‘The Global Economy’ Archives
U.S. Output and Consumer Prices in 2010
U.S. Consumer Prices and Output are examined for 2010. [Read More]
You May Not Have To Pay Your Mortgage!
Suppose Barney Rubble lends his modern-stone-age, next-door neighbor Fred Flintstone $10,000. Fred signs an IOU in front of a notary saying that he owes Barney $10,000 and he will pay it back plus 10% interest over a period of 10 years. They both agree to make it a [Read More]
Health & Wealth of Nations
The life expectancy and income every county are explored by Swedish professor Hans Rosling in this application and video from Gapminder.org. [Read More]
Deflation and Consumer Prices in Japan
The has been a great deal of discussion recently about whether the United States is headed for inflation or deflation. The are plenty of good arguments on both sides of the question. But whether we will have inflation or deflation is not the subject of this [Read More]
The Origins of Fractional Reserve Banking
The unseemly origins of fractional reserve banking, wherein a goldsmith banker learns about risk and reward. [Read More]
Global Wage Arbitrage
U.S. employment situation does not look very promising. The problem for America is caused by globalization. American companies are outsourcing as many jobs as possible overseas where the labor costs are lower. There was an important article about global labor arbitrage by [Read More]
California Has Record High Unemployment
California's unemployment hit 12.6 percent in March 2010. Can the Great Recession of 2008 really be over without job creation? [Read More]
The Paradox of Outsourcing
The Paradox of Outsourcing is presented to explain the underlying cause of the weakness in the U.S. economy. What is good for one is not necessarily good for all. [Read More]
Why were the headlines positive for Q409 GDP?
In a previous article, U.S. Output in 2009, I wrote that in terms of output as measured by Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) the U.S. economy did poorly in 2009. Even though the population grew by 0.9% in 2009, Real GDP shrank by -2.43%. But the headlines on the papers [Read More]
U.S. Output in 2009
Yesterday, the Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report for the 4th Quarter of 2009. So just how much did the U.S. economy produce in 2009? How did that compare with the previous year? In other words, did [Read More]
U.S. Consumer Prices in December 2009
Yesterday, the Consumer Price Index for December 2009 was released. The good news is that inflation over the past year has not been a problem in the U.S. Year-over-Year Prices are Stable In Dec 2009, CPI-U stood at 215.949. One year ago in Dec 2008, CPI-U was at a level of [Read More]
U.S. Employment in the 21st Century
The first decade of the 21st century is behind us. Now is a good time to take stock of things and look into the state of the economy. Perhaps the most important aspect of the economy is employment. So just how is the U.S. doing one decade into the new century, in terms of [Read More]
In God We Trust
Some restaurants have a sign above the cash register that reads: “In God We Trust. All Others Pay Cash.” The question is, can you trust the cash? Once upon a time, U.S. dollars were backed by gold and silver. The U.S. Treasury held gold and silver in its [Read More]
Treasury Yield Curve
The Treasury yield curve shows the term structure of interest rates. What this means in laymen’s terms is that it shows interest rates for U.S. Treasuries for every maturity from 3-month to 30-years. The “Risk-Free” Rate The Treasury yield curve is [Read More]
Why Government Stimulus Won’t Work
In a previous article, I wrote about the root cause of the global economic crisis, which is the imbalance between National Income and Output resulting from outsourcing of jobs overseas. Foreign workers are willing to supply labor, but they aren’t willing or able to [Read More]
Root Cause of Global Economic Crisis
What is the root cause of the global economic crisis? Before there can be a solution, the root problem must be known and understood. Only then can solutions be proposed. It is easiest to explain the problem by way of a chart. This chart is from any textbook used to teach [Read More]
Population Growth Rate Chart
How fast is the population of the world growing? How about the U.S. and Russia? You can find the answer with Google. Here is some interesting global economic data courtesy of Google. It shows a map of the world with the population growth rate in green. Darker green means [Read More]
Gross Domestic Product Data
What is the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the U.S.? How about China or Russia? Now you can answer these kinds of questions and compare the GDP of one country to another country. Darker green means higher GDP. The U.S. is the highest of all. China, Japan and western [Read More]
