Investors worldwide are focusing on China as it has become the top-performer among the emerging markets year-to-date. Media reports have even mentioned China as the country that will pull the world out of the current global recession. Until last year China was mainly an export-driven economy. Overseas demand for all kinds of consumer goods kept …
Continue reading ‘Can China Convert to a Consumer-Based Economy Successfully?’ »
Emerging markets are once again the hot destination for investors this year. Brazil continues to be a favorite destination for foreign capital. The central bank of Brazil, Banco Central Do Brasil recently released the “Brazil’s Economic Chart Pack” showing a snapshot of the current state of the economy. Some of the interesting charts are presented …
Households in the U.S. are more vulnerable to financial shocks than households in other developed countries. The current recession has clearly shown that most American households are not prepared to deal with bad economic conditions. Some of the recent headlines include: 1.9 MILLION FORECLOSURE FILINGS REPORTED ON MORE THAN 1.5 MILLION U.S. PROPERTIES IN FIRST …
Continue reading ‘Why are U.S. Households’ Finance So Shaky?’ »
The Obama administration has announced that $27B are to be spent on critical repairs to the country’s crumbling roads and infrastructure under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. In total, the government plans to spend $111B in Infrastructure and Science according to the site Recovery.gov. How many jobs will this infrastructure spending …
Continue reading ‘How Many Jobs Will the U.S. Infrastructure Spending Create?’ »
Back in June, Michael Mandel of Business Week wrote an interesting piece titled A Lost Decade for Jobs in which he analyzed the growth Private Vs. Public sector job growth. His research showed that the private sector “job growth was almost non-existent over the past ten years”. He added “Between May 1999 and May 2009, …