Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Paul Krugman's Magic Keynesian Mirror Sees Non Exsistant Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Paul Krugman is quite upset with the deficit hawks at the G-20, so much so that he says Lost Decade, Here We Come
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Monday, June 07, 2010
The Phantom Economic Recovery / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
In recent months, GDP numbers have rebounded - primarily as a result of record low interest rates reliquifying the credit market and government stimulus jolting consumer spending. Although the "positive growth" has delighted Obama's economic brain trust, it has done little to boost the fortunes of Main Street. As I have said many times, GDP largely measures spending, and spending is not growth.
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Monday, June 07, 2010
India, Australia, Canda GDP Trends and Monetary Policy Update / Economics / Global Economy
This week we look at the surging growth in the Indian economy, continued improvement in the GDP results from Australia, a strengthening recovery in the Canadian economy, and monetary policy decisions by Australia and Canada, and finish up with a look at the US nonfarm payroll figures which showed strong census hiring and not much else.
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Monday, June 07, 2010
Athens Hosts the Olympiad of Debt / Economics / Global Debt Crisis
In my previous report, "There Is No Money," I surveyed Europe's sovereign debt markets. I argued that the outgoing Chief Secretary to the Treasury of Great Britain, Liam Byrne, hit the nail on the head when he placed a note on his desk for the incoming Chief Secretary to read: "There is no money." He did this as a joke, as he later explained to the media, but the joke was on the incoming government: there really is no money. But there are expenses – lots and lots of expenses. These expenses will increase. Tax revenues will not cover them
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Monday, June 07, 2010
Modern Monetary System, Banks, Money Supply, Recessions and Depressions / Economics / Elliott Wave Theory
Modern monetary theory seems almost too good be true. It seems as if "one is getting something for nothing". Too many people who understand and write about modern monetary systems are very professor-ish and don't really answer the basic question: How can one get something for nothing?
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Sunday, June 06, 2010
U.S. Federal Debt Hits $13 Trillion Record, As Congress Passes Emergency Spending Bills / Economics / US Debt
The federal government is now $13 trillion in the red, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday. This is the first time the government has fallen so far into debt. Lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the milestone with fascination for more than a week, and its arrival is likely to complicate efforts for Democrats as they try to pass several emergency spending bills this month.
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Saturday, June 05, 2010
Europe is Headed For a Mini Economic Depression / Economics / Euro-Zone
Despite a nearly-$1 trillion rescue operation, financial conditions in the eurozone continue to deteriorate. All the gauges of market stress are edging upwards and credit default swaps (CDS) spreads have widened to levels not seen since the weekend of the emergency euro-summit.
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Saturday, June 05, 2010
U.S. Negative 2% GDP Q3, Economy Return to Recession? / Economics / Economic Recovery
There's a Slow Train ComingA Negative 2% GDP in the Third Quarter?
Small Business Still Has Issues
The question before the jury is a simple one, but the answer is complex. Is the US in a "V"-shaped recovery? Are we returning to the old normal? A great deal hinges on the answer, and this week we look at some of the evidence before us. Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Jobs Report Sucker Punches Economic Recovery! / Economics / Economic Recovery
In this column a few weeks ago I likened the economy and markets to being in the eye of a hurricane. There had been some destruction in global stock markets created by the debt crisis in Europe, but the storm quieted down after the surprise EU/IMF announcement of a $1 trillion debt rescue plan. There was hope the danger had passed. But I suggested that, as in the eye of a hurricane, the other side of the storm was yet to arrive, and that sometimes it arrives with more fury than the first side.
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Saturday, June 05, 2010
Deflation Comes to Europe / Economics / Deflation
Many economists regard deflation as more dangerous than inflation, as it encourages consumers to delay purchases as they wait for a lower price tomorrow. When consumers put off buying in anticipation of lower prices it creates a downward spiral of lower demand followed by lower production.
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Saturday, June 05, 2010
U.S. Real Jobs Only Increase by 20,000, Unemployment Dips to 9.7% / Economics / Employment
This morning the BLS reported an increase of 431,000 jobs. 411,000 of those jobs were temporary workers for Census 2010. Headline unemployment fell .2% to 9.7%.
Hidden beneath the surface the BLS Black Box - Birth Death Model added 215,000 jobs.
Friday, June 04, 2010
A Primer on Austrian Economics / Economics / Economic Theory
The jurisdiction of economics extends far beyond the study of production and consumption of goods and services. The science of economics consists of the study of human action, interaction, and cooperation. Even if you accept the mainstream division of micro- and macroeconomics, at the most basic levels economics deals with how market agents make decisions and how these decisions affect interactions between individuals. Even the broadest of market trends, usually condemned to the realm of "macroeconomics," boils down to interactions between individual market agents.[1]
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Friday, June 04, 2010
Credit Expansion vs. Simple Inflation / Economics / Inflation
In dealing with the consequences of credit expansion we assumed that the total amount of additional fiduciary media enters the market system via the loan market as advances to business. All that has been predicated with regard to the effects of credit expansion refers to this condition.
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Friday, June 04, 2010
U.S. Economy Stalling as Easy Money Effect Wears Off! / Economics / US Economy
The evidence is coming fast and furious — and it all points in the same direction! Washington’s “bought and paid for” economic recovery is stalling out as the easy money effect wears off.
Just consider what we’ve learned in the past several days …
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Friday, June 04, 2010
Stubbornly High Unemployment Shows U.S. Economy Still Plagued by Jobless Economic Recovery / Economics / US Economy
Don Miller writes: While a surge in corporate profits reflect an improving economy, several government reports show that the United States continues to be plagued by a lingering "jobless recovery."
Most analysts, including President Barack Obama, are predicting a strong May jobs report due out today (Friday) with more than 500,000 new jobs added to the U.S. economy.
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Friday, June 04, 2010
What Do the ADP Employment Reports and CDO2s Have in Common? / Economics / Employment
The ADP National Employment Report estimate for May is an increase in private nonfarm payrolls of 55,000. Before revision, the April ADP estimated an increase in private nonfarm payrolls of 32,000, subsequently revised to an increase of 65,000. (Why does ADP revise its data? Does not the company know with certainty how many payrolls it processed in a month?) The first guess by the BLS for April private nonfarm payrolls was 231,000.
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Friday, June 04, 2010
Give Free Markets a Chance / Economics / Economic Theory
After watching The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's June 2nd hearing on credit rating agencies yesterday and reading Professor Raghuram Rajan's op-ed piece, (Bankers have been sold short by market distortions) in the June 3rd edition of the FT, I felt moved to rerun a commentary I wrote way back on July 17, 2008.
Given the economic and financial market "challenges" of the past year, some pundits and politicians are concluding that these challenges are the result of the failure of free markets. I would respond that we cannot determine whether free markets have failed unless we have had free markets. I do not think we have.
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Friday, June 04, 2010
Key Indicators of a New Great Depression II / Economics / Great Depression II
Neeraj Chaudhary writes: With the mainstream media focusing on the country's leveling unemployment rate, improving retail sales, and nascent housing recovery, one might think that the US government has successfully navigated the economy through recession and growth has returned. But I will argue that a look under the proverbial hood reveals a very different picture. I believe the data shows that the US economy is badly damaged, and a modern-day depression has begun. In fact, just as World War I was originally called The Great War (and was retroactively renamed after World War II), Peter Schiff has said that one day the world will refer to the 1929-41 era as Great Depression I, and the current period as Great Depression II.
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Friday, June 04, 2010
MasterCard Study Says Consumer Spending Has Taken A Break / Economics / US Economy
Michael McNamara, Vice President, Research and Analysis for SpendingPulse, observes Consumer Takes a Respite as Spending in Many Sectors Declines.
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Thursday, June 03, 2010
Europe Relapses into Economic Crisis / Economics / Euro-Zone
While most analysts and commentators in the Western world are working to affirm that the recovery progresses, Europe seems to live in a relapse of the global economic crisis. There are few stories that account for the implementation of austerity plans to reduce fiscal deficits and public debts in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and even the UK.
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