http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/consumption/ en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:04:49 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410169/posts What is So Difficult About Transforming the Chinese Economy? By Liang Jing Dec 5, 2009 - 5:17:35 PM What is So Difficult About Transforming the Chinese Economy? by Liang Jing Everyone understands that to transform ChinaÂ’s economy, household consumption must increase, but few have real confidence in this strategy. What is so difficult about making over the Chinese economy? Overseas, people say that ChinaÂ’s consumption is inadequate because Chinese people save too much. This is actually a big misunderstanding. Some people save to buy property, to educate their children or in case of illness, but the bigger problem is that... Boxun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410169/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:04:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2402277/posts About 18 months ago, before the financial crisis swamped the news and obscured more basic trends, the summer 2008 edition of The Lord Abbett Review published an article titled, “Seismic Shifts.” Among other things, that piece pointed out how the need for households to deleverage would slow the growth of consumer spending going forward, especially compared with the free-spending ways of the prior 20 years. That discussion also described how the dollar’s long-term, cumulative weakness against almost every other currency would make American industry more competitive on global markets than previously. The confluence of both trends, it concluded, would shift... Lord Abbett &Co, LLC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2402277/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 20:29:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2353345/posts Robert Reich: This Is No Time To Worry About Government Debt Joe Weisenthal|Oct. 2, 2009, 7:09 AM | 350 |12 Echoing fellow traveler Paul Krugman, former Clinton cabinet official Robert Reich is banging the drum on spending: Let me say this as clearly and forcefully as I can: The federal government should be spending even more than it already is on roads and bridges and schools and parks and everything else we need. It should make up for cutbacks at the state level, and then some. This is the only way to put Americans back to work. We did it... Business Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2353345/posts#comment Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:18:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2348102/posts China: More Trade Tensions 2 comments by: Michael Pettis September 25, 2009 | about: FXI / PSJ While the G20 leaders make reassuring noises about international trade, I think the risk of rising trade tensions have not abated at all. As I see it, everything depends on whether or not domestic Chinese polices had any role in creating the global imbalances, and if they did, then we are still in the early stages of a difficult process of assigning the costs of the global adjustment through trade. Beijing hates when anyone suggests that Chinese policies were partly at fault for... Seeking Alpha http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2348102/posts#comment Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:11:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2343527/posts Administration economists cited Keynesian models that predicted that the $787 billion stimulus package would increase GDP by enough to create 3.6 million jobs....more modern macroeconomic models predicted only one-sixth of that GDP impact. Consider first the part of the package that consists of government transfers and rebates. The nearby chart reviews income and consumption through July (DPI)--the total amount of income people have left to spend after they pay taxes and receive transfers from the government--jumped. The increase is due to the transfer and rebate payments in the 2009 stimulus package. However, as the chart also shows, there was no... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2343527/posts#comment Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:08:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2326633/posts The Ongoing Chinese Annexation Of The US Consumer Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/28/2009 09:21 -0500 Recent conversations over the symbiotic relationship between China and the US all end up focusing on three key concepts: - The lopsided trade balance (China exporting and the US importing) - China's willingness to continue investing in US assets even with a declining dollar, a debt load which will likely one day result in a payment moratorium (the banana republic syndrome) and collapsing economic drivers - Who can inflate yet another fiat bubble faster (opinions are split here, although China is conclusively in the... Zero Hedge http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2326633/posts#comment Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:31:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2325106/posts "They rush about in disorder, anxious slaves of the three M's - the moment, the mode, and the mob. They see too well their want of dignity and fitness, and need a false elegance to hide their galloping consumption..." - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thoughts Out of Season II: The Use & Abuse of History (1874) NOW THE banking crisis is over - "Bernanke stays put, home prices up," as Fox News reports - the career academics who failed to spot and prevent it can get back to fretting about the most macro of tasks: How to rebalance the global economy? The... Commodity News Center http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2325106/posts#comment Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:49:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2321276/posts Manufacturing employment in the U.S. peaked in June 1979 with 19,553,000 jobs (data here), and by July of this year manufacturing employment had fallen to 11,817,000, the lowest level of manufacturing jobs since April 1941 (see chart above).As a percent of the total labor force, manufacturing employment fell below 9% in July (see chart below), the lowest level in BLS history (back to 1939). Carpe Diem http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2321276/posts#comment Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:18:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2296547/posts More than a few observers have pointed out that President Obama and the Democrats in Congress seem determined to repeat the errors of the 1970s by returning to inflationary spending, tax increases, auto company bailouts and cuts to the defense budget while coddling dictators who hate America....So it was inevitable that this recycling effort would get around to attempting the most brazen rehabilitation of all: Jimmy Carter was a visionary president!...It was 30 years ago this month that Mr. Carter reached the nadir of his presidency with his famous "malaise" speech in which he criticized the American people for their... Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2296547/posts#comment Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:11:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2231779/posts A FAMILY in Michigan has decided to give up modern living to pursue a simpler life on a 40-acre farm. It's a life with more time spent together, though with less money and material comforts. It does not sound like an economic so much as a lifestyle choice. But according to Peggy Noonan, because of the current climate, some have misinterpreted it as reflecting a new widespread trend of economic survivalism. After all, people are buying more supplies to make their own preserves; the first step in a slippery slope that ends with moving to Alaska and living off the... The Economist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2231779/posts#comment Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:00:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2225381/posts China’s consumption is a disappearing act Published: April 8 2009 19:46 | Last updated: April 8 2009 19:46 /snip......... There are several factors holding back the Chinese consumer. First, people have for years witnessed the destruction of the “iron rice bowl”, as once-free health and education systems have been dismantled. Now the government is committed rhetorically – and, increasingly, in practice – to rebuilding the social safety net. But it will be years before people trust the state to look after them, and run down their precautionary savings. Second, most Chinese are what Dragonomics, a research firm, calls “survivors”, whose... FT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2225381/posts#comment Thu, 9 Apr 2009 04:13:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2217263/posts Saving Money is Bad for the Economy: Personal Savings Rate Higher, Consumption Slightly Up, Banks get new American Express, and Markets Begging for Money. Posted by mybudget360 in US Dollar, bailout, bankruptcy, banks, budget, credit cards, economy, monetary policy 0 Comments Last month the savings rate hit the 5 percent mark. That makes two months over 4 percent and for the first time in a decade that Americans have actually saved more than 4 percent for two consecutive months. Saved 4 percent of what? Of their personal income. You would think that most people would be saving a little bit... My Budget 360 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2217263/posts#comment Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:24:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2199653/posts Banks save while U.S. Consumers are Expected to Spend: The Convoluted Problem of Creating a Debt based Consumption System. I’ve read my fair share of financial books and I am certain that many of you have picked up a book regarding finances. Many times, these introductory books caution the reader that going into massive debt is a sin (or at the very least a hindrance to your financial independence). These books will usually show you the contrast between a dollar saved and compounded over time instead of someone burning that dollar on a trip to Las Vegas. The underlying premise... Dr. Housing Bubble http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2199653/posts#comment Thu, 5 Mar 2009 09:46:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195235/posts The reason that stimulus packages cause a further loss of capital is that their starting point is the consumption of previously produced wealth. That wealth is part of the capital of the business firms that own it. The stimulus programs offer money in exchange for this wealth and capital. But the money they offer does not come from the production of any comparable wealth by the government or those to whom it gives money—wealth which has had to be produced and sold and thus put into the economic system prior to the withdrawal that now takes place. The starting point... George Reisman's Blog on Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195235/posts#comment Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:22:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2194474/posts Home Economics of Anxious Times: Dyeing Your Hair in the Kitchen Sink By Ylan Q. Mui Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 26, 2009; A01 The economic downturn is forcing America's households to learn a tough lesson: how to fend for themselves. Sales of starter sewing kits have shot up by 30 percent at Wal-Mart as families forgo the tailor. Landscaping companies have suffered a 7 percent drop in revenue over the past year. Procter & Gamble said that it has noticed more questions from customers about how to dye their hair at home to match salon coloring. The recession... WP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2194474/posts#comment Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:05:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2189981/posts In their zeal to oppose the lunacy of the so-called "stimulus" plan, many radio talk show hosts and other pundits have fallen into the Keynesian trap. Rather than the politicians spending nearly a trillion dollars, they argue, it would provide much more stimulus if the government gave massive tax cuts. This would "put money back in the pockets of average Americans" and they would go to the mall and "get that money into circulation and boost the economy." Although the instincts behind such arguments are sound, they often betray an underlying Keynesian mindset. By justifying tax cuts on the grounds... Mises Institute http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2189981/posts#comment Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:27:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2189152/posts Tuesday, February 17, 2009 "The Worst is Yet to Come"-America undergoing a Permanent CHANGE! Posted Feb 17, 2009 12:53pm EST by Aaron Task in Investing, Recession There's no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment. But "the worst is yet to come," according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, who believes American's standard of living is undergoing a "permanent change" - and not for the better as a result of: An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values. A $10 trillion negative wealth... The Coming Depression http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2189152/posts#comment Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:11:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2154797/posts An ugly, unrecognizable recession Most of us haven't seen an economic decline like this one before, and as the slowdown gets slower, few will be unaffected. Are you ready for the 'frugal future'? [Related content: stocks, investments, recession, consumer goods, Jon Markman] By Jon Markman MSN Money Feeling frugal? You're not alone -- not by a long shot -- as butchers, bakers and billionaires alike are feeling the credit crisis this month in a way not experienced since at least 1946 or even 1938. It's not just a temporary wave of Scrooginess that's to blame for a retail-sales drop of... Money Central http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2154797/posts#comment Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:50:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2148629/posts Forecast: A Long, Cold Winter Stephanie Pomboy, Founder and President, MacroMavens By LAWRENCE C. STRAUSS AN INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE POMBOY: It will take consumers at least five years -- and probably more -- to recover from this crisis. "LIKE THE BUBBLE IN FINANCIAL ASSETS, THE NEW REAL-ESTATE bubble has its own distinctly disturbing characteristics," Stephanie Pomboy wrote in an April 2002 note titled "The Great Bubble Transfer." The founder and president of MacroMavens was on to something, even if she was early, and she worried about the big buildup of consumer debt fueled by rising home prices. Pomboy, whose Manhattan... Barron's http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2148629/posts#comment Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:05:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051763/posts About seven years ago, University of Chicago economists Kerwin Kofi Charles and Erik Hurst were researching the “wealth gap” between black and white Americans when they noticed something striking. African Americans not only had less wealth than whites with similar incomes, they also had significantly more of their assets tied up in cars. The statistic fit a stereotype reinforced by countless bling-filled hip-hop videos: that African Americans spend a lot on cars, clothes, and jewelry—highly visible goods that tell the world the owner has money. But do they really? And, if so, why? The two economists, along with Nikolai Roussanov... Atlantic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051763/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:42:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2010191/posts The Value of Drink "Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shame Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams . If I didn't drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." ~ Jack Handy WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell... Via E Mail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2010191/posts#comment Fri, 2 May 2008 13:15:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993262/posts Russia calls for sturgeon fishing ban in CaspianRussia on Thursday proposed that Caspian Sea states impose a five-year ban on fishing for sturgeon, prized for its caviar eggs, to save stocks from collapse, a spokesman for the fisheries agency said. "We are ready to announce a moratorium," said spokesman Alexander Savelyev, adding that Russia would formally propose the ban to the other four Caspian Sea states of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan soon. "This is because the sturgeon is about to disappear," said Savelyev, adding that Russia was not able to fish its annual quota of 50 tonnes of sturgeon... Terra Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993262/posts#comment Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:34:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982182/posts Congregation of the Church of the Holy Organic, let us buy. Let us buy Anna Sova Luxury Organics Turkish towels, 900 grams per square meter, $58 apiece. Let us buy the eco-friendly 600-thread-count bed sheets, milled in Switzerland with U.S. cotton, $570 for queen-size. Let us purge our closets of those sinful synthetics, purify ourselves in the flame of the soy candle at the altar of the immaculate Earth Weave rug, and let us buy, buy, buy until we are whipped into a beatific froth of free-range fulfillment. And let us never consider the other organic option -- not buying... The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982182/posts#comment Fri, 7 Mar 2008 23:12:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1954466/posts A few years ago, Bill Cosby set off a firestorm with a speech excoriating his fellow African-Americans for, among other things, buying $500 sneakers instead of educational toys for their children. In a recent book, Come On People, he repeats his argument that black Americans spend too much money on designer clothes and fancy cars, and don't invest sufficiently in their futures. Many in the black community have been critical of Cosby for blaming poor people rather than poor public policies. Others have defended Cosby's comments as an honest expression of uncomfortable truths. But notably absent from the Cosby affair... Slate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1954466/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:37:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951658/posts It might not come as a surprise to learn that the cars Britons own are smaller than the cars Americans drive or that Swedes favour safe, politically correct SAAB's and Volvo's. But there's more to be said. To begin with: WHO'S RICH, WHO'S NOT? - Swedes claim they enjoy the highest standard of living in the world and they also say poverty, in absolute terms, is extinct in their country. The income distribution is known for being extremely even. If this really is true, how is it reflected in Swedish car consumption? Furthermore, for the first time since the 19th... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951658/posts#comment Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:14:32 GMT