Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Friday, April 14, 2017
China Starting To Resemble Bernie Madoff / Economics / China Economy
Aubible.com just released a new show on Bernie Madoff (Ponzi Supernova, available for free to subscribers) that explains how the world’s biggest financial scam was enabled by banks and hedge funds who were making so much money that they chose to ignore obvious red flags.
Which sounds a lot like today’s China, Inc. Here, for instance, is a sequence of events involving China Huishan Dairy Holdings, an apparently too-big-to-fail chain of dairy farms:
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Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Map Shows 16 Countries Will Be Hit Hard By The Global Exporters’ Crisis / Economics / Global Economy
The world is currently in the midst of an exporters' crisis. The stagnation in global consumption levels and decline of commodity prices have led to increased instability and insecurity in countries heavily dependent on exports.
The origins of the exporters’ crisis lie in the economic recessions that the United States and Europe experienced due to the 2008 financial crash. These countries were major consumers of Chinese goods, notably low-cost manufactured products.
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Thursday, April 06, 2017
From Inflation to Imflation, Agflation and Munflation / Economics / Inflation
Vakhtang Charaia and Vladimer Papava write: Inflation is an important macroeconomic indicator for the analysis of an established economic situation as well as forecasting the economic development for any country.The “consumer basket,” which helps to indicate the consumer price index (CPI) or the average inflation rate, incorporates several commodity groups and given the correspondent weights encompasses different goods and services. Some of the commodity groups (e.g. electronics, new and used cars, furniture, hotel and restaurant services, etc.) fails to reflect the problem of the low-income population.
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Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Odd, Ominous Economic Trend in the US That Is Not Seen Anywhere Else in the World / Economics / US Economy
I’ve written about this previously, but there are 10 million American men of prime working age (25 to 54) who have simply dropped out of the workforce. And most of them have not only dropped out of the workforce, they have also dropped out from any commitments or responsibilities to society.
It is not just the labor force they are not participating in; they are not participating in the normal ebb and flow of community life.
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Wednesday, April 05, 2017
India’s Technological Revolution Has Already Left the West Behind / Economics / India
My friend Raoul Pal, mastermind of Global Macro Investor, writes one of the most expensive macroeconomic letters in the world. His subscriber list is short and extremely exclusive.
Raul comes up with more unique ideas per year than any man I know. What’s fascinating is that once he comes up with an idea, you then begin to see it filtering into the trading/hedge fund community.
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Tuesday, April 04, 2017
The Fake US Economic Recovery May Be Ending / Economics / US Economy
The “real” Atlanta Fed’s reading of Q1 GDP went off a cliff to less than 1%:
No one has the slightest idea of what is happening as insane levels of debt distort the model’s which economists use to forecast the future economic trends. From here on out, there will be unpleasant surprises all the way around. According to shadow stats, the GDP is in contraction at the rate of -2%.
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Monday, April 03, 2017
Trump's Reflation Trade is Deflating / Economics / US Economy
The election of the 45th President brought with it great enthusiasm for the U.S. economy to break out of its eight-year growth malaise and to provide it with a huge adrenaline shot of inflation. But the optimism behind Trump's economic agenda took a serious blow with the inability of House Republicans to even get a vote on repealing and replacing Obamacare.
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Sunday, April 02, 2017
Maybe The US Economic Recovery Wasn’t Real After All / Economics / US Economy
For a while there it looked like the US and its main trading partners had finally achieved escape velocity. Growth was up, inflation was poking through the Fed’s 2% target, and most measures of consumer sentiment were bordering on euphoric.
Then it all started to evaporate. Lackluster manufacturing and consumer spending reports sent the Atlanta Fed’s reading of Q1 GDP off a cliff to less than 1%:
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Wednesday, March 29, 2017
The Last G-20 Meeting Marks the End of Free Trade / Economics / Global Economy
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : In the last G-20 meeting, its members agreed to drop the forum’s commitment to free trade at the insistence of the United States. That agreement was reached at one meeting and was contained in a single document—such agreements and documents are far from written in stone.
In spite of that, it must be regarded as a historical moment. Excluding the free trade commitment from the agreement marks a fundamental shift in a concept that has been central to global economics for more than a generation.
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Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Charts That Reveal US Real Employment Status and It’s Not Good / Economics / Employment
The “labor force” from which we get unemployment statistics includes only those people who are either working or wish to be working.
It ignores the retired, those in school, the disabled, and nonworking spouses—as well as those who are not interested in working.
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Sunday, March 26, 2017
China’s Rise in Global Robotics: Toward Consolidation / Economics / Robotics
Chinese robotics is positioned for leadership in global robotics, as the emerging industry is moving toward increasing rivalry and consolidation.In the new and emerging industry, the rise of innovative robotics startups heralds the future. In 2016, almost 130 companies were funded by venture capital, including China-based RooBo, Israeli Roboteam, and German ReActive Robotics. While the most valuable deals involved unmanned aerial systems companies (read: drones), they were followed by agricultural robotics, service robots for businesses and personal use.
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Friday, March 24, 2017
Maps That Explain Why North America Economy Will Flourish / Economics / US Economy
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The world has seen great change since the end of the Cold War. For much of the past two millennia, political, military, and economic strength has been based in Eurasia. And, since the 1500s, mostly in Europe.
This is no longer true.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the world’s one top power has been in North America. North America is now the center of the international political system. Mainly because of the power of the United States.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Raising the Minimum Wage Is a Jobs Killing Move / Economics / Employment
By Stephen McBride: In January, 19 US states raised their respective minimum wages. Washington was among the most generous, hiking by $1.53 (bringing it to $11 per hour). Arizona got an increase of $1.95—their “bottom rung” now sits at $10 per hour.
In all, 4.3 million workers are slated to receive a hike as they earn less than the new minimum wage in their respective states. Well, that’s what’s meant to happen. Judging by the fallout from recent hikes, it seems things aren’t going according to plan.
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Tuesday, March 21, 2017
UK Stagflation, Soaring Inflation CPI 2.3%, RPI 3.2%, Real 4.4% / Economics / Inflation
The implications of sterling's sharp drop in the wake of the Brexit vote were inflationary resulting in an an increase the price of imports and therefore has been exerting upwards pressure on shop prices as suppliers restock at the worse exchange rate that already depressed retailers such as the big supermarkets had delayed fully implementing that is likely to result in a crisis for the retail sector during 2017 that literally faces a perfect storm, that could even result in a Woolworth's moment...
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Monday, March 20, 2017
Small Business Survey Says… Ignore the Hard Data at Your Peril / Economics / US Economy
Surveys of both consumers and businesses show there is an extreme level of confidence regarding future GDP growth. Consumer confidence is now at its highest level since 2001. Small and medium-sized business owners, the driving force of growth in the economy, appear downright giddy; as the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index recently soared to its highest level since 2004.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, March 17, 2017
Preserving Order Amid Change in NAFTA, U.S. Sovereignty v. WTO / Economics / Global Economy
By Reva Goujon and Matthew Bey : It took more than a decade and three presidencies, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton, to conceive and craft the North American Free Trade Agreement. Will a single presidency manage to undo the process of North American integration? While the risk is real, the reality may be less dramatic.
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Thursday, March 16, 2017
China’s Economic Miracle Is Over / Economics / China Economy
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told the National People’s Congress that China’s GDP growth rate would drop from 7% in 2016 to 6.5% this year. In 2016, the country’s growth rate was the lowest it has been since 1990.
The precision with which any country’s economic growth is measured is dubious, since it’s hard to measure the economic activity of hundreds of millions of people and businesses. But the reliability of China’s economic numbers has always been taken with a larger grain of salt than in most countries. We suspect that China’s economy is growing less than 6.5%, if at all.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Desperate Saudi Arabia Turns to Asia for Investment / Economics / Saudi Arabia
BY XANDER SNYDER : King Salman of Saudi Arabia visited Malaysia on February 26. It was the first trip to the country for a Saudi monarch in over a decade. In his tour through Asia, visits also included Brunei, Japan, China, and Indonesia. Jakarta has not received a formal Saudi visitation in nearly five decades.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Startups Will Define the Future of US Employment / Economics / Employment
Research shows that technology has net-net created far more jobs than it has destroyed. A recent study by Deloitte drew on data going back to 1871 in England and Wales and found that technology has been a job-creating machine.
Part of that is because technology increases people’s spending power, which creates a surge in the demand for hairdressers, bar staff, etc.
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Monday, March 13, 2017
The U.S. Economy, Post-Payrolls & Pre-FOMC / Economics / US Economy
This week’s Notes From the Rabbit Hole included a little Payrolls/Wages related economic discussion before moving on to the usual coverage of stock markets, commodities, precious metals, bonds, currencies and related indicators and market internals. With FOMC on tap there will be more data noise directly ahead, but then I expect markets to smooth out into what is looking like a sensible short and intermediate-term plan.
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