Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, September 17, 2009
How To Stimulate Consumer Spending and Jumpstart The Economy / Economics / Economic Recovery
My survey produced an interesting anomaly--- several respondents felt that excessive consumer spending was the primary cause of the economic problems we face today, and that spending is not to be encouraged.
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Thursday, September 17, 2009
Is the Fed's Money Pumping Inflationary? / Economics / Economic Theory
Given the recent, massive increase in commercial banks' excess reserves, many commentators are of the view that banks will sooner or later start employing these reserves in lending and thus cause an increase in the inflation rate.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
U.S. August Retail Aales up 2.7 per cent / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
While many top economists have suggested that housing and credit sectors have bottomed, most have still been watching and waiting for retail sales and consumer spending to give more legs to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments that the recession is over. Perhaps Tuesday (September 15) morning’s August retail sales report is just the medicine investors and consumers are looking for.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Outsourcing Unemployment To China / Economics / China Economy
As goes the US consumer so goes Chinese manufacturing. Here is a long but educational video produced by Vanguard on several Chinese manufacturing cities and what the economic downturn has meant for them. It's well worth a play.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
China Trading Places with U.S. As Economic Super Power / Economics / China Economy
Here’s a headline that broke my heart when I read it last week: “U.S. Poverty Rate Hits 11-Year High.”
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that a sad-but-true 13.2 percent or 39.2 million Americans are living below the poverty line, defined as less than $22,025 for a family of four. That’s the highest rate since 1997.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Fed Owns Most American Monetary Economists / Economics / Economic Theory
The Social Security system has long been described as the third rail of American politics. "Touch it, and you die." You get electrocuted. If you should somehow survive, the next subway train will cut you in pieces.
There is such a rail in academia: the Federal Reserve System.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Economic Outlook for 16th September 2009 / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Broadly speaking, the theme of equities making progress on the back of ample liquidity in financial markets continues to hold. Yesterday’s stronger-than-expected economic data from the US and UK were also helpful, with US retail sales of particular note. But all that glitters may not be gold. As in other countries with incentive schemes to scrap old cars in favour of new models, the boost to consumer spending is not permanent.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
U.S. Economic and Interest Rate Outlook, Depression Avoided but Economy Still Faces Strong Headwinds / Economics / Economic Recovery
We have just weathered the longest (19 months?) and deepest recession in the post-WWII era.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Disturbing Financial and Economic Trends 2009 / Economics / Credit Crisis 2009
Bail, rescue, print formula no cure for what ails America.
"[E]normous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects. For now, most of those effects are invisible and could indeed remain latent for a long time. Still, their threat may be as ominous as that posed by the financial crisis itself." -- Warren Buffett
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
US Census Bureau Confirms Rising Poverty, Falling Incomes, and Growing Numbers of Uninsured / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
In early September, The US Census Bureau released its new report titled, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008" showing disturbing data that portends much worse ahead under a president and Congress doing nothing to address it.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
U.S. China Tire Trade War Could Lead to Second Great Depression / Economics / Global Economy
Martin Hutchinson writes: When U.S. President Barack Obama late Friday (Sept. 11) signed an order that imposed an additional duty of 35% on tires imported from China, it set up the potential for an old-fashioned trade war.
Currently, global trade is down only 20%. During normal times, worldwide commerce would recover on its own. But as most investors understand all too well, these aren't normal times.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Can Keynesian Spending Achieve National Energy Security ? / Economics / Climate Change
The December Revolution - The coming World Climate Summit, also called COP-15, is scheduled for a marathon 11 day series through December 7-18 in Copenhagen. This will bring together 192 presidents, heads of government or high level delegations, observers from a selected range of UN agencies and some other accredited organizations, selected NGOs and commercial sponsors, and carefully selected press and media. For the public getting in to these meetings is a lot more difficult, with open access sessions being the exception not rule. This has already resulted in accusations that COP-15 is essentially a closed-door forum where climate business will be pushed to the limit. Where national leaders will haggle in private for clear advantages and gains, here, and lower costs and losses, there.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Yellen Calls For "U" Shaped Recession and Another Jobless Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
One thing I like about Janet Yellen is that unlike Bernanke and Greenspan, she speaks understandable English and is not prone to sugar coating everything. I disagree with much of what she says, but not all of it.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
U.S. Retail Sales Bounce on Federally Subsidized Auto Sales / Economics / US Economy
One of my favorite sources of information is The Liscio Report by Philippa Dunne & Doug Henwood. Among other things, each month they survey all the states about tax revenues, expenses and then give us the results in a very pithy fashion. No one pays taxes unless they have to, and thus taxes tell us a lot about the current spending and income situation. Taxes are a far more reliable indicator then surveys, which most "data" is based on.
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Monday, September 14, 2009
Recession Ghost Fleets With No Crew, No Cargo and No Destination / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The Mail Online has some stunning images of The ghost fleet of the recession.
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Monday, September 14, 2009
U.S. and China, The Alarming Tale of Two Economies / Economics / US Debt
The contrast between the U.S. and China has never been more disturbing.
Here in the U.S., our government is sinking into debt at the fastest pace in history. The federal deficit has nearly quadrupled in a year. New spending programs now before Congress seem to guarantee even higher deficits and debt ahead.
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Monday, September 14, 2009
UK Economic Productivity, Trends and Prospects / Economics / UK Economy
One of the key indicators of how well economies perform is productivity. Over the medium to long term, real income growth, and hence living standards, depend on how fast an economy can grow its output based on its labour and capital inputs. Those economies that perform well on this score tend to be those that are the most flexible and dynamic – i.e. those that have a high degree of skilled labour, undertake strong capital investment, employ a high proportion of their available workforce, and combine their labour and capital inputs in the most efficient manner.
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Greenspan the Root Cause of this Economic Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
Bernanke, Geithner, and others have stated the biggest mistake in this depression was the failure to rescue Lehman. I have long disagreed, instead declaring the Bankruptcy of Lehman was one of the few things the Fed got right, even if by accident.
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Decade of No Income Gains for Wage Earners / Economics / Employment
For the first time since the great depression (and possibly even then), US wage earners suffered through A Decade With No Income Gains.
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
1929 Great Crash, Depression, Then and Now Lessons From History / Economics / Economic Theory
Early 1955 finds the American public swamped by forecasts of prosperity and boom. Economic advisers to governments, corporations, universities, labor unions and other groups seem to have resolved in unison to assure the people that a depression like that of the 1930s has been banned forever from the American scene. "Americans need not fear a depression," they say. "Our government will carefully watch our economy and interfere when the need arises."
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