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The view from Boise, Idaho. How families are coping, and saving and what it means for business.
01/06/2009
The shift to buying things at prices that conform to ideas of thrift and saving, getting rid of expensive stuff, and a new philosophy of living for the times, as well as reviving memories of the way things used to be, and the things that mattered.
Linked Articles
Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic Woes
Wall Street Journal 01/06/2009
Frugality Forged in Today's Recession Has Potential to Outlast ItWall Street Journal 04/06/2009
Obama looks for a stimulus spending plan that packs the greatest punch for the middle class and unemployment.
01/05/2009
About $300 billion of an estimated $800 billion stimulus spending plan by the Obama administration will be for tax cuts to individuals and businesses. There will be incentives for businesses to make net new hires and make new investments. The idea is to avoid wasteful spending if there is only spending on infrastructure and other spending.
Linked Articles
Obama Eyes $300 Billion Tax Cut
Wall Street Journal 01/05/2009
Government Spending Is No Free LunchWall Street Journal 01/22/2009
China's strategy of bringing in Smithfield Foods and other western companies to tackle the problem of contaminated food products
01/01/2009
Linked Articles
Former Head of Chinese Dairy Pleads Guilty
New York Times 01/01/2009
On Becoming Chinaâs Farm TeamNew York Times 11/05/2013
How global imbalances in savings were ignored as the risks increased.
12/26/2008
Prof. Portes on global imbalances in savings. What happened and why the risks were not understood by Bernanke, Greenspan, and others. The view that successful models are very hard to change, reluctance in China to disturb the status quo, and the difficulty of getting people to accept the need to move away from this without a crisis.
Linked Articles
Imbalance in Nations' Savings Clouds Forecasts for Recovery
Wall Street Journal 03/23/2009
Chinese Savings Helped Inflate American BubbleNew York Times 12/26/2008
Global trade number showing sharp decline and what you see if you walk at the port in Savannah.
11/30/2008
Savannah and Long Beach ports and what you see happening there is reflected in the foreign trade numbers.
Linked Articles
When the Downturn Sailed Into Savannah
New York Times 11/30/2008
Global Trade Posts Sharp DeclineWall Street Journal 01/14/2009
In the past decade China's consumption as percentage of GDP drops 10% to 37%, America's rise to 96%.
11/26/2008
This leads to the global imbalance in savings that London B-School's Prof. Portes complains about. Cross border flows fro, Asia to the West reach 3% of global GDP, pumping extra money into the US banking system, and the European banking system leading to bad lending and a consumption binge. The reluctance of China and the U.S. to change the staus quo till things simply collapsed.
Linked Articles
Imbalance in Nations' Savings Clouds Forecasts for Recovery
Wall Street Journal 03/23/2009
Global Economy: No Help from China's ConsumersBusinessWeek 11/26/2008
Cable by British Ambassador in Kabul on the loss of trust in Karzai government
10/04/2008
Cable by a career foreign service officer, the British ambassador in kabul on the loss of trust in Karzai government. The head of the provincial council in Kandahar is Karzai's brother who is said to be involved in the heroin trade.
Linked Articles
Reports Link Karzai’s Brother to Heroin Trade
New York Times 10/05/2008
‘Dictator’ Proposed for Afghanistan in Leaked CableNew York Times 10/04/2008
Bob Woodward on decisionmaking in the Obama White House and the Bush White House
09/15/2008
In "The War Within" Woodward described how Bush persevered to get the job done right in Iraq. In "The Price of Politics," Woodward describes how Obama failed to use his presidential leadership and suthority to get all sides to reach an agreement. Bill Keller of the NYT says Obama failed to make the "unpleasant choices" a president has to make, including supporting the president's own Simpson-Bowles Commission on the U.S. deficit.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/15/2008
Notable & QuotableWall Street Journal 09/07/2012
Sheila Barr voices concern about lack of serious homeowner help, only institutional help.
08/27/2008
FDIC's Sheila Barr voices concern for a lack of serious homeowner help and an incomprehensible reluctance to do anything serious for homeowners in Congress or the Bush Administration even as Barr, Paulson and Bernanke offered no choice to CEO's of leading banks at the meeting last week in Paulson's offices but to sign term sheets for accepting $125 billion from the government. Another $125 billion goes to smaller banks. And a unspecified amount goes to buy troubled assets under TARP, and money to buy commercial paper, and other institutional help. Still nothing on a large comprehensive basis to help homeowners in difficulty which is at the root of this crisis according to Feldstein, Hubbard, Bair.
Linked Articles
FDIC Chief Raps Rescue for Helping Banks Over Homeowners
Wall Street Journal 10/16/2008
Agency’s Head Expects Banking’s Crisis to WorsenNew York Times 08/27/2008
Bill Ford's committment to smaller cars and the ongoing shift across the spectrum with the Cruze at GM
07/31/2008
Bill Ford's interview with Bartiromo of CNBC and Business Week in which he outlines his struggle at Ford to focus managers on small cars and the new team of Ford, Mullaly and Farley that is focussing on small cars.
Linked Articles
Bill Ford on Tipping Points and Thinking Small
BusinessWeek 07/31/2008
GM plans $500M for 45-mpg small carDetroit News 08/22/2008
China makes a major shift to higher value added and technology products.
06/30/2008
The cheap products made at high costs to labor, the environment are out and the remaining textile products and similar product companies will have to be more sophisticated and make more value added products. Chinese government policy will discourage the older polluting factories in the south and encourage high tech leadership products for world markets.
Linked Articles
China’s Ambition Soars to High-Tech Industry
New York Times 08/01/2008
China's Export Machine Threatened by Rising CostsWall Street Journal 06/30/2008
China's oil demand to grow at 2-3% over the next 15 years by one estimate.
06/20/2008
A much slower growth in oil demand as fuel efficient engines make a strong impact. Government policy raising oil prices, giving tax breaks for smaller engines to promote smaller cars on Chinese roads, and promotion of new hybrid and electric car technologies with significant subsidies, all push in this direction.
Linked Articles
China's Thirst for Oil Could Come Up Short
Wall Street Journal 06/01/2010
China Sharply Raises Energy PricesNew York Times 06/20/2008
The steep decline in Cherry's car sales in China and the precarious condition of the Chinese consumer- 2008
04/24/2008
The precarious condition of the Chinese consumer and first time buyer of cars, with no safety net in the economy for health care or unemployment. The severe downturn for Cherry and why GM cannot look to China for any kind of relief.
Linked Articles
With First Car, a New Life in China
New York Times 04/24/2008
China's Car Makers Seek Different Help: Lower Sales TaxesWall Street Journal 11/20/2008
Gates new perspective on the US role in foreign affairs.
01/05/2009
How Gates sees the US role in foreign affairs and its relaions with Russia, the war with extremist Islamic militants, and the ways in which US policies should be reshaped in the new administration.
Linked Articles
Pentagon Chief Sees Opportunities In Russia and the War on Terrorism
Washington Post 01/05/2009
A Balanced StrategyForeign Affairs 01/05/2009
China's search for global and western brands of baby milk powder after contamination of local brands
01/01/2009
Linked Articles
Former Head of Chinese Dairy Pleads Guilty
New York Times 01/01/2009
Chinese Search for Infant Formula Goes GlobalNew York Times 07/25/2013
Sales slowing, inventories piling up of electronics goods, and the Capps and Muirs of Boise, Idaho.
12/31/2008
The dramatic shift to a savings oriented and thrifty lifestyle reminiscent of the thirties and forties in some ways, is seen in the new lifestyles and spending habits of the Capps and Muirs in Boise, Idaho. With its high tech factories Boise has held up well in previous recessions. If things are changing this much in a place like Boise then its aserious sign of changes in the whole country. This is leading to buidup of inventories of cars, electronics goods, and other goods in retail stores. It has a serious global aspect as products made in China are affected, and products made elsewhere that go into these products are affected, and the equipment manufacturers in Germany for these products made in China are also affected.
Linked Articles
BusinessWeek 12/31/2008
Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic WoesWall Street Journal 01/06/2009
The Obama Economic Action Plan and what neuroscence tells us about fear in financial markets and business.
12/07/2008
The Obama economic action plan with large investments in infrastructure and green energy and in education and national competitiveness, and what neuroscience tells us about the part fear plays in making financial institutions and business not play the role they are otherwise able to play inleading economic activity.
Linked Articles
In Hard Times, Fear Can Impair Decision-Making
New York Times 12/07/2008
Obama Pledges Public Works on a Vast ScaleNew York Times 12/07/2008
With no safey net Chinese savings rate is high and the export model is entrenched pushing Chinese savings into financing American consumption.
11/26/2008
With the collapse of export markets in the U.S., China and the U.S. are now having to face up to the problems inherent in American dependence on Chinese products and Chinese savings to finance excessive consumption, and Chinese dependence on American export markets.
Linked Articles
Chinese Savings Helped Inflate American Bubble
New York Times 12/26/2008
Global Economy: No Help from China's ConsumersBusinessWeek 11/26/2008
The ports of Long Beach and Savannah tell the story of rapidly slowing imports and foreign trade- 2008-2009
11/19/2008
The ports of Savannah and Long Beach tell the story of rapidly slowing foreign trade and imports from China and Japan. Its a signal of an impending slowdown in the economies of China and Japan as their export driven economies slow down.
Linked Articles
New York Times 11/19/2008
When the Downturn Sailed Into SavannahNew York Times 11/30/2008
The perspectives of a senior British foreign servie officer and of General Petraeus on Afghanistan.
10/01/2008
General Petraeus on his information gathering on Afghanistan and the British Ambasador in Kabul's perspective of the situation there.
Linked Articles
Insurgents in Afghanistan Are Gaining, Petraeus Says
New York Times 10/01/2008
‘Dictator’ Proposed for Afghanistan in Leaked CableNew York Times 10/04/2008
The poverty rate and wealth gap between rich and poor in New York city and in China and the rest of the world.
08/27/2008
How the New York City experience compares with China's.
Linked Articles
Poverty Rate Declines in New York
New York Times 08/27/2008
World Bank Finds More People Live in Steep PovertyNew York Times 08/27/2008
Did Putin overreact in Georgia 2008 and Ukraine 2014? Russia and the dangers to the Russian economy of not maintaining good relations with the West
08/13/2008
Russia tones down its overreaction as 66% of Russians polled in June say Russian forces should not enter Ukrainian terrritory. Putin and Russians in the administration policy making may have underestimated the reaction in the U.S. as reflected in this WSH editorial saying Americans should remember the words of Gen. Lucius Clay during the Berlin Blockade and the subsequent airlift. This could be why analysts in Russia now maintain that good relations with the West must be maintained, and entry of Russian forces into Ukraine would have disastrous consequences for Russia in terms of western sentiment and foreign investor sentiment. In such a situation Germany would be likely to support the stronger U.S. position seeing this in terms of the language used in theBerlin Airlift of 1948. For Germany and Russia this would be reversing the hard won gains of building relations from the time of Brandtand Kohl till today, fifty years of effort to build better relations and economic relationships- just too much for sober heads in Moscow Paris, and Berlin to accept, and closing another chapter in Russia's interactions with the West.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 08/13/2008
Seeing Cost of Saber Rattling in Ukraine, Putin Alters CourseNew York Times 07/11/2014
Reports linking Karzai's brother to heroin trade fit in with Scweich's account in the NYT.
07/27/2008
Schweich is deputy to Anne Patterson Asst Secretary of State for international narcotics and law enforcement. His story in the New York Times fits in with accounts of links to the heroin trade of Karzai's brother who heads the provincial council in Kandahar. This also shows how trust is being lost in the Afghan government among the people as stated in a cable by a senior career foreign service officer from Britain in Kabul to the French government.
Linked Articles
Reports Link Karzai’s Brother to Heroin Trade
New York Times 10/05/2008
Is Afghanistan a Narco-State?New York Times 07/27/2008
Rising wages in China a definite trend as sentiment of workers and the government changes towards low wages and low wage jobs
06/30/2008
The government's efforts to shift China away from low wage sectors to more advanced technologies with higher wages. And the growting sentiment in China among workers with the rise of the internet and mobile phones to organize efforts for higher wages in industries that range from older textile plants to automobile factories of Japanese makers, and factories that make parts for western tech hardware companies such as Apple, Dell and H-P. This includes Honda plants and Foxconn factories. This sentiment is shifting to other emerging markets such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
Linked Articles
China's Export Machine Threatened by Rising Costs
Wall Street Journal 06/30/2008
The Rise of a Chinese Worker's MovementBusinessWeek 06/10/2010
IHS Energy Associates's Yergin sees shale technologies changing the energy business by 2020, and IEA misses this completely
05/22/2008
Long term forecasting is a difficult business. IEA's 2015 forecast missed the situation in 2015 completely. Yergin was right but did not see how fast this would happen with oil prices down to $50 per barrel in 2015 and prices at the pump below $2.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 12/12/2011
Energy Watchdog Warns Of Oil-Production CrunchWall Street Journal 05/22/2008
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