Wen Jiabao, oranges, lemons and political mandarins
29 Oct 2010 [3 Comments | 478 views]
Right now there is some interesting stuff going on in China. Premier Wen Jiabao has called for greater political reform. Meanwhile, the People’s Daily, the most influential newspaper in China, has slammed the idea of Western-style multi-party democracy ever taking root in the world’s most populous country. In other words, right now we are seeing [...]
CBI reports increase in high Street spending, but is this the last hurrah?
29 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 410 views]
The High Street did something odd last month and boomed, or so says the latest report from the CBI. Alas, the CBI findings are pretty much contradicted by ONS and the British Retail Consortium. According to the CBI, High Street sales have been growing for four months in a row; 58 per cent of retailers [...]
China graduates from copycat to innovator, as she builds fastest computer in world
29 Oct 2010 [5 Comments | 937 views]
The Great Bubble of China theory says that China’s growth is reliant on importing ideas from abroad. The same theory goes that China’s growth is not sustainable and she is months away from descending into a Japanese-style economic myopia. At the other extreme you get paranoia, that China is set to take over the global [...]
What is internet really worth to UK economy?
28 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 488 views]
According to a study revealed by Google, the Internet now accounts for 7.2 per cent of the UK’s GDP. Actually, it is not that simple. Sixty per cent of this £100bn is in the form of online shopping. And yet, if there was no Net, surely consumers would still make their purchases, they would just [...]
Eurozone very likely to change in near future, says Capital Economics
28 Oct 2010 [1 Comment | 863 views]
Greece is in trouble again, and so is Portugal, begging the question, should the two countries leave the single currency? Not so long ago, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz called for Germany to leave the euro. And now Capital Economics has said that “the chances of some form of change to the eurozone over the next [...]
Interest rates go negative, as markets fear inflation!
27 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 613 views]
At first glance the headline doesn’t make sense. The yield on some US treasuries auctioned yesterday went negative, for the first time ever. And yet this is being interpreted as suggesting the markets are fearing inflation. What on earth is going on? The picture may start to become clearer when you realise that the particular [...]
Cost of repaying fiscal debt rises on strong GDP figures
27 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 264 views]
Yesterday saw a double dose of good news on the UK economy, as GDP estimates for Q3 exceeded expectations, and the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s upgraded its rating for the UK. And yet, as a consequence, the cost of repaying UK government debt rose. So why’s that then? First things first, let’s not [...]
How reliable is ONS GDP data?
27 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 286 views]
“That was close,” said the headline this time last year. The initial data for Q3 GDP in 2009 heralded that the UK pulled out of recession, but only just, expanding by a miserly 0.1 per cent. Twelve months on, it is a different story: “The UK is booming,” say the headlines, and “interest rates may [...]
UK GDP figures: economy did better than expected
26 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 1,076 views]
The first estimate of UK economic growth for the third quarter was published this morning, and it was good. The question is, will the good news continue? Perhaps the best bit was this sentence which sat within the depths of one of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) releases out this morning: “Construction and business [...]
Is Saint Vince’s pension for all, too good to be true?
26 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 479 views]
And so it came to pass that the Business Secretary revealed plans to provide a £140 a week pension for all. Well, when we say for all, we do of course mean pensioners. And therein lies the key to this one. Of course the new pension is affordable, provided that we are all sufficiently old [...]
