Pages
- About
- Climate
- Humour
- Index Investing: The Fallout
- Joy of Charts
- BoA ML Fund Manager Survey
- Canadian Economy
- Central Europe’s Special Hell
- China: Boom to Bust?
- Commodities
- Euro: Breaking Up Isn’t Easy
- Fund Flows
- Obama’s Approval Rating
- Renewable Energy
- Spanish Economy
- St Louis Fed Economic Charts
- The Economist’s Big Mac Index
- The Stock Market
- UK Economy
- US Banks
- US Economy
- US Property Market
- VIX Volatility Index
- Subprime Mortgage Scandal
- US economic charts
- Wordbites
Categories
Archives
Tags
Asia banks bond market bond markets Brazil Canada CFTC China clean energy climate coal commodities consumer Deutsche Bank ECB electric cars EPA ETF EU Euro France Germany global warming Goldman Sachs Greece housing Hypo Real Estate Ireland Italy Japan manufacturing Morgan Stanley mutual funds Obama oil Portugal regulation retail sovereign debt crisis Spain UK Unemployment US Wall St WTO
Category Archives: Companies
Insourcing is All the Rage
Rising wages and poorer productivity growth is shifting the global terms of trade, to the advantage of the West, as I pointed out in Bursting the Bubble of Chinese Competitiveness last year. But there are some interesting manufacturing synergies as well, which lie behind General Electric’s decision to move much of its far-flung appliance manufacturing operations back home and Apple' decision to start manufacturing in the US, as this article on the“in-sourcing” boom in the Atlantic explains.
Also posted in Economy, Uncategorized Tagged Apple, China, General Electric, In-Sourcing Leave a comment
Stock Markets Haven’t Begun to Price In the Global Growth Shock
What’s been worrying a few investment strategists is the disconnect between stock markets and reality. Forward earning expectations are still unbelievably positive, considering Europe is being sucked into an economic black hole. And that’s after a number of major bellwethers, like FedEx and Caterpillar, have reported bleak earnings outlooks. When Caterpillar warns its sales are going to slump until 2015, it’s saying that we are about to experience a repeat of the 2009 crash, once the true state of the global economy becomes apparent to even the dimmest analyst. Just that this time it could be even worse.
Also posted in Economy, Stockmarket, Uncategorized Leave a comment
Is a Global Aviation Trade War About to Break Out?
The EU’s emissions trading scheme could trigger a full scale global aviation trade war within weeks. A total of 30 countries which signed the Moscow Joint Declaration in February – including Russia, India, and the US - have threatened to retaliate. But China has upped the stakes by warning that it is prepared to impound European aircraft, if the EU punishes Chinese airlines for non-compliance, according to Reuters.
Also posted in Global Warming Scare, Politics Tagged airlines, China, climate change, EU, IATA, India, Russia, US Leave a comment
The Game is Up for the Commodity Super-Cycle as the Yo-Yo Years Begin
If a blizzard of awful Chinese economic data isn’t enough to convince you that China is heading into a deflationary slump and the commodity “super-cycle” is coming to an end, then the deepening crisis in the euro-zone should be. That’s because not only will a massive reduction in foreign lending by European banks hurt investment in emerging markets, but supplier economies will be hit disproportionately, as they were post-Lehman.
Also posted in Commodities, Economy, Uncategorized Tagged Australia, Austria, BHP Billiton, Brazil, Canada, China, ECRI, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Taiwan, US, Yo-Yo Years 2 Comments
Waking Up to the Whiff of Corruption at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters was a scandal waiting to happen. There’s been something fishy about their accounting from the outset. The business strategy it was pursuing was a classic example of front-end loading, where revenues and cash flows today are exaggerated in order to fool the unsuspecting investors into thinking that profitability can be maintained. Specifically, they pursued a highly aggressive acquisition strategy to create an illusion of growth. So the fact that their growth has finally cratered shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone paying the least attention to the game they’ve been playing.
Also posted in Uncategorized Leave a comment
Solar Power Has Been Totally Eclipsed by Gas
Generous solar subsidies were never going to survive in an age of austerity and cheap natural gas. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Germany. Solar energy was supposed to herald a new age of clean energy, and provide thousands of green jobs, but not a single solar manufacturer is expected to survive there. With governments elsewhere, like Italy, also ending their tax payer funded bonanzas, the industry is facing total collapse, globally.
Also posted in Commodities, Global Warming Scare, Uncategorized Tagged First Solar, Germany, Italy, solar energy, US 1 Comment
To Win the Election, Obama and Romney Must Promise to Break Up the Big Banks
Campaigning for a break-up of the big banks has gone mainstream. If Obama is to win the election, he will have to stand up for the middle class, which is fed up with the unfairness of the present economic system. This means he will have to tackle the concentration of bank power that continues to threaten economic stability. For while the overarching purpose of the Dodd–Frank reforms was to end Too-Big-Too-Fail, it may actually be increasing banking industry concentration and preventing the economic recovery.
Also posted in Economy, Fund Management, Politics, Uncategorized Tagged Bank of America, Citigroup, Dodd-Frank, Federal Reserve, financial crisis, France, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Too-Big-Too-Fail, UK, US, Wells Fargo Comments closed
Starbucks makes one of the emptiest threats in the history of business