Analysis of OBR report: A household debt crisis or corporate savings crisis?
30 Nov 2010 [1 Comment | 551 views]
Your average employee will not see their real wage return to the pre-recession level until the last few weeks of 2015, or so the latest data from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggests. But actually, to understand the true picture you need to rewind the clock back to the millennium, and then the image [...]
India’s growth in GDP closes in on China
30 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 509 views]
The latest data on Indian GDP were out this morning: and it appears the economy of the subcontinent is closing in on China as the fastest growing large economy in the world. According to data out this morning, India’s GDP expanded by 8.9 per cent year on year in the third quarter. By contrast, China [...]
iPad takes a bite out of PC market
30 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 439 views]
Is the dominance of the PC finally coming to an end? Gartner has revised its estimate for PC sales for this year, down from 363.5m, to 352m. Earlier in the year it had expected sales to top 366m. You don’t need to look far for the explanation. The PC’s loss has been the iPad’s gain. [...]
Ireland’s loan: the great bailout, or a great debt swindle?
29 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 602 views]
It’s a tad confusing as to why the $113bn loan to Ireland is seen as such a bold step. The Irish government has forking out 5.8 per cent interest. According to our maths, that means the average household in Ireland is having to pay around $4,300 a year in interest payments. That strikes us as quite a [...]
Is Belgium like Greece, or Germany?
28 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 603 views]
The problem in Belgium is several-fold. Not least the fact that the country has pulled off the impressive trick of simultaneously not having a government, but having massive levels of government debt. In other words, the government it does not have is in big trouble. But before you start rattling off jokes about famous people [...]
Portugal and Ireland – debts, wages and house prices: how do they really stand?
28 Nov 2010 [4 Comments | 1,102 views]
The problem with the bailout of Ireland is that the EU and the IMF are effectively saying to the markets – You are wrong. The markets have concluded that Ireland is a risky bet, and will only lend to the government at rates that would make the cost of servicing debt unbearable. So the EU [...]
The economics of happiness: is Cameron right?
26 Nov 2010 [1 Comment | 625 views]
The epiphany came in 2006. At least, that’s when the future prime minister of Britain and Northern Ireland first went public when he said: “It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money, and it’s time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – General Well-Being.” And now our beloved Office [...]
Consumers return, but just remember, consumption is not just for Christmas
26 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 433 views]
How well are advent calendars for dogs going to sell this year, do you think? These are, of course, important products. It is only right that in the Christmas festivities, our pooches have something to look forward to. It is a shame no one has yet come up with similar calendars just for guineas pigs; [...]
Merkel irritates markets with some home truths
25 Nov 2010 [1 Comment | 2,017 views]
She only went along and did it again. Yesterday, and not for the first time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested bondholders should be willing to do their bit and contribute to the great EU bailout by cutting their losses. And yields on bonds, or at least yields on bonds pertaining to certain countries, soared. For [...]
The Eurozone’s three Ds: default, default, and default
25 Nov 2010 [1 Comment | 595 views]
We have three observations to make on the latest shenanigans to hit the Eurozone. Firstly, default of some sort seems inevitable. Secondly, it seems that in a funny kind of way, Angela Merkel and arch-Keynesian Paul Krugman agree. Both seem to think that markets need to be encouraged to throw their money at business, and [...]
