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Increasing domestic consumption in Saudi Arabia will diminish reserve supplies and put pressure on oil prices in 2012-2013
06/23/2011
Saudi domestic consumption increasing at 10% a year will diminsh the Saudi role as a reserve supplier. Estimates are for zero reserve supplies by 2020 and oil imports by 2038, so large is the effect of growing use of oil at home. The Arab Spring means subsidies and social spending will increase, supporting continuing use of oil at current levels for a rapidly growing population.
Linked Articles
The End of the Saudi Oil Reserve Margin
Wall Street Journal 04/03/2012
Rising Saudi Thirst for Oil Drives Plans to Go NuclearWall Street Journal 06/23/2011
Declining demand for gold in China by 2014-2015 and the future for gold prices
06/14/2011
Linked Articles
Cooling Chinese Demand for Gold Adds to Metal’s Gloomy Global Outlook
Wall Street Journal 11/04/2014
Investors Going for the Gold in China May Want to ReconsiderWall Street Journal 06/14/2011
Pernambuco and other states in Brazil's northeastern region- lack of investment in public health, education and transportation services infrastructure
05/21/2011
During the boom years much of the investment, about three fourths of the growth rate of over 4%, came from infrastructure investments that supported exports of soyabeans, iron ore and other commodities to China. Under the Worker's party socialist governments that get much of their support from the northeast, this disguised the low investments in public infrastructure services for drinking water, health sanitation, public schools and transportation services. This is a problem in developing countries of Latin America, South Asia, and Africa, with some regions lagging behind in essential infrastructure services, even with high growth rates.
Linked Articles
The Brazilian Doctors Who Sounded the Alarm on Zika and Microcephaly
Wall Street Journal 01/30/2016
Brazil's north-east: Catching up in a hurryEconomist 05/21/2011
Republicans, John Taylor, and a U.S. budget that is at about 20% of GDP
04/22/2011
John Taylor makes the arguments for a budget that is around 20% of GDP, which it was in 2007- before the financial crisis of 2008.
Linked Articles
GOP Hopefuls Betting Voters Want Deep Cuts
Wall Street Journal 07/18/2011
Obama's Permanent Spending BingeWall Street Journal 04/22/2011
The Volcker Rule and the actions taken by the Independent Commission on Banking in Britain
04/07/2011
Britain has a much larger financial sector as aproportion of its economy than the U.S. For this reason the U.K.'s Independent Commission on banking takes a serious view of systemic risks- separating investment banking from deposit taking.
Linked Articles
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' Trading
Wall Street Journal 02/13/2012
British Bank Proposal Expected to Include Stiff RulesNew York Times 04/07/2011
The mismatch in skills that will make it harder to bring down the unemployment rate in the U.S. in 2012-2013
03/15/2011
Labor Department and other information points to a serious skills crisis in the U.S. that will make it harder to tackle unemployment.The lack of emphasis on jobs training by the Obama administration is also making the situation harder to tackle.
Linked Articles
On Jobs, No Time for a Celebratory Beveridge
Wall Street Journal 04/11/2012
Many Workers Seen Lacking Skills for New JobsWall Street Journal 03/15/2011
The unemployment rate and participation of young people in the U.S. labor force
01/08/2011
Linked Articles
Piecing Together the Job-Picture Puzzle
Wall Street Journal 03/12/2012
Jobless Rate Masks Depth of Labor WoesWall Street Journal 01/08/2011
Bringing peace to Kashmir- the elections in 2014 with a 70% turnout as ordinary Kashmiris turn to development and infrastructure building
01/01/2011
Weary of conflict a whole region turns to economic development and infrastructure building plans as the next step to a brighter future. South Asia makes a new beginning as it catches up with its neighbors in East Asia. A billion plus market extending from South Asia to Indonesia makes a new beginning in 2014. Even the Kashmir Valley hears the message- the synergy of technology, capital, human resources and good governance can pave the way to a better future that is within the reach of today's young generation of South Asians and Indonesians.
Linked Articles
Modi’s Campaign Stop in Kashmir Is Notable for Lack of Unrest
New York Times 12/08/2014
Kashmir's troubles: Shaking the mountainsEconomist 01/01/2011
The Brady plan and the expert opinion of John Cochrane and others about the need to extend the maturities of the debt of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other EU countries.
11/30/2010
Linked Articles
'Contagion' and Other Euro Myths
Wall Street Journal 12/02/2010
Nervous Europe Trying to Halt Economic CrisisNew York Times 11/30/2010
How Apple's Steve Jobs put together the iPhone product in 2004-2007, and how Nokia missed the smartphone opportunity
09/26/2010
Linked Articles
Apple Engineer Recalls the iPhone's Birth
Wall Street Journal 03/26/2014
Nokiaâs New Chief Faces a Culture of ComplacencyNew York Times 09/26/2010
The growth compact for Europe: increasing German wages to benefit German workers and increase imports from other eurozone countries
08/17/2010
German workers exercized a decade of wage restraint under the Hartz reforms. This has led to a large increase in the sector of lower paid workers. Polls show 4 out of 5 workers feel they have not benefitted from the growth in the economy in Germany. Higher German wages coupled with wage restraint in France, Spain, Italy and other eurozone countries would help increase imports into Germany from other eurozone coutnries. This would help rebalance the eurozone economies.
Linked Articles
Germany's Inflated Fear of Inflation
Wall Street Journal 02/14/2012
German Workers' Wages Belie Country's ReboundWall Street Journal 08/17/2010
Job saving in Germany, "kurzarbeit" and the experience of piecemeal implementation in France by 2014
07/29/2010
Piecemeal implementation of "kuzarbeit" type job preservation efforts leads to failure in France with unemployment reaching 10.4% by the third quarter of 2014, according to Insee. Proper implementation would require changes in the legal system, and a change in the culture for business, trade unions.
Linked Articles
French Attempt at German-Style Labor Reform Flounders
Wall Street Journal 12/05/2014
The Price of Saving Jobs in GermanyBusinessWeek 07/29/2010
Crisis Prevention Insights from the 2008 financial crisis to the BP oil spill and Fukushima- Chinese walls that don't work and underestimation of risk
06/11/2010
Linked Articles
Chinese Walls, Pocked With Peepholes
New York Times 06/11/2010
Recipes for Ruin, in the Gulf or on Wall StreetNew York Times 06/11/2010
The U.S Fed's Daniel Tarullo and the 15% of assets held in capital reserves by banks rule to prevent another banking crisis like the one in 2008
06/16/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 06/16/2011
Weâre All Still Hostages to the Big BanksNew York Times 08/25/2013
Brazil's uneven economic development with growth focussed on export based mining and agriculture
05/21/2011
As the commodities boom fades Brazil's growth slows to 1% in 2012 after the rapid growth in the years under president Lula. Stiglitz and Sen pointed to this kind of uneven development with the neglect of education, healthcare and other public services. This is true also of economic development in China focussed on export industries, with the added cost of environmental degradation. Street protests in June 2013 in many Brazilian cities from Porto Alegre and Curitiba to Rio and Sao Paulo showed popular discontnet with the situation under president Rouseff.
Linked Articles
Brazil's north-east: Catching up in a hurry
Economist 05/21/2011
Anger Spills Onto Brazil's StreetsWall Street Journal 06/18/2013
Austerity measures and economic contraction in Portugal 2010-2013- the terms of the 2011 EU-IMF loan agreement with Portugal
05/05/2011
The forecasts of higher unemployment reaching 17% and economic contraction of 7% for 2011-2013 are widely diverging from the original estimates in 2011 by EU and IMF officials. This increases the urgency for reappraisal of the terms of the original agreement including borrowing rates, giving more time to achieve deficit targets, and other action to put Portugal back on the road to growth in 2014.
Linked Articles
Portugal to Seek New Bailout Terms
Wall Street Journal 03/04/2013
Government Sees Deep Recession Ahead for PortugalNew York Times 05/05/2011
BP's steady focus on safety under CEO Bob Dudley
04/20/2011
Dudley says BP is not going to get off the path of focus on safety, and "stepping up the accelerator of performance, thats not going to happen." BP's second quarter 2012 performance reflected lower levels of production to permit maintenance and improvements in infrastructure at its deep water oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Similiar maintenance will be undertaken at North Sea fields in the rest of 2012. Cost cutting on maintenance and infrastructure improvements to improve profit performance created an environment that led to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and created huge legal liabilities.
Linked Articles
BP Posts Unexpectedly Large Loss
New York Times 07/31/2012
The Lessons of Deepwater HorizonWall Street Journal 04/20/2011
Comparing approaches of Britain and U.S. to ring-fencing investment banking activities of banks from retail banking operations
04/07/2011
Linked Articles
British Bank Proposal Expected to Include Stiff Rules
New York Times 04/07/2011
British Commission Says Bank Reforms Don't Go Far EnoughNew York Times 12/21/2012
The slow shift to healthy choices at grocery chains and restaurants in the U.S. even as the healthcare costs reach alarming proportions
01/20/2011
U.S. companies, workers, and the U.S. economy is squeezed between the growth in obesity related diabetes and other obesity related diseases and the growth in health care costs to treat these diseases. Yet no coordinated action plan exists to tackle the problem between companies, government, universities, public interest groups, and other groups. And the progress charted out by grocery chains, restaurants and other organizations in the food business to provide and encourage healthy choices is incredibly slow.
Linked Articles
Wal-Mart Plans to Make Its House Brand Healthier
New York Times 01/20/2011
Low-Cal Items Fuel Restaurant SalesWall Street Journal 02/07/2013
Contrasts in the approaches of S. Korea in 1997 and the U.S. in 2008 to banking crises, and the hobbled U.S. economic recovery
01/06/2011
S. Korea in 1997 at the urging of Treasury Secretary Rubin took decisive step to unwind failed financial institutions. This in stark contrast to Treasury Secretary Geither, regulators and U.S. Fed officials actions in 2008 to merge troubled mortgage institutions such as Countrywide and Washington Mutual with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. In the process creating mega banks that are hard to manage and hard to run, and "too big to fail," according to former and current Fed governors Hoenig and Fisher. Prof. Cochrane of the University of Chicago says the U.S. Federal Reserve's new job as financial regulator after the 2008 financial crisis, is an impossible one.
Linked Articles
Red Flags said to Go Unheeded at Chase
New York Times 05/14/2012
South Korea Makes a Quick Economic RecoveryNew York Times 01/06/2011
A Brady Plan type solution to the debt crisis in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other EU countries
11/30/2010
The extension of maturities for the debt of these countries is a key part of the solution. The Brady Plan that helped sove the Latin American debt crisis of the eighties and nineties is an example of the way out of the crisis. Resistance from bankers to taking losses of upto 30% and extending the maturities for debt. The need for Germany and other countries to set aside money that would be needed to recapitalize banks that need funds to handle these losses. Nicholas Brady when asked about this says it is important for this to be "a unified decision." This would create the confidence in the financial markets that will be needed.
Linked Articles
Europe's Central Banker Seeks Deeper Fiscal Union
Wall Street Journal 06/03/2011
Nervous Europe Trying to Halt Economic CrisisNew York Times 11/30/2010
Stiglitz and Krugman point to the dangers in the Cameron-Osborne austerity measures in Britain
10/20/2010
Jospeh Stiglitz writing in the Guardian in 2010, at the time of the first Osborne Budget, said it was a huge gamble that the private secotr would pick up enough to make up for the impact of the budget cuts. Lower growth would mean lower tax revenues and deficit reduction targets would be missed. Krugman points out that the 490,000 job losses planned through attrition under the Osborne plan is similiar to 3 million in job losses in the U.S., a huge risk for the British economy.
Linked Articles
Britain Details Radical Spending Cuts, Citing Debt
New York Times 10/20/2010
British Fashion VictimsNew York Times 10/21/2010
The 61 million children of migrant workers left behind in China- 75% visited only once a year and 70% under the age of 11
08/27/2010
The price of rapid industrialization in China being paid by children of migrant workers and their parents- about 200 million people or close to 20% of the population. Government policy requires migrant workers leaving rural areas to work in factories to leave behind their children.
Linked Articles
Left-Behind Children of China's Migrant Workers Bear Grown-Up Burdens
Wall Street Journal 01/17/2014
Lixin Fan, Trailing Chinese Migrant WorkersNew York Times 08/27/2010
Local governments and state-owned companies are fueling a real estate bubble in China in 2009-2010.
07/29/2010
Northwestern University Prof. Shih estimates that state banks in China hold $1.68 trillion in debt of local investment companies which invest for local governments. In many cases the banks have little collateral. The central government in China aggressively supported this lending to quickly get money to projects in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, but this may have backfired with money going into speculation and building a bubble.
Linked Articles
Chinaâs Real Estate Boom and Conflicting Policy
New York Times 08/01/2010
Where China Hides Its DebtBusinessWeek 07/29/2010
Greece's referendum and the 3 year bailout of July 12, 2015- military spending, shipowners taxes, and cuts to pensions
07/10/2010
Greece's left Syriza government almost pulled the country out of the eurozone over pension cuts, even as military spending in Greece remained at 2.4% of GNP compared to close 1.4% for the EU average. Greece did not propose further cuts to military spending to bring the Greece ratio closer to that of Germany and other countries in Europe, raising questions about prudent spending. Which is why Greece sometimes has aspects of the surreal to people not just in Germany and Holland, but other parts of Europe, and outsiders. Under the reform proposal and bailout of July 12, 2015 following the "no" referendum, Greece's parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the similiar cuts in pensions from an earlier EU proposal, with cuts of $300 million to the military spending by 2016. Greek shipowners will also pay taxes under the new bailout, negotiated by Greece with France's help when the referendum had damaged relations with the rest of the EU, particularly Germany with only 10% in polls willing to support any further concessions.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 07/11/2015
The Submarine Deals That Helped Sink GreeceWall Street Journal 07/10/2010
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