Economic Data

Informed researchers are asking what happens to China based on the recent demographic shift from rural labour surplus to rural labour deficit.  The answer may be slower growth and higher inflation, according to a paper released last…

To be an economist these days is a rare privilege and especially; it is a privilege to be a blogging economist since there is just so much good material to write about at the moment. On the one hand, there is the unfolding unravelling of…

This post is basically a follow-up to my earlier Just What Is Going On In Sweden? one, and has been stimulated by an article which appeared in Bloomberg earlier in the week, detailing a number of issues which have arisen in conjunction with…

David Rosenberg was out over the past week with some pretty large numbers supporting the thesis that strategic defaults are driving retail sales. In his daily piece last Friday, he said: To repeat, what has driven consumer spending in…

Yves talks about Greece and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe as well as her book "ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism". I saw this interview on Tuesday and thought it was very…

The Swedish government cuts its growth forecasts for this year and increased its spending to boost the economy, ahead of the Sept parliament elections.  The krona is gaining against the euro, but this is more a reflection on the euro's…

Embedded is a report by Thomas Ferguson and Jie Chen of the Roosevelt Institute which sought to determine the likely cause of the epic Scott brown victory in Massachusetts Senate Race. Their analysis points to economics as the overriding…

I agree with Feldstein that a double dip is a risk (a much larger risk than many believe).  However, this presupposes that we are in technical recovery, one I believe began last summer. Also see Stuck in the Middle from Tim Duy's…

In a week where the deck of cards that make up the Eurozone got its so far largest jolt and where there is now not only an imminent danger of a total economic collapse in Greece but also, much more worryingly, signs that Germany herself is…

Angela Merkel is a Chemist. In her doctoral thesis - entitled "Untersuchung des Mechanismus von Zerfallsreaktionen mit einfachem Bindungsbruch und Berechnung ihrer Geschwindigkeitskonstanten auf der Grundlage quantenchemischer und…