October 24th-30th
Briefing: America’s Public Debt – Tomorrow’s Burden. An up to date review of the dire situation we find ourselves in. You need to stay on top of this to appreciate the pickle we are in re politics and economics. Our children will be materially impacted by this.
Schumpeter: The Three Habits…of highly irritating management gurus. [...]
Round of Interesting Economist Articles in the last couple of weeks
November 5th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Tags: Economy
The Death of the Dollar – and Why US Consumers will Save the World
October 16th, 2009 · No Comments
First up, “The rumours of the dollar’s death are much exaggerated” in the Financial Times, October 14th. There is an ongoing dialog in financial circles about the dollar, its value, and if the US (Fed, government) is worried about its change in status as the world’s reserve currency.
There are doomsday views that focus on how [...]
Tags: Economy
Panjiva reminding economy watchers to not get overly excited
October 14th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Though retail spend is holding up, and the stock market is running off into the distance, Panjiva’s analysis of inbound purchased products to the US, representing a measure of global trade, suggests that organic demand in the economy remains weak. In fact the data suggests another slight fall: See September Data: Global Trade Declines.
Re-stocking at retail [...]
Tags: Economy
Economic Viewpoint – most likely scenario for me? A double-dip recession
September 4th, 2009 · No Comments
Lots of economic pundits are arguing over how the US economy will evolve in the next year or three. As a budding market watcher, and like anyone else with a degree in economics, one feel one has to have a point of view. So this is mine: I believe it more likely that the US [...]
Tags: Economy
Britain to become insolvent…is it so hard to imagine?
August 4th, 2009 · No Comments
Well yes in practice, but the idea is real. Numerous countries have become insolvement over the years, or close to it, from burgeoning debt who’s interest payments became so great that net debt (in absolute terms) increase faster than the capital pay down. The only way out of this evil cycle is to print money [...]
Tags: Economy
The Decline and Fall of (current) Economic Theory
July 29th, 2009 · 2 Comments
The Economist did it again for me last weekend. My Economist (print edition, July 18-24) arrives Monday afternoon, but if I am lucky, it arrives with the Saturday mail. It this last weekend so that means I get the pleasure of a quite read without any pressure to check emailJ. Two articles looked at the [...]
Tags: Economy
Personal Opinion follows – Ignorance alive and well on Capital Hill
July 16th, 2009 · 3 Comments
Watching CNBC’s coverage of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s grilling of Hank Paulson, and I mean grilling – they are rude, abusive and down right stupid. Democrats (mostly) are grilling Paulson, the then head of the treasury, on his role in “saving the world” or more precisely, the global financial systems. What a fiasco [...]
Economic malaise rolls on along predictable lines…
July 16th, 2009 · 3 Comments
Saw an article in this mornings US print edition of the Financial Times, “Manufacturing outlook grim, says SKF chief”. What I though interesting was that the CEO, Tom Johnstone, reported its latest quarterly earnings (to June). I didn’t find the headline interesting, it was something in the details that were shared that was. Johnstone reported [...]
Tags: Economy · Uncategorized
The unnatural end to GM – a personal view
May 29th, 2009 · No Comments
What a fiasco. They (GM) where never allowed to die properly. Creative destruction should have been allowed to consume the assets and resources in order to grow again. What we have now is a poor-mans’ orchestrated messed up cremation. As parts of the beast collapse, the fire is extinguished, only to flare up somewhere else.
I [...]
Tags: Economy
30 years ago Monday, the UK elected Margaret Thatcher
April 30th, 2009 · 3 Comments
I remember the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK. I was there. I won’t forget. For those of you that don’t remember, let me remind you of a few home truths:
Labor unions were in the ascendancy; laws being passed favored the creation of unions in businesses even if the union members were in [...]
Tags: Economy