Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, January 09, 2010
Economy Forecast 2010 the Uncertain Statistical Economic Recovery / Economics / Economic Recovery
2010: A Year of Uncertainty
"Rocking Even Me"
Prisoners of Our Preconceptions
The Statistical Recovery
The Great Experiment
Whither the Fed?
"Lying here, during all this time after my own small fall, it has become my conviction that things mean pretty much what we want them to mean. We'll pluck significance from the least consequential happenstance if it suits us and happily ignore the most flagrantly obvious symmetry between separate aspects of our lives if it threatens some cherished prejudice or cosily comforting belief; we are blindest to precisely whatever might be most illuminating." - from Transition, by Iain M. Banks
Friday, January 08, 2010
The History of Money, Credit, Debt and Banking, Financial Lessons of the Ages / Economics / Debt & Loans
Rather than rigorous study, which would help us connect the explosion of debt that has occurred in the last century (particularly since the early 1970s) with the financial markets, the majority of the financial industry and the investors who depend on their experience, have instead relied on simple slogans like, “the market always goes up over the long term” or “invest according to your risk tolerance.” And as long as the public believes that up markets mean the elixir of capitalism is working and we are getting better and that down markets are only temporary, these trite sayings will suffice. Human nature being what it is, I suppose we would rather seek “advice” that allows us see things the way we want them to be, rather than address how unsustainable debt and corporate and political corruption could impact our collective future.
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Friday, January 08, 2010
December U.S. Job Losses Implications for Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The Labor Department’s report that 85,000 jobs were lost in December was certainly a disappointment, much worse than the consensus forecast that job losses had bottomed in November and perhaps as many as 10,000 new jobs may have been created in December.
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Friday, January 08, 2010
Massive 43% Jump in U.S. Emergency Unemployment Benefits, Government Manipulating Data? / Economics / Economic Statistics
I was intrigued by a post by Zero Hedge asking Is The Government Misrepresenting Unemployment By 32%?
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Friday, January 08, 2010
The Next Major Bull Market Will Be In Economic Nonsense / Economics / Economic Statistics
I am not trying to be flippant, nor humorous. Indeed, we in the US will very likely see a massive escalation of propaganda, phony economic data, massaged labor statistics, and the like in 2010.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
The Nine Chinese Men Who Control the Fate of America / Economics / US Bonds
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: Nine politicians in China control the fate of the United States of America.
I'm not kidding. The implications are scary. Let me explain...
Thursday, January 07, 2010
How Long Will the Economic Recovery Continue? / Economics / Economic Recovery
There's no denying that the economy is getting better, but will it last? Many economists don't think so, including experts at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, like Paul Krugman and Martin Feldstein. They think the economy will begin to fizzle sometime in the latter part of 2010 when Obama's $787 billion fiscal stimulus runs out and consumers are forced to pick up the slack in demand. That's a safe bet, too, considering that unemployment will still be somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 percent and households will still be digging out from the $13 trillion they lost during the crisis. And the fact that the Fed is planning to end its quantitative easing (QE) program in early April, doesn't help either.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
U.S. Jobs May Rebound In 2010, But Unemployment ? / Economics / Employment
The USA Today says Jobs May Rebound In 2010.
The article has some very nice interactive graphs showing state by state forecasts. The charts below that I copied are not interactive.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Do Technological Innovations Cause Business Cycles? / Economics / Economic Theory
Malte Tobias Kähler writes: Agora — "market" — was the name for the public place in the center of ancient Hellenic cities. Spanish film director Alejandro Amenábar recently gave his new movie the same dignified title. It tells the story of Hypatia of Alexandria, a wise and proud woman, a teacher of philosophy and astronomy at the library of that old metropolis. During those times, the dominant model of the solar system was the Ptolemaic view, in which the earth is located in the centre, and the sun and all the planets surround it in circles.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
U.S. Economy 2010 From Scandalous Past to Uncertain Future / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
“Homes rose markedly in value, especially in hot markets like Florida and New York City. Borrowers believed that home purchases were no-risk ventures certain to escalade, and they went out on a limb to buy. Lenders who had once required large down payments now permitted home purchasers to combine two and three loans to buy a home. People took out what were called “buffet” loans, which were interest-only loans that buyers were told they should refinance in three years or five years. Lenders told home buyers not to worry; homes were rising so fast in value that it would always be easy to refinance into another loan.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
Keynes and Bernanke on Bubbles and Manias: Blame the Free Market / Economics / Economic Theory
In 1936, John Maynard Keynes' book appeared: The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. It changed the world. It justified in the name of economic theory what governments had been doing since 1932: running deficits and creating fiat money. Keynes' ideas took over. Today, they are dominant. The 30-year break, 1978–2008 – Chicago School, rational expectations, efficient market theory – is over. Academic economists, like Dorothy in Kansas, ran for the Keynesian storm cellar. Unlike Dorothy, they made it. No trip to Oz for them!
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Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Keynesianism Delivers a Decade of Zero Economic Growth / Economics / Great Depression II
This past week we celebrated the end of what most people agree was a decade best forgotten. New York Times columnist and leading Keynesian economist Paul Krugman called it the Big Zero in a recent column. He wrote that "there was a whole lot of nothing going on in measures of economic progress or success" which is true. However, Krugman continues to misleadingly blame the free market and supposed lack of regulation for the economic chaos.
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Monday, January 04, 2010
Signs of Economic Depression / Economics / Great Depression II
I wanted to remind you not to lose sight of the big picture. It’s advisable to try to make money during an illusion only if you know the reality.
Remember, consumer confidence and investor sentiment can and often creates illusions that can lead to big gains in stock market. But at some point, reality sets in.
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Monday, January 04, 2010
Mature Capitalist Economies Trend Towards Stagnation Triggering Financial Innovations / Economics / Economic Theory
British economist John Maynard Keynes, believed in capitalism, but he was also sharply critical of its structural flaws. He summed it up succinctly like this: "Our analysis shows... that long-run development is not inherent in the capitalist economy. Thus, specific 'development factors' are required to sustain a long-run upward movement."
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Monday, January 04, 2010
How Deflation Is Inflation / Economics / Inflation
Let's squash the debate between deflationalists and hyper-inflationalists. Here follows the math that shows how we get the equivalent effect of price inflation (and skyrocketing gold price) when there is deflation on a debt money standard.
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Sunday, January 03, 2010
Economic Aspects Of The Pension Problem, Deflation Threat and Ponzi Pensions / Economics / Pensions & Retirement
As It Appears Sixty Years Later
In Two Parts. Part One: Euthanasia of the Pension Funds. On February 23, 1950, The Commercial and Financial Chronicle published an article from Ludwig von Mises with the above title. In it the author concentrated on the threat of inflation as the greatest danger to pension rights. Sixty years later another danger is looming large on the horizon: the threat of deflation, and a new examination of the pension problem is timely.
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Sunday, January 03, 2010
Can America Produce Genuine Long-Term Economic Growth? / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Genuine means authentic which means "conforming to fact and therefore worthy of belief and trust" (as the thesaurus says), and the antonym is counterfeit, false, and a sham.
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Sunday, January 03, 2010
United States a Ponzi Scheme that Works! / Economics / US Economy
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Fiscal Policy Cannot Stimulate the Economy, Redux / Economics / Economic Theory
Sterling T. Terrell writes: Fiscal policy, the attempt to use government outlays and revenue to better the economy, simply does not work either a priori or in practice.
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Friday, January 01, 2010
Vietnam Halts Gold Trading; Global Imbalances Mount / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
Citing speculation and excessive leverage Vietnam to put an end to gold trading.
Read full article... Read full article...January 1 2010
Vietnam has ordered all gold trading floors to close by the end of March, putting an end to a business which turns over $1bn a day but which the government feared was spinning out of control.