Post Tagged with: "international"

factory

Global Manufacturing Steadies as She Goes, or Does She?

The year got off on a much better foot than might have been expected, at least as far as global manufacturing is concerned. So the fall in global manufacturing has flattened out, even though the bounce back has more of a dead cat look about it than anything else. As usual in recent months the report was very much a mixed bag

Debt

Economics in the Age of Deleveraging

Clearly, economic policy is now far more complex than it appeared to be before the GFC. As we enter this Age of Deleveraging, the worst thing we can do is apply policies that appeared to work during the preceding Age of Leverage—but were in fact predicated on ever-rising private sector indebtedness. Politicians should be sceptical of conventional economic advice at this time; it would be much wiser to study the history of the 1930s instead

Standard Poors

All S&P sovereign credit ratings in order from Australia to Greece for January 2012

In the wake of today’s extraordinary credit ratings action for the euro zone by Standard and Poor’s, below are the rating agency’s sovereign credit ratings

eurozone

Roach Sees ‘Relatively Contained’ Recession in Europe

Stephen Roach told Bloomberg television earlier today that he does not expect the recession in Europe to be severe. Therefore, he believes the impact on other economies, particularly in Asia that depends on Europe for external demand for exports, will be limited. Video below

safe haven

Where are the safe havens?

My latest post at Credit Writedowns Pro on protecting wealth in a world of recurring crisis is now up. I outlined eight principal investing risks that I see for for 2012 and strategies to avoid those risks. At the same time, the thought you should have in the back of your head is that these are just the known unknowns. But that there are unknown unknowns which create so-called Knightean Uncertainty and make this a dangerous investing climate

BLS hourly compensation cost for manufacturing

Chart of the Day: International Manufacturing Compensation Costs Compared

Great data from the BLS comparing hourly compensation for manufacturing. The second chart looks at the benefits component of the hourly cost

Bank

The World’s 29 Too Big To Fail Banks

Here is the list of so-called global systemically important financial institutions by country. Who’s missing in your view

Largest Employers

Chart of the Day: The World’s Largest Employers

Great graphic from the Economist. Note that 7 of the 10 are government-run. Amazing WalMart employs almost as many as the People’s Liberation Army. Gives new meaning to the “Human Wave Theory.”

Weekly global equity performance

Week in Review: Hurricane ‘I-Lean’ Lifts Markets

Reports that hedge funds, with almost no tolerance for short-term pain, have opened the biggest net short positions since early 2008 has driven a relatively low volume short covering rally. We even heard predictions of a 400 point drop in the Nasdaq if Mr. Ben didn’t announce QE3. We guess they were positioned for it and had a front row seat at Friday’s performance of the Nutcracker

Global Trend Indicators

Global Trend Indicators

Two charts showing the latest trends in markets around the world

globe

Full Text: G7 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors Statement on Financial Markets

This statement was issued to demonstrate coordinated global support in view of recent market turmoil

The Strong Case for Global Investing

If we have learned anything from the current financial mess, it’s that building wealth is dependent on rational analysis, careful decision making, and risk management. That’s why sticking close to home at a time when our markets are more uncertain than ever is a recipe for disaster and absolutely the wrong thing to do. Not only will you miss out on the world’s fastest-growing markets, but the odds are exceptionally high that you will miss as much as 50% or more in potential returns over the next decade