Deflation
Whilst recent headlines have been grabbed by Barack Obama's $800 billion Economic Stimulus package which is part of a global collective total of approximate $2 trillion of stimulus spending that has been committed for during the next 1 to 2 years. However the fact of the matter is that this does not even come close to countering the REAL Deflationary impact of the $30 trillion across the board loss of value of assets from real estate to stocks to commodities.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 22, 2009
World Economies Face Perfect Storm of Deepening Recession and Banking Crisis / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
A perfect storm of a deepening global recession and banking woes last week battered equities and supported the safe havens of the US dollar, government bonds and gold bullion.
A dismal corporate earnings outlook, fears about bank nationalizations, especially Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C), and a warning by Moody's Investors Service of possible downgrades of European banks exposed to the slumping economies of Central and Eastern Europe, stoked investors' fears.
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Saturday, February 21, 2009
UK Unemployment Time Bomb to Explode July 2009 / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Official UK unemployment data for November 08 stands at 1.97million, with unemployment as of the end of January estimated at 2.1 million as a consequences of the rise in claimant count for December 08 and January 09 of 226,000. However whilst the pace of unemployment increases is bad as it is, which is approaching 100,000 a month, unfortunately there also exists the unemployment time bomb of the estimated 600,000 graduates that are expected to join the labour market in July 2009, which could result in a surge of unemployment of as many as 250,000 in a single, with also extra high unemployed numbers for subsequent months.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, February 21, 2009
ECB Dithers as Eastern Europe Bad Debts to Bankrupt European Banks / Economics / Credit Crisis 2009
- The Risk in Europe
- While Rome Burns
- The Euro Back to Parity? Really?
- Back to the Basics
- Living in Paradise
- The 20-Year Horizon
- If I Had a Hammer
When I sit down each week to write, I essentially do what I did nine years ago when I started writing this letter. I write to you, as an individual. I don't think of a large group of people, just a simple letter to a friend. It is only half a joke that this letter is written to my one million closest friends. That is the way I think of it.
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Friday, February 20, 2009
U.S. CPI Reverts from Deflation Back to Inflation Mode / Economics / Inflation
For the better part of the second half of 2008, the decision was an easy one. For the first 30 or so days of 2009, the decision remained easy. Then something changed. Something subtle, but at the same time worthy of our utmost attention. Producer and consumer prices began to climb off the mat and beginning in January 2009, there has been a rather remarkable turnaround. Granted, one month does not a trend make, but in this environment, big moves, which have become commonplace bear even more study when they reverse themselves on a dime.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 20, 2009
UK Public Sector Contraction to Trigger Double Dip Recession / Economics / UK Economy
My recent indepth analysis and forecast of the UK economy for the period 2009 to 2010 concluded that the UK is heading for GDP contraction of 6.3%, and will start to bounce from a 4th quarter 2009 low of -4.75% GDP into the end of 2010. This recovery is expected to be followed by further weakness due to the scale of government borrowing generated in advance of the 2010 general election. On further analysis of the prospects post 2010 suggesting that 2011 and 2012 economic weakness may be as a consequence of a Public Sector Recession.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 20, 2009
U.S. Government Borrowing Trillions of Dollars to Artificially Inflate Deflating Bubble Economy / Economics / US Debt
Predatory Legislators - With millions of homeowners now struggling to repay money they clearly never should have borrowed, our leaders have been righteously wagging fingers at predatory lenders who allegedly enticed innocent borrowers, and the country, into a financial snake pit. While the mortgage industry clearly deserves a good share of the blame, unindicted co-conspirators abound. The ringleaders are still at-large and are, in fact, busy hatching a plan to dwarf the earlier mistakes.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 20, 2009
Bankrupt Eastern European Banks Require Mega Bailouts to Survive / Economics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Martin Hutchinson writes: We all know about the mess the United States, Britain, Spain and some other countries have gotten themselves into thanks to overenthusiastic housing bubbles.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
"The Last Bastion Against Deflation: The Federal Government / Economics / Deflation
This article is part of a syndicated series about deflation from market analyst Robert Prechter, the world's foremost expert on and proponent of the deflationary scenario. For more on deflation and how you can survive it, download Prechter's FREE 60-page Deflation Survival eBook , part of Prechter's NEW Deflation Survival Guide.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Perfect Storm: Financial Crisis of Epic Proportions / Economics / Financial Crash
The Perfect Storm: Financial Crisis of Epic Proportions
THE BURNING PLATFORM - "The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon." David M. Walker
David Walker served as Comptroller General of the United States from 1998 through 2008. He is now the CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and leader of the Fiscal Wake Up Tour. He has been a lone voice in the wilderness for the last decade regarding our looming fiscal disaster.
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