Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Sunday, September 13, 2009
Fiat Money a Tool for War to Kill Americans / Economics / Economic Theory
A few years ago on these pages, I harshly criticized an article urging New Yorkers to "eat local," and went so far as to dub the young lady's column, "The worst economics article ever." I am here to report that her record has been smashed. Floyd Norris's recent New York Times article on the greenback is hands down the worst economics article I have ever read. Not only is it jam-packed full of false history, but it uses the falsehoods to justify monstrous crimes, both in the past and present.
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Deflation, Falling Velocity of Money Ensures Printing Presses Will Keep Running / Economics / Deflation
Elements of Deflation, Part 2
The Velocity Factor
Y=MV
Sir, I Have Not Yet Begun to Print
There Are No Good Choices
Just as water is formed by the basic elements hydrogen and oxygen, deflation has its own fundamental components. Last week we started exploring those elements, and this week we continue. I feel that the most fundamental of decisions we face in building investment portfolios is correctly deciding whether we are faced with inflation or deflation in our future. (And I tell you later on when to worry about inflation.) Most investments behave quite differently depending on whether we are in a deflationary or inflationary environment. Get this answer wrong and it could rise up to bite you.
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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Fight Deflation by Giving Workers a Pay Rise / Economics / Economic Stimulus
The slight rebound in housing looks a lot different when one considers how much the Fed is meddling in the market. Fed chair Ben Bernanke has purchased $240 billion in US Treasuries to keep long-term interest rates artificially low while--at the same time--buying $740 billion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to provide the financing for new home buyers. It's the double-whammy; and that's not all. Bernanke plans to continue buying agency MBS (monetization) until he reaches $1.45 trillion, which will make Uncle Sam the biggest player in the housing market by far. How's that for central planning?
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Saturday, September 12, 2009
The Economy Will Not Recover Until Trust is Restored / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
A 2005 letter in premier scientific journal Nature reviews the research on trust and economics:
Read full article... Read full article...Trust ... plays a key role in economic exchange and politics. In the absence of trust among trading partners, market transactions break down. In the absence of trust in a country's institutions and leaders, political legitimacy breaks down. Much recent evidence indicates that trust contributes to economic, political and social success.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Economic Fundementals Suggest This Fall and Winter Could Get Ugly / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Since March of this year, we have seen growing consensus and excitement from the mainstream media and government about an economic recovery underway. Scattered economic indicators are released and spun in a positive light when they are proportionally minuscule improvements compared to the declines already experienced for each given indicator. They typically use this sugarcoated data and ignore reality to say “the worst is behind us, yet perhaps we’ll still see a 10-15% correction in the markets, and growth might be slow for quite awhile”. In under six months from the low, the markets have rallied over 45%. Yet this type of market move up hasn’t been seen since the lead-up to the crash of October, 1987.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Government Run Economy, A New Era of Opportunity / Economics / Government Intervention
Could it be that the government is now in the driver's seat of the economy, having replaced the private sector? We certainly don’t believe it is the engine yet, but increasingly it has moved from being the backseat driver directing instructions intermittently, to taking over the steering wheel.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Widening U.S. Trade Deficit Signals Economic Recovery / Economics / Economic Recovery
Jason Simpkins writes: The U.S. trade deficit expanded at its fastest pace in more than ten years in July, accelerated by rising oil prices and increased demand for auto parts and industrial supplies.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
G-20 Governments Inflate the Global Economy to Economic Prosperity / Economics / Economic Recovery
Who says central bankers can’t inflate an economy to prosperity? To head-off the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the “Group-of-20” central banks have slashed interest rates to record lows, while politicians have funneled trillions into the coffers of the most powerful Oligarchic banks. So far, the cost of mopping up after the world financial crisis is a staggering $12-trillion, or equivalent to around a fifth of the world’s annual economic output.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wave of Unemployment in the U.S. What to Expect and What to Do- Part2 / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Continued from Part 1 hereDecline in Manufacturing
As everyone knows, the manufacturing has shrunk in the United States and the service sector has grown. Even in a manufacturing center such as Detroit, manufacturing jobs have been declining for decades: Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wave of Unemployment in the U.S. What to Expect and What to Do / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Individuals who look for work but can't find it are miserable.[1]
On the national level, high unemployment is both cause and effect concerning other problems with the economy. As we'll see below, high unemployment results from a weak economy and - in turn - weakens the economy.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
A Tale of Two Inflations / Economics / Inflation
For some time now, the disparity between price increases for imported goods and price increases for domestic goods and services has been of great interest to me and, after working through all of the applicable Labor Department data on this subject, it quickly becomes clear that there is an interesting story to tell here about two very different types of U.S. inflation in recent years - domestic inflation and imported inflation.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Yet Another Jobless Economic Recovery / Economics / Economic Recovery
It looks like this will be the third jobless recovery in a row. Coming out of the last two recessions we had what has become to be known as a jobless recovery. Job growth usually surges coming out of a recession as companies rush to bring on new employees to rebuild inventories that were depleted in the downturn.
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Wednesday, September 09, 2009
The Great Fakeroo Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
There is something affected, something not believable, something agitpropish, about all the cheers for the glorious economic recovery we are experiencing. Some of its biggest boosters don't even quite believe it.
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Wednesday, September 09, 2009
How To Create More Jobs America / Economics / Employment
My recent survey produced a variety of ideas, but most of them had these common elements: replace the Internal Revenue Code with a simpler model, encourage businesses to increase employment, and insist upon tort reform everywhere.
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Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Depression Debate - Is this an Economic Depression? / Economics / Great Depression II
In 1929 Versus 2007: Employment Change Barry Ritholtz posted a chart of unemployment with a comment: "This chart makes it pretty clear that the current recession is no Depression"
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Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Job Losses Slow but the U.S. Economy Follows Jobless Recovery Script / Economics / Employment
Jason Simpkins writes: The pace of U.S. job losses slowed in August, but the country will likely be saddled with a high unemployment rate throughout all of 2010, analysts say.
In short, even though the economy has improved, the odds of a "jobless recovery" continue to grow.
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Tuesday, September 08, 2009
When Keynesian Salvation Fails, Horrific Stimulus Trouble / Economics / Economic Theory
On this Labor Day I got up before dawn, turned on CNBC and watched an hour long, free-wheeling discussion moderated by Maria Bartoromo among Jack Welch [GE CEO for decades], Fink [CEO and Chm. of Blackrock], Pandit [CEO of Citigroup] and about seven other major people at the top of U.S. Finance and Big Corps. They all agree we face many years of grim financial and economic and probably political developments.
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Monday, September 07, 2009
Job Creation Down 35%, Consumer Spending Down 33% From Year Ago / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
On this Labor Day, inquiring minds are reading Gallup Economic Monthly: Job Creation Not Happening.
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Monday, September 07, 2009
Increased Liquidity Boosts Economic Recovery Hopes / Economics / Economic Recovery
Global economic recovery gets underway - A global increase in liquidity has been underway in an attempt to kick start economic recovery ever since the depth of the financial crisis was understood. It appears to be working. A range of countries have recorded a rise in economic growth in Q2, including Germany, France and Japan, see chart a. For many of them, this was the first rise in economic activity in over a year, after sharp consecutive quarterly declines.
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Monday, September 07, 2009
Robert Prechter Warning Economic Depression and Financial Crisis Worse To Come / Economics / Economic Depression
Dear reader,
Robert Prechter of Elliott Wave International in his recent 10 page newsletter (download for free) challenges the economic recovery hype with hard facts and independent analysis, and insightful charts. You’ll find out why the worst is NOT over and what you can do to safeguard your financial future.
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