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The Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, has estimated cost of pollution in a new study of the costs of environmental pollution in China. The cost is estimated at $230 billion for 2010, or 3.5% of GDP, and close to 4 times the cost in 2004, showing the rapid degradation of the environment from rampant industrialization. The first such estimates were made in 2006 and since then come out spradically from the Environment Ministry. For 2004 the Environment Ministry estimated cost of pollution was $62 billion, for 2008 partial cost estimate was $185 billion. Even the $230 billion figure fo 2010 is incomplete say researchers. Only after strong public protests over Beijing's air pollution have government officials allowed candid reporting on environmental costs. Environmental costs extend to food contamination. A report on China Central Television recently said farmers in a village in Henan province used wastewater from a paper mill to grow wheat, which was then sent to cities as farmers in the village grow wheat for their own use from well water. A Deutsche Bank report in Feb 2013 says there will be a continuing decline in the environmental degradation for the next decade under current policies, higher coal consumption and growth in automobiles....

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The EU's statistics agency shows inflation in the eurozone was 2.8% in December, declining from 3% in November 2011.

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Capital Economics, a consultancy, estimates that housing prices will fall by 15% in 2008 in Britain and by 12% in 2009. The mortgage market figures according to the Nationwide Building Society show that only 42,000 loans had been approved to buy homes in May under half th number from 2007 May and below even the trough reached in the early 1990's. An economist at Morgan Stanley estimates that with 15% fall in prices 1.2 million households will be under water or have negative equity in their homes, and with a 20% decline in housing prices this number could reach 2 million , as bad as it was in the worst days of early 1990's. A member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee thinks the decline in housing starts would be on a much bigger scale than in the early 1990's. The loss of housing investment will lead to a loss of about one percentage point in GDP economic growth in 2008 and in 2009 according to Goldman Sachs. Thre would be a loss of 30-40% of the demand for equipment to setup new homes leading to a loss of 0.2-0.3% of GDP growth. Economic growth will be affected as declining consumer wealth leads to lower consumer spending. A one percetage point loss in consumer spending is expected and this will lower economic growth by half a percentage point of GDP over the next year according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. All this comes on top of inflation, rising prices of food and energy, loss of purchasing power. And the central bank cannot lower interest rates if it keeps its eye on inflation as the ECB has done....

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A second term Trump-Vance will face uphill risks and a mess in economics from a Trumpian Republican party and Congress, says WSJ. WSJ Editorial Board says a second Trump term is not without risks. Tariffs cost 1.1% in annual growth in the Trump first term says WSJ, and it did have an impact on inflation. It would have had greater impact on inflation with the supply chain crisis of Biden's first term, had this supply chain crisis happened in Trump's first term. A second term Trump-Vance support tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese imports which would have a bigger effect on inflation and economic growth than of the first term. The key difference is that with tax cuts a basic rule for Republican policies Trump-Vance second term would not invest in infrastructure the way Mr. Biden has done and Biden will do so in a second term. As a result the economic growth is likely to be greater and inflation smaller under a Biden administration. Trillions of dollars in investment in the economy and infrastructure under Biden in a second term will be missing in a Trump-Vance tax cuts administration policy. And with it hundreds of thousand of jobs created each quarter will be missing in Trump-Vance second term. Add to this the level of clarity of stable economic policy under a Biden second term and contrast it with some of the chaos in economic policy of a Trump-Vance second term. The basic contradiction between tax cuts policy and the nation's need for infrastructure spending/rebuilding under a Republican under Trump administration will not go away, present a huge stumbling block. Chaotic policy could come from Project 2025 that says consider abolishing the US central bank Federal Reserve. This kind of erratic and unwise policy proposals are clearly not happening under Biden and Yellen. Another key difference is the cost to the economy of delays of several years in doing nothing for climate in Trump-Vance 2024-2028. Severe effects on climate if nothing is done could cause acceleration of climate negative costs which a future economy under Democrats would face, in reality the Nation would face. America's Business has taken a short term approach to climate change, when the time comes to pay the costs of short term thinking it assumes it is somebody else's problem- this happened with supply chain concentration in China the burden falling on the middle and lower classes, it would happen again with missing climate change action under Trump-Vance second term. ...

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The U.S. financial sector is facing a future in which there will be lower revenues and a smaller number of jobs. A low interest rate environment does not help the banks. According to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, net revenue for the six largest U.S. banks will decline by 3.7% in the second quarter of 2011. As a result financial stocks in the U.S. have trailed the broader market in the last 9 of 11 months. The ratio of the price of the S&P 500 financials index to the S&P 500 stock index is less than 0.16. The only time it was less than 0.16 in the last two decades is during the January-April 2009 period when banks were facing a major financial crisis. Bank of America's stock was at a two year low on June 6. Tighter regulation, state and federal investigations, and higher capital requirements from the Fed, will affect revenues and jobs.

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Spain's bond auction on April 3, 2012 for 2.59 billion euros showed yields up by one percentage point to 5.7% on its 10 year bonds. Spain's banks are using funds borrowed from the ECB under its Long Term Financing Operation to buy Spain's government bonds. Spanish banks bought 39 billion of government bonds in Jan and Feb 2012. Spain has raised so far 47% of the planned funding for 2012.

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The G-20 statement for the meeting in Washington D.C. in April 2013, says: "Japan's recent policy actions are intended to stop deflation and support domestic demand." Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's response was that this will help the BOJ implement its monetary expansion program in an orderly way. Kuroda said: "Now that we have obtained the support of the international community, we will be able to implement our program with confidence." These moves come with a call for Europe to proceed with banking union and giving more time for austerity programs to reduce the slowdown in Europe. This happens as fears emerged of a global slowdown in April 2013.

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De Aenile describes the volatility in stock markets after the Brexit vote. Earnings growth is slow and expectations are declining. Indexes of emerging markets are trading at 10 times earnings, say experts. The S&P 500 ended the quarter at 19 times earnings, compared to historical average of 15, according to this report. Uncertainty remains high in Europe and the U.S., and monetary policy is stuck in a low interest rate environment.

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In remarks published in English on the Bundesbank website, Jens Weidmann, Bundesbank president and member of the ECB governing council said: "The ECB should be aware of its independence. This also requires it to respect, and not to overstep its own mandate." This is seen as a pushback by the Bundesbank to ECB president Draghi's comments on July 23, 2012, about doing all that is necessary to keep the eurozone together. Weidmann referring to the situation in France recollecting his days as a student in France in 1987, said there were "two different worldviews colliding." And that this situation prevailed in all political debates right up to the present day. He says about deflationary tendencies -"If these countries go through adjustment processes which result in decreases in wages and prices, then this constitutes one-off shifts in the wage and price structure and not deflation."

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In an effort to calm unsettled global financial markets ECB president Mario Draghi said in a speech on July 26, 2012: "Within our mandate, the ECB is willing to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro and, believe me, it will be enough." Yields on Spain's government bonds reached 7.5% as investors shunned Spanish bonds fearing the need for a government bailout.

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The resignation of Philip Hildebrand as head of the Swiss National Bank after emails showed that he had assented to a $500,000 transaction by his wife. His wife made the currency transaction into dollars on Aug 15, a short time before strong action that lowered the value of the Swiss Franc by the Swiss National Bank.