Post Tagged with: "international"
Global manufacturing continued its expansion In January
This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros. The global manufacturing expansion continued to gather momentum in January. Coming in at 56.1, up from 54.6 in December, the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index registered its highest reading for five and a half years. The latest improvement in overall operating
Get your war on
Remember when the war in Afghanistan began 8 years ago? I remember reading sarcastic cartoons on a site by David Rees called “Get Your War On.” Here are the first entries: Certainly something to think about given the announcement by the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner to send another 30,000 troops into Afghanistan. Glenn Greenwald
Goldilocks is not sleeping in America anymore; she’s now in China
Remember the fabled Goldilocks economy that we had during the Great Moderation: A Goldilocks economy is a not too hot or cold economy, sustaining moderate economic growth and a low inflation allowing for a market friendly monetary policy. The name comes from the children’s story The Three Bears. The first use of this phrase is
Quelle Surprise! Most Big Banks Lack Capital
My post title is an ode to Yves Smith, who likes to feign surprise when the blindingly obvious finally comes into plain view for all to see. The latest sign that underneath the surface weakness remains at large financial institutions comes courtesy of Standard & Poors. According to the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, S&P believes many
SNL’s alternative Obama-Hu press conference reality
Saturday Night Live’s China-U.S. press conference is pure comedy. It captures the Zeitgeist pretty well. The Mrs. Obama part at the end, though, was way over-the-top (and in poor taste if you ask me). Take those comments out and you have a pretty funny skit. One thing, though. It’s more than $1.3 trillion in American
Trade flows in flux: is this re-balancing?
Paul Krugman has noticed that trade has absolutely collapsed with this economic downturn. It is worse than the Great Depression. Question: is this aiding global re-balancing? Here are two data points from Europe today which lead to that question. The BBC reports on Germany: Germany’s trade surplus fell 43% in August after a drop in
Why is industrial production declining in Singapore?
Earlier today we learned that the Singapore PMI was much weaker than expected for September 2009, coming in at 50.6 versus 54.4 for August. While this demonstrates that the manufacturing sector there is still rising, it is doing so just barely. This was the lowest reading since April and should be seen as a clear
The G20 Summit: Hijacked by neo-liberalism
Marshall Auerback here. This is a cross-post from an article I wrote at the finance site New Deal 2.0, a one-stop-shop for current news, sharp analysis and potential solutions of the country’s fiscal crisis. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. As a matter of national accounting, the domestic private sector cannot increase
Julian Robertson: “We’re in for some real rough sledding”
This is how the famed investor and Chairman of Tiger Management began an interview with CNBC yesterday. Yes, the recession is probably over, he says. But, in his view there is likely to be problems going forward because the U.S. has so much debt. The money quote: “It’s almost Armageddon if the Chinese and Japanese
Tear gas and rubber bullets at G-20 Protests
In what is shaping up to be a common occurrence at these global meetings, protesters are shaking things up. My understanding, however, is that there are more police on hand than protesters. Rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas have been used. Below is a five-minute video showing the mood surrounding the G-20 summit in
Ahead of G-20, China blames west and west blames China for meltdown
I just finished reading a Financial Times article about the likely coordinated global policy solutions to emerge from the upcoming G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh. It does not sound like there is a huge amount of consensus. Indeed, it sounds like there is a lot of finger pointing regarding what the true causes of the financial
Weak consumer spending will last for years
It has been my thesis for some time that we are seeing a secular change in consumption patterns in the United States. This will have grave implications for a world economy used to seeing the American consumer as an economic growth engine and consumer of first choice. Retail sales in the United States have fallen