Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, February 12, 2009
UK Retail Sales Bounce Out of Deflation on Deep Discounting / Economics / UK Economy
Headline retail sales bounced strongly in December rising by 2% to an annualised 3.7% as distressed retailers slashed margins on stock to avert bankruptcy amidst price cutting in the wake of heavily discounted stock in the closing down sales of major retailers such as Woolworth's , Zavvi and Adams, that collectively account for some 50,000 jobs.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Economic Growth and Debt: Is there a Trade Off? / Economics / Economic Stimulus
The Big Fix - The Obama administration apparently believes in a trade-off between growth and debt. It wants to stimulate fast growth and is willing to pay for it in the form of unprecedented increases in government debt, because it fully expects the growth to rake in tax revenues with which the debt can be retired. It invokes the experience with debt retirement after World War II. When the war ended, government debt stood at 120 percent of the gross national product, twice what it is now. The rapid economic growth during the 1950's and 1960's quickly reduced the debt. This is offered as a justification for the $800 billion stimulus package that is being railroaded through Congress, with more to follow later.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Germanys Economic Collapse as Stocks Trend Lower With Team Obama / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
As of this writing, the short term trend of the market is decidedly down. Whether this lasts a day or two, or extends to a week or more is not knowable.
The reason? Timothy Geithner, President Barack Hussein Obama's choice for Treasury Secretary, was inadequate to the task given him. He said nothing concrete about the government's new proposals vis-à-vis the banking system, and the markets reacted (as markets do) when faced with ever more uncertainty: they collapsed.
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
America's Difficult but Not Impossible Economic Transition / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
There can be no denying the long history of greatness for America. Whether it be the election to its highest office of a leader who not only flung a long-shut door wide open, but ripped it off its hinges, or an American jetliner crew who safely crash lands a plane onto a frigid New York river, we are reminded of America's greatness every day.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Worst Recession In 100 Years / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
In the UK, Gordon Brown's closest ally says 'This is the worst recession for over 100 years' .Ed Balls, the PM's closest ally, warns that downturn is ferocious and says impact will last 15 years.
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Inflation Statistics Manipulation: The Goldsmiths Part XXIX / Economics / Market Manipulation
Being an old man, and often living on a small social security check, it was logical that I would take an interest in the US government manipulation of the so-called inflation rate (from the CPI) since it affects the Cost of Living (COLA) payments due social security recipients and most other retirees.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
UK Economic Meltdown Continues Towards Price Deflation / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
The Bank of England's quarterly inflation report forecast UK inflation of just 0.5% in 2 years time, with the UK economy now forecast to have fallen by GDP 4% by the middle of this year. It was not so many months ago that the Bank of England was forecasting growth of 2% for 2009.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
U.S. Economy in Depression Destroying Wealth of Three Generations / Economics / Economic Depression
Wealth Does Not Pass Three Generations - Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer likens economy to depressions of 1837, 1873, and 1929
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer sketched a dire portrait of the world economy on Friday, likening it to market conditions in 1837, 1873, and 1929, each of which involved bank failures, high unemployment, and a depression.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Deflation Is Here; Time to Protect Against Future Inflation? / Economics / Inflation
Nilus Mattive writes: It's clear that deflation has taken center stage in the U.S. economy. As I told my Dividend Superstars subscribers last month, you can see falling prices just about everywhere you look.
For example, the Consumer Price Index DROPPED 0.7% in December 2008. That's a marked departure from the gains we had been seeing. Even if you exclude food and gas prices, consumer prices were still flat for the month. What's more, the full-year data showed consumer prices rose a paltry 0.1% vs. a whopping 4.1% jump in 2007.
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ten Things You Should and Should Not Do During Deflation / Economics / Deflation
Whilst today's headlines have been grabbed by Barack Obama's U.S. Economic Stimulus package of $800 billion, which is part of a global collective total of approximate $2 trillion of stimulus spending that has been committed for during the next 1 to 2 years. However the fact of the matter is that this does not even come close to countering the REAL Deflationary impact of the $30 trillion across the board loss of value of assets from real estate, to stocks to commodities.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Is the World Finally Ready to Accept the Deflationary Scenario? / Economics / Deflation
This article is part of a syndicated series about deflation from market analyst Robert Prechter, the world's foremost expert on and proponent of the deflationary scenario. For more on deflation and how you can survive it, download Prechter's FREE 60-page Deflation Survival Guide now .
The following article was adapted from Robert Prechter's 2002 New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Amazon best-seller, Conquer the Crash – You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression .
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
UK Retail Price Deflation Will Soon Give Way to Inflation / Economics / UK Economy
Sales on the high street were surprisingly strong in January, reports the British Retail Consortium. Retailers saw their strongest sales growth in more than six months, beating gloomy City forecasts.
So is it time to go out and stock up on retail shares? Sadly not. Let's take a closer look at the figures...
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Monday, February 09, 2009
The Great Depression Facts: Double Dip Economic Slump / Economics / Economic Depression
Contrary to what you might believe, the Great Depression of the 1930s was not a decade-long era of economic decline. Rather, the Great Depression was made up of two distinct economic slumps - August 1929 through March 1933 and May 1937 through June 1938. As Chart 1 shows, the first recessionary period of the Great Depression was not only longer in duration, but more severe in magnitude. Notice, however, that a quite robust economic recovery/expansion occurred between the two recessions.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 09, 2009
Economic Stimulus Spending Breakdown Shows Repeating the Mistakes of Japan / Economics / Economic Stimulus
The Washington Post is Taking Apart the $819 billion Stimulus Package with a couple of graphs that show how and when the stimulus money will be spent. Here is one of the graphs.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Employment Cycles During Recessions / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's blog has an interesting graph of What 3.6 Million Jobs Lost Over 13 Months Looks Like . This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession – showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been. Over the last 13 months, our economy has lost a total of 3.6 million jobs – and continuing job losses in the next few months are predicted.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Economic Depression 2009? / Economics / Economic Depression
Whilst the great inflation/deflation debate continues (its deflation that wins, the inflationistas are being misled by the Fed's actions with its bail out facilities) we need to look at some startling new facts and projections that have appeared in the public arena. My worry, as you can gather from the title of this article, is that we face a global depression that cannot be avoided even if the events discussed below favour the results that the Central Banks et al seek.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Epic Economic Battle Being Waged Between Friedman and Fischer Theories / Economics / Economic Theory
Jack Crooks writes: There is a battle being waged now in the world of economics. This battle is fierce. And no matter who wins, the impact will be felt far and wide. I dub this epoch struggle: “Godzilla vs. King Kong”
I'm not sure who will win, but I do have a favorite.
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Sunday, February 08, 2009
Emerging Markets Crumbling as Decoupling Theory Proved Wrong / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Significant reduction in consumer spending“The reduction in consumer spending in the past few months is noteworthy not only because it has declined in six out of the last seven, but at the same time the savings rate has increased rapidly in an environment when income is not advancing rapidly.
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Saturday, February 07, 2009
Is Zombie Economicus Coming? / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Vladimer Papava writes: Under the circumstances of the modern global financial crisis, the problem of economy zombieing has become a very topical one. If in the 1990s the theme of zombieing was basically discussed within the context of the Japanese economy alone, this problem has also extended to the US and European economies today ( Jim Willie CB, 2008. U.S. Economy Disintegrating as Government Supports Zombie Banks. The Market Oracle , December 04 ; Jim Willie CB, 2009. Gold, Zombie Banking System, Lightning, Earthquakes and Hurricanes. The Market Oracle , January 20).Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Financial Crisis Optimism as Deflation Gives Fed Room to Print Money / Economics / Economic Stimulus
- Thoughts on the Continuing Crisis
- The Right Direction, At Least
- The Jobs Will Come
- Can We Have a Little Inflation, Please?
- Those Wild and Crazy Analysts
When confronted about an apparent change of his opinions, John Maynard Keynes is reported to have said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" The earnings season for the 4th quarter is almost 80% complete, and the facts are dismal. It is worse than the current data shows, and could get uglier. Unemployment is increasing, and consumers are both saving more and spending less as incomes are not keeping pace with what little inflation there is. All in all, a very different set of facts than a few quarters ago. This week we examine some of the new facts, and start out by analyzing how Thoughts from the Frontline has done over the past two years with some of the more important predictions. It should make for an interesting letter.
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