“Austerity” usually means spending cuts and tax hikes. But, it does not take long before politicians, bureaucrats, public employees and corporate cronies all agree that they don’t actually want to cut spending. Usually, they take some unpleasant swipes at welfare programs and services – in other words, the only programs that actually do some good, and which are especially important in a recession.
June 25th, 2010 | Nathan Lewis | 2 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "stimulus"
Is China Undervalued Right Now?
During the past few years, China has become an increasingly compelling destination for investment capital. But with the recent weakness in the Chinese stock market – and serious cracks showing in the façade of China’s economy – does it make sense to invest in China right now?
June 15th, 2010 | Chris Mayer | 23 comments | Continued
Getting Better?
It was no big deal except that the there’s supposed to be a recovery. And May was important. Because the major stimulus efforts are coming to an end. Economists wanted to see how the economy would hold up without the government holding it up.
June 15th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
The Correction Won
We refer to Bernanke, Summers, Obama, Geithner, Krugman – the whole lot of them. They added three trillion dollars to US debt in the last two years. In two more years the debt will be at 100% of GDP. Add in the debts they’ve guaranteed – from Fannie Mae, for example, and state and local debt implicitly backed by the feds – and you’re already at 150% of GDP. Worse than Greece, in other words.
June 10th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Counting the Census
It turned out that 95% of the new jobs were census takers – people paid by the government to count the people who pay the government.
It also turned out that people are waiting longer than ever to find a job…an average of 34 months compared to only 16 months in 2007.
Investors’ mouths turned down. They sold stocks so they could go home for the weekend without worrying. The Dow dropped 323 points.
Stimulating What?
If the economy tries to revert back to providing something of value, it will notice that capital, resources and employment will have to be reallocated. This is not a fun process. It is called a depression. But if you don’t have the depression, you will continue to misallocate the capital into malinvestments, which turn out to be worthless to the economy in real terms.
June 5th, 2010 | Nickolai Hubble | 44 comments | Continued
Bring Forward Demand, Push Back the Consequences
The discouraging aspect of all this is that so much capital remains tied up in non-performing assets. To save the bankers, we have killed off the future prospects for entrepreneurs.
April 23rd, 2010 | Dan Denning | 47 comments | Continued
Feds of India Have Been Choking the Economy for Years
We have come to Bombay to get a good look at India – at least the part of it you can see from a 10th floor room at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Which isn’t much. The air is too dense.
March 22nd, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
US Economy is Some 11 Million Jobs Short of Full Employment
But February saw an unexpected upturn in consumer credit, reports the Times. And unemployment seems to have bottomed out, adds The Wall Street Journal.
March 10th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
US Economy Still in a Deflationary Contraction
Most people think the economy will muddle through somehow…thanks to all those geniuses working at the Department of the Treasury and the Fed.
February 25th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Japanese Government Displays Generosity as Prices Fall in Japan
“Japan Deflation Hits a Record Pace,” reported the BBC. Prices in Japan were falling faster than they ever had since they began keeping track in 1970.
February 8th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 5 comments | Continued
Most Likely No Housing Recovery to Bubble-Era Levels in Our Lifetimes
Of course, that is not what the President of the United States of America thinks. He believes a recovery is underway…and that he can now take action to reduce the feds’ stimulus.
January 29th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Government Spending Makes People Poorer
In their view, government spending is actually BETTER than private spending. Why? Because it produces nothing of value. Really; we’re not making this up.
January 28th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 3 comments | Continued
Does Gold Do Anything But Rise?
The prevailing opinion of the smart money is that gold is a one-way bet. As long as there seems to be some kind of recovery, inflation rates will rise and gold will rise too.
December 7th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
Major Premise That Government Economists Can Improve Workings of a Free Economy
That leads people to believe that the feds have pulled off a save…they’ve now got the economy well along on the road to recovery…the recovery is getting stronger as time goes by…
November 12th, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 5 comments | Continued
