Economic Indicators

Asia Spotlight: The Great Monetary Policy Divide between Australia and New Zealand

Dismal (Free subscription) | yesterday

RBA to hike rates this week, while RBNZ will remain unequivocally dovish.

China's emissions pledge depends entirely on economic growth

Maribo (Free subscription) | 3 hours ago

Last week, China announced that it will reduce carbon "intensity" by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by the year 2020. The emissions intensity (emissions/$GDP) approach taken by the Canada and the US in the past has been much maligned here as a dishonest dodge . First, it looks like a reduction in actual emissions until you realize that the denominator (GDP) generally increases over time....

Hablando de cambios metodológicos

Cosas que pasan (Free subscription) | yesterday

Sudáfrica hizo un cambio en la medición del PBI , para incluir las "actividades ilegales". South Africa has found an interesting way to bolster its gross domestic product: include illegal activities. Stats SA in its latest GDP report expanded its survey to include previously uncovered areas of the economy such as crime, the drugs trade and illegal mining. The “non-observed...

Theory that Civilization is a Heat Engine

advanced nanotechnology (Free subscription) | yesterday

A University of Utah scientist (Tim Garrett, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences) argues that rising carbon dioxide emissions - the major cause of global warming - cannot be stabilized unless the world's economy collapses or society builds the equivalent of one new nuclear power plant each day. "Fundamentally, I believe the system is deterministic," says Garrett. "Changes...

Bernanke’s case to keep Congress out of Fed

MSNBC.com: Top MSNBC Headlines (Free subscription) | yesterday

The chairman of the Fed is concerned congressional efforts at financial reform could weaken the central bank's ability to handle future crises and may politicize monetary policy.

• Ben Bernanke Makes Case For Strong Fed Role On Banks - The Huffington Post
• Reforms may hit Fed powers: Bernanke - Times of India
• See the 14 articles on the same subject

Bernanke: "Global Consensus?"

The Seventh Sola (Free subscription) | yesterday

Recently in the Washington Post, Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke criticized moves in Congress to limit the power and authority of the Federal Reserve. Lawmakers have been irked over what they see as mistakes by the Fed in dealing with the economic crisis. If you'd like to read Mr. Bernanke's entire column, here it is. The Federal Reserve has been a controversial institution since its founding, so...

Dear Rod Oram

The Visible Hand in Economics (Free subscription) | yesterday

I read your article on monetary policy in the Sunday Star Times (thanks to a link from Rates Blog). I disagreed with many of the things you said, but I really don’t think our conclusions are that separate when we look through the issues. First on my disagreements: I don’t agree that monetary policy needs to [...]

Financial Times Names Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama As 2009’s “Greatest Thinkers”

Say Anything (Free subscription) | yesterday

And both get the nod ( Bernanke is in the top slot, Obama is second ) because of their efforts to fix America’s economy. Which is more than a little unbelievable. I mean, to put the matter much more simply than it should be, the economy isn’t fixed . Unemployment continues to climb. Economic growth metrics continue to stagnate. And their fixes? Obama and his administration have approached...

Experts warn of risks in China's forex reserves

People Daily (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago

China's rapidly growing forex reserves face risks including depreciation of the U.S. dollar and private capital outflux, said some experts at a forum. Risks in China's forex reserves may threaten the country's sustainable economic growth. By the end of the third quarter 2009, China's forex reserves totaled 2.27 trillion U.S. dollars, 330 billion U.S. dollars higher than the end of 2008. "Although...

A Well Balanced Wealth Management Investment Strategy

ValidFi News and Articles (Free subscription) | yesterday

Inflation and deflation are the two most important factors for a well designed wealth management investment strategy. Inflation destroys the long term purchasing power while deflation reduces the effectiveness of the capitalism's basic profit machine. A well designed long term strategy thus needs to have a well balanced hedge in both economic cycles. Harry Browne's permanent portfolio is designed over...

Hatoyama, Shirakawa to huddle

Japan Times (Free subscription) | yesterday

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa will meet early this week to discuss the economy, which is mired in deflation, and the soaring yen, Senior Vice Financial Services Minister Kohei Otsuka said on a TV show Saturday. The meeting appears designed to coordinate fiscal policy with monetary policy as Japan struggles to help the economy recover.

Why China needs a change

Daily News Analysis (Free subscription) | yesterday

China's economic growth model, which served it well for 30 years, is due for a structural overhaul because of changes that wrack China and the world.

Break up the big banks and tax speculation for a stronger economy

DJWinfo (Free subscription) | yesterday

I like what David Moberg's views on breaking up the too-big-to-fail Godzilla-sized banks that get a blank check from the federal government to cover their losses, but then make record profits and bonuses without delivering the same economic growth and access to capital for small businesses (that actually create jobs) as regular-sized banks do. His In These Times column is here and the part that resonated...

Climate Change – the one sided debate...

Tom Nelson (Free subscription) | yesterday

Climate Change – the one sided debate « The Economic Voice Peter Hitchens, like him or loathe him, does make a very cogent case for more considered debate on the subject and one of the things he brings up puzzles me. Why has the population of polar bears increased in the recent past, not declined as the climate change lobby would have you believe should have happened? The climate change...

Where the BRICs Stand Today

Desicritics (Free subscription) | yesterday

In 2001, Goldman Sachs released a report which projected that the four economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China were expected to become the main drivers of economic growth for the world in the coming decades. It was highlighted that these four economies which account for half the world's population would eclipse the current economic leaders in size by 2050. It will be useful to look at where these...

Sensex predictions from 13th July 2009 to 17th July 2009

astrosagar | 13/07/2009

On July 3rd Sensex closed at 14,913.05. On July 6 th , after Budget speech, it closed at 14,043.40. But on 10th of July Sensex fell by 1408.83 points, the largest fall in 8 months, and closed at 13504.22. The market fell because the deficit in the budget was estimated at 6.8% of the GDP, which was alarming. The financial health of the government may deteriorate due to manifold increase in subsidies.

IntegrityFX Daily Intermarket Outlook

integrityfx | 17/06/2009

The markets are at a pivotal junction at this point in time. The confidence in the global recovery plan seems to be waning, taking the positive market sentiment with it. One of the primary causes to this shift in sentiment is the falling interest in foreign countries purchasing US treasuries. So, the widely held belief is that if the US cannot fund its massive debts the world economy cannot recover.