The new regional automotive sales lines are being drawn, with very different outcomes in Asia and the US. Toyota, even despite its recall issues, had the largest increase in its domestic auto sales in 38 years. Chinese automakers also saw sales increase dramatically. This, of course, while sales in the US were slower last month than they’ve been in about three decades.
[Read more...]China’s Huge Economy Perhaps Not as Solid as it Seems
August 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
China now has the world's second largest economy, but its GDP girth may not directly translate into as solid a market as one might guess. In the video below, Stratfor points out that China, despite impressive growth rates, is both export heavy and consistently dependent on razor-thin margins that can easily turn negative. This leaves the nation on a more precarious footing than developed countries with domestically-oriented economies. Until China makes that transition, Stratfor argues, it'll have a tough time eliminating the persistent threat of social unrest in order to become a sustainable economic powerhouse.
[Read more...]How to Look for a Job
August 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Unemployment is stuck in a rut. One reason is the tendency to look backwards. Trillions of dollars have been spent (with no end in sight) to bail out financial institutions, homebuilders, and failing industries. The federal government is spending $787 billion on a rejuvenation plan: ARRA – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In the bill, $500 million is sequestered to metamorphose former credit-default swap salesmen into nurses and public health workers. Assuming the government wastes half of that money filling a new bureaucracy to administer the training, that still will be a lot of new nurses.
[Read more...]Early in the Decade Still, Yet Japan’s Growth Continues
May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
For Daily Reckoning founder Bill Bonner, the new “Trade of the Decade” was clear. No asset had been more overbought than US Treasuries, nor any asset more oversold, unloved, and despised than the Japanese market. Looking at the complex markets from this basic perspective he recommended shorting Treasuries and going long Japan this new decade. Today, the long side of trade is showing some healthy momentum.
[Read more...]Japan’s Growing Attachment to China Over the US
March 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Day after day, China’s heavyweight status becomes more pronounced. We’ve discussed it before, due to its economy, which is in the process of overtaking Japan’s second place in size and its growing influence in Latin America. Today, we take a look at its strengthening influence in Asia… and Japan in particular.
[Read more...]How You Can Gain From the Explosive Trajectory of China’s Currency
February 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Edging out Japan, it’s set to soon become the world’s second largest economy. It’s already overtaken Germany as the world’s largest exporter by shipping $1.2 trillion worth of goods in 2009. As a result, China looks destined for strength, as does its currency the yuan. It’s currently pegged to the dollar, but there is a great deal of economic and political pressure building up to break the managed exchange rate.
[Read more...]US, UK, Japan on the Fiery Hot Seat, Here’s Where to Invest Instead
January 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Pimco manages the world’s largest bond fund, and its co-CIO & founder Bill Gross has recently posted an extra hot spotlight of scrutiny on the US, the UK, Japan, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, and Greece. They are all in his “ring of fire” chart, which depicts the countries most vulnerable to slowed economic growth due to their excessively high levels of public debt. This chart is scorching…
[Read more...]China’s Economy is Overtaking Japan’s, Here’s What it Means to You
January 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Just as Japan’s economy has been slumping over the past two decades, China’s has been vigorously building steam. And, as Bill Emmott points out in an article today, it won’t be long until Japan gets bumped down a notch and China takes its place as the world’s second largest national economy after the US.
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The Inflation Tsunami (Part One of Three)
Over the past year The Amphora Report has written extensively on the topic of inflation, including in Guess What’s Coming to Dinner: Inflation! and The Inflation Tipping Point. While we prefer the monetary definition of inflation as growth in the supply of money and credit, we note that, beginning around mid-2010, the monetary expansion of 2008-09 began to feed through into consumer price inflation. This has continued to the present day and at an accelerating rate. Consumer price inflation data are now surprising to the upside just about anywhere one chooses to look: in Asia, Europe and, more recently, even in the US. To use a timely if tragic metaphor, the inflation ‘tsunami’ set in motion by a massive monetary expansion in 2008-09 is now making landfall around the world, pushing up prices for a broadening range of goods and services.
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