Investors rushed into bonds in 2012 pushing the yield on the 10-year US Treasury bonds to under 2%, their lowest level since George Washington was president. Click to enlarge Source: Desperately Seeking Safety, Seth J. Masters, Alliance Bernstein From the research report by Seth: These extraordinarily low yields primarily reflect the Federal Reserve’s concerted efforts in recent …
Japan has the highest debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the developed world. Late last year, Japan’s sovereign debt exceeded over 200% of the GDP. At that time, the OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria commented that Japan’s debt load was in “Uncharted Territory”. However unlike most countries in the developed world, 90% of Japanese government debt …
Continue reading ‘Sovereign Debt Holdings by Select Banking Systems’ »
According to an article in The Wall Street Journal recently, U.S, exports of coal continues to soar. Last year 120 million tons of black gold was exported compared to about half of that amount in 2009. The following chart shows the gradual increase in coal exports: Click to enlarge Two interesting facts from the article: Contrary …
Continue reading ‘How to Profit From Rising U.S. Coal Exports’ »
For most Americans the biggest purchase they will ever make in their life is a house. Next in this list of “necessities” of life in the U.S. is a car. Sadly both the purchases involve high transaction costs and consumers are the mercy of crooked salesmen and saleswomen who are more likely to put them …
Continue reading ‘U.S Homeowners’ Housing Equity Since 1960s’ »
The services sector accounts for a major portion of the economy in most developed countries. On the other hand, emerging market economies s are characterized by a mixture of natural resources, services and manufacturing with individual countries having varying portions of each. For example, the U.S. is world’s largest economy at about $15.0 Trillion. But …
Continue reading ‘The Importance of Manufacturing Sector To a Country’s Economy’ »