China’s Devaluation: Opportunistic or Overdue?
By Peter G Hall
Vice-President and Chief Economist Export Development Canada
Just in case you were getting too comfy at the cottage, China offered up a summer storm: a one-two gut-punch of currency devaluation. What has followed is a wave of reaction that has still not settled down, and a lot of speculation as to China’s rationale for the move. Opinions are varied. Was this a competitive devaluation, aimed at shoring up an ailing domestic economy by boosting trade? Or was it just time for a RMB reality check?
How China's Currency Policies Will Change the World
Analysis @ Stratfor
There were several reasons behind China's decision, but it nevertheless came as a surprise to many. In search of stability, China has tied its currency to the U.S. dollar since 1994, usually at a low value relative to the dollar. During the 2000s, the connection helped China keep its exports competitive, with the developed world consuming its output. The West's economic collapse in 2008 meant that this model could no longer function, and China began trying to grow consumption levels so that the domestic consumer might come to fill the hole left by the faded international market.
China: Too Big to Ail
By Peter G. Hall
Vice-President and Chief Economist Export Development Canada
Size matters. We were all grimly reminded of that in 2008, and then repeatedly in the precarious months following the onset of crisis. Financial institutions exposed by years of loose lending and experimentation with ill-understood instruments came to the brink of failure, but were rescued by expansive bailouts. Why? They were too big to fail. Single institutions were so large that their complex integration with other institutions – many of them large, too – made their weaknesses an instant virulent epidemic. Failure of one key institution could easily bring down the entire system. We don’t typically think of countries in the same way, but are there similarities? Is the ailing Chinese economy somehow actually too big to ail?
Deflationary Collapse Ahead?
By Gail E. Tverberg - Ourfiniteworld.com
Both the stock market and oil prices have been plunging. Is this “just another cycle,” or is it something much worse? I think it is something much worse.
Back in January, I wrote a post called Oil and the Economy: Where are We Headed in 2015-16? In it, I said that persistent very low prices could be a sign that we are reaching limits of a finite world. In fact, the scenario that is playing out matches up with what I expected to happen in my January post. In that post, I said…
World Trade: On the Mend?
By Peter G. Hall
Vice-President and Chief Economist Export Development Canada
With summer in full swing, I hope you are taking time to rest, enjoy the warmth, the lake, family, good friends, a sizzling barbecue or enjoy whatever your favourite summer activities are. In all the seasonal distractions, it may have slipped your notice that Canada had a blockbuster export month in June. We just got the data last week, and are still savouring the message. It broke a pretty sluggish trend, with exports rising in 9 of 11 industries and in all except one province. It’s just one month, but even so that’s a pretty strong performance. So, where did it come from? Good question – we’re curious too.
The US Economy Continues Its Collapse
By Paul Craig Roberts
The claimed payroll jobs for July are in the usual categories familiar to us month after month year after year. They are domestic service jobs—waitresses and bartenders, retail clerks, transportation, warehousing, finance and insurance, health care and social assistance. Nothing to export in order to pay for massive imports. With scant growth in real median family incomes, as savings are drawn down and credit used up, even the sales part of the economy will falter. Clearly, this is not an economy that has a future.
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How World War III Became Possible
A nuclear conflict with Russia is likelier than you think
By Max Fisher
It was in August 2014 that the real danger began, and that we heard the first warnings of war. That month, unmarked Russian troops covertly invaded eastern Ukraine, where the separatist conflict had grown out of its control. The Russian air force began harassing the neighboring Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which are members of NATO. The US pledged that it would uphold its commitment to defend those countries as if they were American soil, and later staged military exercises a few hundred yards from Russia's border.
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The MH17 Pilot’s Corpse: More on the Cover-Up
Even His Family Was Blocked from It. Here’s Why.
By Eric Zuesse - Global Research
It might be the decisive piece of evidence proving who and what and how and why the MH17 Malaysian airliner over the conflict zone in Ukraine on 17 July 2014 was shot down, but the pilot’s corpse has been hidden even from the people who have the most right to see it.
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COP 21: The No Hope Climate Summit
By Alex Scrivener
Climate change is already hitting the world’s poorest people hardest and it needs to be stopped. The responsibility for the climate crisis lies squarely on the shoulders of the rich, whose consumption and greed has driven us to the brink of disaster. This makes it a problem of social and economic justice. Some groups consider the upcoming Paris climate summit to be the answer. The bad news is that the Paris Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) won’t work because it will not be dealing with the underlying problem – the unfair economic system that puts the interest of fossil fuel addicted corporations above those of the people.
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Youth In America, Russia And China
By Jon Kofas
While 93% of Chinese believe their country has a bright future, 67% believe they will become businesspeople. This level of optimism is the highest in the world, while Russia lags China in optimism but it is well ahead of the US with about 70% of Russian youth indicating they will be about the same or better off in the future. Whether for or against Putin youth organizations have a greater sense of shaping their future from within or outside the system. The Chinese are also optimistic about controlling their destiny within the new system. Similar trends are absent among American youth have yielded to resignation or conformity with only small groups defying the institutional structure at the root of injustice in society. Considering the US has a long tradition of believing it is in charge of its own destiny and that of the world, we see that trend in decline across the board and among America’s youth.
Learning From Greece Crisis
Work out alternatives for the long term
By Arun Kumar *
Banks lost billions of euros after panic-stricken Greeks began to withdraw funds.
Greece is in turmoil is an understatement. The passage of the new austerity programme in Greek parliament was a surprise, given the split in Syriza, Mr Tsipras' left-wing party. Various explanations have been advanced but these are not convincing. One needs to understand the functioning of the world of finance.
