Rustbelt Recovery

This article covers the increase in American manufacturing, as well as the increase in the employment rates in the sector. Manufacturing employment has risen 1.6%, which is the highest on record since the late 1990's. Ohio was one of the states to have unemployment rates fall more sharply, and this may be due to the heavy manufacturing in the state.

This may be a sign that the economy's growth is increasing, due to the increase in the manufacturing sector. Thoughts?

Building excitement: Can China avoid a bubble?

Many of us have seen the various Youtube videos; fifteen story hotel buildings in China are being built in six days. These videos reflect the extravagant growth in the Chinese housing market that has taken place over the past few years. Barclay's Capital, a British investment bank, estimates that within the next six years, forty percent of the world's skyscrapers will be built in China. Although this may seem like progress for the Chinese economy, it has led some economists to worry about a housing bubble burst. In fact, many economists see paralells between the growing Chinese housing market, and the housing bubble bursts in the U.S. and Dubai.

The article points out that the Chinese government is trying to respond to the high level of demand, while attempting to dampen it down at the same time. Many policies have been put in place in an attempt to address inflation in the housing market and lessen housing demand. For example, new homeowners are now required to put down a thirty percent down payment before purchasing a house. There is a real concern that if demand isn't addressed, housing prices will continue to rise at an unsustainable rate.

We have seen the mistakes within the U.S. housing market and we are now seeing China learn from those mistakes. If China is not able to offset a housing bubble burst, the consequences will be far reaching, and may rock the global economy into another mini-recession.

Men's wage

This article explains how a lot of men are now not working. They describe the men either being in disability, retiring, are unemployed or just not in the labor force. It states that in 1969 19 percent of male's aged 20 and older were not working, while it is now 33%. It would be very interesting to see the data breakdown for this; today would more men not be working due to their wife now being in the labor force? Is the job market making these men discouraged and take time off from looking for a job? Or are more men retiring in these tough times? This data would be very interesting to take a close look eye at and really see what this unfortunate job market holds for men.