The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association released the new car registrations report for February. New car registrations was up by 21.5% in Germany compared to February last year. When car sales declined in most European countries how did Germany record high growth? Car sales increased in Germany last month due to an innovative incentive program launched …
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Since the credit crisis began, governments around the world have passes many stimulus packages to restart stalled economic growth. For example, today the government of Malaysia announced a second a stimulus package of US$16.3B just after announcing the first stimulus four months ago. In the US, many stimulus packages have been announced during the past …
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One of the fiscal implications of the current financial crisis is the effect on funded pension plans in many OECD countries. Some of the countries’ pension fund portfolios have high exposure to equities and mutual funds. Many of the mutual funds in these countries are also heavily invested in equities. The following diagram shows the …
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Infrastructure is one of the key sectors that will see large investment as part of the massive $787 billion package signed President Obama last month. The law titled “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” will promote investment in infrastructure such as roads, bridges, electricity grid, etc. Billions of dollars will pour into these projects over the …
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The S&P 500 Index is the best barometer of the US stock markets and is widely followed by investors worldwide. It contains the 500 leading companies in leading industries of the economy. The year to date (as of February end) performance of this index and the individual sectors within the index are shown below: [TABLE=138] …