Is Debt Trashing the Euro

The article discusses how debt occurring especially in Greece could be bringing down the price of the Euro in all countries. This was brought on in Greece due to the fact that Greece was riding the strength of the Euro as well as lending money at extremely low rates causing huge debt. Now the problem facing the EU is whether or not they will have the ability to say no to Greece which will allow them to declare bankruptcy.

Judge: Pratt can't move jobs out of US

Weird...this is a first as far as I know. Read the article, and then tell me if this has even happened before in the US.

Growth and hiring outlook improves

According to CNNMoney.com analysts are confident that the current economic upturn will continue into 2010. In the quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics the people surveyed said that they expected GDP to increase this year, and 61% of them thought that it would increase by 2% or more. Economists expect that the financial and services sectors will do the best in adding jobs. The goods-producing and transportation sectors are not expected to add many jobs though. The article compiles that statistics of the survey, and according to those polled it seems as if the economy is turning around, although slowly and limited in areas.

Existing home sales sink 16.7%

According to CNNMoney home sales fell in November by 16.7%. Although this is a downturn the year by year report of sales is up by 15%. "It was expected that sales would decline from November to December, because November was slated to be the last month in which sales to first-time homebuyers could qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $8,000." For 2009 though home sales are up by 4.9% from last year. The article goes on to give 7 tips about buying foreclosed houses. Although sales in November have been down things are looking up because car sales are stronger and more sustainable, which is a sign of a better economy.

Economics of Terrorism

I found this article quite interesting in that it was a very different view of terrorism than I've seen and it relatesto this class in an interesting way. As you'll read, terrorist groups, in a way, have their own "economy" putting certain restrictions on it's members and providing benefits to its members to stay loyal. They act like a small centrally planned economy that tries to deter its members from the free market system.

For Older Workers, a Reluctant Retirement

Many people near retirement are feeling "forced" to retire early. Unemployed workers ages 55 to 64 has almost tripled since the recession started. These people have been left with no choice but to dig into their savings to be able to make ends meet. The outlook is predicted 378,000 workers will be pushed to retire due to the weak labor market. It is a problem to retire earlier than planned because they will receive less benefits if they retire at age 62 instead of 65 for example. Also, people who draw from their Social Security benefits before intended risk penalties. What are those close to retirement to do when they are forced out of work and do not have the money to support a standard of living?

N. Korea May Be Easing

This article talks about signs that North Korea may be relaxing on some of their anti private market regulations. It would appear as though the country is allowing for some selling of goods, although these reports are unconfirmed. North Korea cracked down on laws prohibiting private markets in the past in favor of a complete centrally planned economy. Part of this included not allowing the sale of food outside of the government's ration. While other factors persist, it appears that the demand for food has been a huge problem (the government has been under providing). This is an interesting example of the ways in which centrally planned economies have failed and what system to use.

ADP Says U.S. Companies Cut Estimated 22,000 Jobs

Companies in the US experienced the fastest pace of growth in six years last quarter and current trends indicate that companies may be poised to add jobs as they try and keep up with increasing demand.

The private company ADP compiled all the information regarding private employment however does not take into account jobs provided by government agencies. If President Obama's focus on employment comes into fruition, the continued growth in the job market may be even stronger than the forecast from ADP. The trends among big corporations are still inconclusive as Wal-Mart declared that there would be further firings over the next month, while on the other hand General Electronic is looking to increase their payroll by hiring workers in energy, health care and rail transportation. Hopefully the flood of positive news in the media since the beginning of the year continue to increase as the economy tries to rebound from the recession.

Cisco CEO says US economy on the rebound

The CEO of Cisco, John Chambers, told reporters that the sharp increase in capital spending will help boost the economy in 2010. He gave a bullish report on the economy and Cisco is traditionally a very good economic indicator especially for the tech industry. Tech firms are the first to feel the economy improving. Chambers also said that the economy needs the jobs to improve which will improve innovation then lead us to be a better export nation. All this going on, we will experience a better standard of living. These are all themes of our class.

China Researcher Argues for 10% Yuan Gain

I thought this was an good article to contribute given the current tension in US-China relations. Given that the currency dispute has been a hot topic for some time for China, it is thus interesting it is an internal Chinese think tank that is arguing for an appreciation of 10% of the Yuan.

Keeping the currency artificially low undoubtedly has some positive implications for the Chinese economy, but in the long run, there are other considerations such sustaining growth for the long run that needs to be considered as well. I wonder how the Chinese government intends to ride this out.

China Dethrones Germany as Top Goods Exporter

This article details how China surpassed Germany as the world's leading exporter.

Wizard of Oz Economics

Here is an article summarizing what Goran referred to in class about how the movie The Wizard of Oz could also be seen as an economic parable.

Europe Takes Its Own Path Toward Economic Recovery

Good compliment of what we have been talking about in class the last couple of days.

Europe relies on its large companies to maintain a cutting edge in key industries, a sharp contrast to the American pattern of turning to newer, smaller companies to drive innovation and create jobs.

Talks briefly about the possible shift of the US to a more European economic model.

Time Warner’s Movies Help It Swing to a Profit

Time Warner has recently surpassed expectations and has actually produced a profit.

After recently spinning off from AOL, and focusing more on producing movies, running cable TV networks and, to a lesser extent, publishing magazines.

Echoing comments from Mr. Murdoch a day earlier, Mr. Bewkes also said the economy was improving in a way that suggested the worst might be over for the media industry.

“There is increasing evidence that industry trends are going our way,” Mr. Bewkes said.

EU Embraces Greece with Tough Love

This is a great article to complement today's lecture. During class, Professor Goran was talking about how Greece is near bankrupt and that they in violation of EU sanctions. This article here explains that the EU is reaching out to Greece after the submission of its new stability program. The EU is setting several mandates and goals that Greece will have to reach as well as the threat of going to EU Court of Justice if Greece falsifies statistics again. The EU is also requesting that their auditing agency, EuroStat establish permanent offices to watch Greece's progress. Tough Love indeed.

US Response to Tire Market Failure

Here is a good article summarizing the reaction of the US to our decline in tire sales. It explains how we have begun to tax imported Chinese tires in order to slow down their sales as well as give our own tire market a chance to succeed.

Obama Promotes Small-Business Plan

This article is about how president Obama flew to New Hampshire for a Town Hall meeting and promoted his plan of lending $30billion to small businesses. He wants to increase employment so that unemployment is less than 10%. His proposal would need to be approved from the Congress as $30 billion would be redirected from the government's Troubled Asset Relief program. The funds would form the Small Business Lending Fund and would provide money to small businesses. The president has also planned to continue to waive fees and guarantee that small firms would get loans. He also proposed tax breaks that would increase the number of workers hired in the firms or increase wages or number of hours worked in existing firms.
The new lending firm would only be available to banks with assets under $10 million. It seems as though this may really benefit small businesses who may have trouble getting loans and additional finances as banks sometimes may be hesitant to giving out loans to small companies with few assets.

Ordnungspolitik

This article is somewhat dated, but still useful in learning what Ordnungspolitik stands for.

Obama Vows to Press Health Care, Act to Boost Economy (Update2)

This article is about Obama's plan from his state of the union address. President Obama focused on many economic issues, but said that jobs must be the number one focus in 2010. He also focused on our nations deficit spending problem, saying that he will not accept second place for our nation behind others such as China. He proposed a tax incentive for businesses as well. The republican response to what he had to say was that they were happy to hear of his desire to create more jobs, and that we should not be "piling on taxation, regulation, and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class." Obama made note that giving tax cuts to the wealthy, which is what Bush proposed, was not a plausible answer, as in practice it wont work. Giving tax incentives to businesses to promote growth and hiring by hopefully making their cost of production and real wages down, would be a good answer, but this tax incentives have to be funded with the growing national debt kept in mind and in control.

Last Stimulus Report Fuels Jobs Pressure

Recipients of economic-stimulus money said 599,108 workers were being paid by the funds in the last quarter of 2009, fewer than the number of jobs attributed to the package in the seven months after it was enacted.

The recipients' reports, published on the official government Web site recovery.gov late Saturday, are likely to fuel further controversy over the impact of the $787 billion package, as Democrats craft new jobs-creation proposals to address the country's 10% jobless rate. Many opinion polls suggest that most voters don't believe the current stimulus program, which was passed last February, is working.

An In-Depth Look at Fourth Quarter GDP

This isn't a news article, but the people at fivethirtyeight.com have their hands in everything, from economics to politics to foreign affairs, and provide a lot of insightful, reasoned opinions. They also post a lot of facts and data before trying to reach any conclusions, and often admit they don't always have the whole story and to try not to rush to anything. All in all, it's a great site, and this is a nice breakdown of the GDP story.