Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, November 30, 2010
IMF and EU Hammer Ireland / Economics / Economic Austerity
The terms of the EU/IMF's €85 billion ($113 billion) bailout for Ireland are much worse than analysts had anticipated. Ireland will be required to use its National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) to shore up its insolvent banks and to maintain government operations. At the same time, senior debt-holders will not share any of the losses brought on by the banks reckless lending. According to Bloomberg News, "Prime Minister Brian Cowen told reporters there had been no support in talks to ask senior bondholders to lose part of their stake on loans made to Ireland's debt-crippled banks." Thus, 100 percent of the EU/IMF's €85 billion "Financial Rescue Package" will be paid for by Irish taxpayers.
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Tuesday, November 30, 2010
U.S. Household Debt Deleveraging - Largest Decline on Record / Economics / US Economy
The soft trajectory of consumer spending and continued reduction in residential investment expenditures reflects the sharp reduction in household debt. Outstanding home mortgages have dropped from $10.606 trillion in the first quarter of 2008 to $10.126 trillion in the second quarter of 2010 (see Chart 1). Household credit card debt has fallen roughly $157 billion from the peak in the third quarter of 2008 to $2.41 trillion (see Chart 1).
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Monday, November 29, 2010
India: Land of Hope and Economic Growth / Economics / India
Indian markets have rebounded nicely from the crisis, outperforming both the U.S. and China over the past three years. As of November 23, India’s Sensex was up just over 6 percent for the past three years, while the S&P 500 Index was down more than 16 percent and China’s Hang Seng Index was down 43 percent over the same time period.
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Modern Academic Economists Misinterpret Quantitative Easing / Economics / Quantitative Easing
If you are interested in promoting long-term, sustainable economic growth, I submit the velocity of money is more pertinent than the quantity of money (quantitative easing).
Apparently, many modern economists haven’t focused sufficiently on this economic parameter.
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Sunday, November 28, 2010
Slow Economic Recovery and Recessions on the Margin / Economics / Economic Recovery
Recessions Are on the Margin
A Rose is Still a Rose
If It Feels Like a Recession
The Rough Road Back
And the data out over the last few weeks tells us it is getting better. Does this take us out of the double-dip woods, even as the Fed is lowering its forecast? And what is a recession? Yes, we all know it's when the economy doesn't grow, but we are in a rather unique economic environment, this time. Maybe things are getting better, but is it enough to get us back on the road to full employment?
Saturday, November 27, 2010
The Euro Zone’s Debt Crisis Timeout Is Expiring! / Economics / Euro-Zone
Last year’s Thanksgiving weekend was an unusually active holiday news cycle.
Of course, it was when Tiger Woods had his bizarre car accident outside of his home. That saga would dominate the news for months to come. The lesser-followed news item of that weekend came out of Dubai when the emirate announced it would restructure its sovereign debt.
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Saturday, November 27, 2010
Destructive Neoliberal Economic Austerity / Economics / Economic Theory
Instead of vitally needed stimulus, Washington and European governments dictate austerity. The pretext of deficit reduction is being used to transfer more wealth to those already with too much, plus the usual canard over the urgency to save national banking systems.In other words, make ordinary people bear the burden of bailing out banking giants responsible for the severest economic crisis since the Great Depression. How? The usual IMF solution, involving preservation of capital at the expense of workers - a package including wage and benefit cuts, less social spending, privatization of state resources, mass layoffs, deregulation, lower "onerous" taxes, maintaining corporate debt service, and harsh crackdowns against resisters.
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Saturday, November 27, 2010
Europe's Falling Debt Domino's - Greece → Ireland → Portugal → Spain → Italy → UK → ? / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
It is now common knowledge that there is a potential domino effect of European sovereign debt contagion in roughly the following order:
Greece → Ireland → Portugal → Spain → Italy → UK
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Saturday, November 27, 2010
Bernanke Rolling the Dice: America's Financial Dilemma / Economics / US Economy
There is no question that the world is at a boil. Germany is drawing anger; N. Korea has attacked S. Korea; flaying about the FED’s Mr. Bernanke blames China for America’s sad economic and financial dilemma; five suits, class action and RICO, have been filed against JPMorgan Chase and HSBC for having manipulated silver prices and class actions are rumored to be in process for naked shorting, which has been rampant in the market for years, a felony hedge fund investigation of insider trading, which the SEC has absolutely refused to pursue.
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Saturday, November 27, 2010
11 Statistics Show Just How Far the Economy Has Deteriorated / Economics / Great Depression II
Economic Collapse writes: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Unfortunately, most Americans are not. Both political parties have controlled the White House during the last four years – Barack Obama has been in office for nearly two years and before him it was George W. Bush – and yet no matter what politicians we send to Washington D.C. things just seem to keep getting worse. We buy more than we produce, we spend more than we bring in, we have 18 times as many "problem banks" as we did 4 years ago, the number of Americans on food stamps continues to set a new all-time record every month and we are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world. But at least the majority of Americans are still prosperous enough to enjoy a happy Thanksgiving inside a warm, comfortable home. Unfortunately, if things keep going the way they are going, we are going to experience a national economic nightmare that nobody will be thankful for.
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Friday, November 26, 2010
Economic Boom, Bust, and Gold / Economics / Economic Theory
In his interview with the CNBC on November 9, 2010, a highly regarded Wall Street economist, Nouriel Roubini, the cofounder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, said that a gold standard is unlikely to stabilize the financial system. On the contrary, holds Roubini, such a standard can only make things much worse.
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Friday, November 26, 2010
The Best Way To Play U.S. Sleeper Inflation / Economics / Inflation
Like gasoline seeping across a floor, inflation is slowly spreading across the globe, waiting to ignite. When it finally combusts, the move higher in prices could be explosive. Yet many U.S. citizens are going to be caught totally unaware because prices — for now — are generally flat and even falling.
This has opportunity written all over it. I’ll get to that in a bit. First, some facts on how the signs of deflation are around us:
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Friday, November 26, 2010
BLS Makes Sure there is No U.S. Food Inflation / Economics / Inflation
"Moreover, inflation has been declining and is currently quite low, with measures of underlying inflation running close to 1 percent....In this environment, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) judged that additional monetary policy accommodation was needed to support the economic recovery and help ensure that inflation, over time, is at desired levels." -Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Sixth European Central Bank, Central Banking Conference; Frankfurt, Germany; November 19, 2010
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Friday, November 26, 2010
Global Economy Key Projections For 2011 And Beyond / Economics / Global Economy
We would first evaluate the performance of our projections for 2010 as outlined in our forecasts last year (http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article15943.html) before taking a shot at predicting the direction of the Global Economy for 2011.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
Ireland's Brutal Four-Year Economic Austerity Plan / Economics / Economic Austerity
Rory Fitzgerald writes: The EU Commission has called the Irish government's Four Year Plan a "cornerstone" of the bailout package currently under discussion between Ireland, Europe and the IMF.
Market insiders have called the plan "staggeringly austere" and the proof of their scepticism lies in the fact that bond yields widened further still after the plan was announced. David Begg, head of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said: "It appears that the day of reckoning has arrived. The Barbarians are at the gates."
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Consumer Spending on Track for Sustained Growth in Q4 / Economics / Economic Recovery
Real consumer spending rose 0.3% in October, following a 0.2% gain in the prior month. A large part of the increase was from purchases of cars and other recreational vehicles. Outlays on services held steady during October after a 0.1% increase in September. The October consumer spending data combined with conservative projections in the last two months of year points to moderate growth during the fourth quarter.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
Ellen Brown Response to Gary North: QE2 IS the Populist Solution / Economics / Quantitative Easing
Gary North, who purports to be an expert on the errors in my book “Web of Debt,” has evidently not actually read it. In an article posted on the Market Oracle on November 23, he says that in calling QE2 (the Fed’s new quantitative easing program) a “bold precedent,” I have switched sides. He apparently missed the entire chapter I wrote on this subject, first published in “Web of Debt” in 2007, saying exactly what I am saying now.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
Global Debt Crisis Implosions, Use Gold and Silver to Protect from The Big One, Coming Soon / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
“Attempts to bail out the Irish banking sector via multinational loans will only increase debt burdens in Europe and lead to a nightmarish scenario there, says New York University economist Nouriel Roubini.
There is too much private debt in Ireland, and aid from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union or whoever merely amounts to pushing the payday down the road and ultimately increasing the total amount owed in the end.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
U.S. Durable Goods Orders Discouraging Report / Economics / US Economy
Orders of durable goods fell 3.3% in October vs. a 5.0% increase in September. Orders of non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft dropped 4.5% in October following a 1.9% gain in September.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Decline / Economics / Unemployment
Initial jobless claims fell 34,000 to 407,000 during the week ended November 20. This is the lowest count of initial jobless claims since July 19, 2008. The four-week moving average, at 436,000, is noticeably below 450,000, which has been the level around which initial jobless claims have been holding since April. Continuing claims, which lag initial claims by one week, fell 142,000 to 4.182 million. Unemployment insurance claims under special programs also dropped 262,000 for the week ended November 6 (see Chart 7). The decline in initial jobless claims suggests that labor market conditions are improving
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