Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
- "Made-in-China" Only 2.7% of U.S. Spending; Really? What Does It Mean? Inflationists Take Note
- Spain Pressured by Letter from Trichet; More on Agricultural Trade Wars; Which Comes First, Harmony or Workable Currency Unions?
- Swiss Government and Swiss National Bank in "Intense" Talks on Currency Target for Swiss Franc; Talk is Cheap
- Growing Gloom for States and Cities; Who is to Blame? What About Solutions?
- Stanford Offers Free Robotics and Artificial Courses; 10,000 Already Sign Up
"Made-in-China" Only 2.7% of U.S. Spending; Really? What Does It Mean? Inflationists Take Note Posted: 14 Aug 2011 10:44 PM PDT For all the political bickering and scapegoating of China, 'Made in China' ranks only 2.7% of U.S. spending Convinced that everything you buy these days has a Made-in-China label?It would have been nice to have a link to the Fed report. Missing links is one of my pet peeves. News organizations in general only link to themselves. So do many bloggers. I am tired of it. Let's do our own report instead. US GDP On July 29, 2011 the BEA gave the Gross Domestic Product: Second Quarter 2011 (Advance Estimate) as follows "Current-dollar GDP -- the market value of the nation's output of goods and services -- increased 3.7 percent, or $136.0 billion, in the second quarter to a level of $15,003.8 billion." China Trade On August 11, 2011 the US census bureau reported Goods and Services Deficit Increases in June 2011 The Nation's international trade deficit in goods and services increased to $53.1 billion in June from $50.8 billion (revised) in May, as exports decreased more than imports. Balance of Trade China's portion of the trade deficit was $26.7 billion. Goods by Geographic Area (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
To do calculate the percentage, we need total imports from China, not the trade deficit. That number is $34.4 billion. Let's Do The Math
I calculate 2.75%. The reported 2.7% is close enough. Revisions or rounding errors can easily account for the difference. Regardless, that is how the number was derived. San Francisco Fed Report Having done the math (still peeved at missing links), I just found the San Francisco Fed report The U.S. Content of "Made in China". Goods and services from China accounted for only 2.7% of U.S. personal consumption expenditures in 2010, of which less than half reflected the actual costs of Chinese imports. The rest went to U.S. businesses and workers transporting, selling, and marketing goods carrying the "Made in China" label. Although the fraction is higher when the imported content of goods made in the United States is considered, Chinese imports still make up only a small share of total U.S. consumer spending. This suggests that Chinese inflation will have little direct effect on U.S. consumer prices.No Excuse for Missing Link Given that the article is readily available, there is no excuse for the LA Times' failure to link to it. Generally, in cases like this, I ignore the superfluous article and instead go straight to the source. However, I have had enough of link suppression and am calling the LA Times on it. Bloomberg authors take note. I nearly wrote the same about you a few days ago but was too busy. Fellow bloggers, watch what you are doing. I despise snips like "Reuters Says" with no link. Worse yet are instances where I cannot even find the quote when I search for it. Inflationists Take Note Moreover, in this instance, the LA Times author missed the most important implication of the report, which is "Chinese inflation will have little direct effect on U.S. consumer prices." I concur with the San Francisco Fed conclusion. Interestingly, the San Francisco Fed report did not show the direct math either. Now you know how to do it. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List |
Posted: 14 Aug 2011 07:12 PM PDT Not only was Italy pressured by ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, so was Spain. Courtesy of Google Translate, El Pais reports Trichet Pressures Spain in Letter. The ECB makes recommendations to Spain in a less hard than Italy, in return for the purchase of debt.Does anyone think these were "recommendations" and not demands? For a discussion on the letter to Italy, please see my previous post Trichet's Secret "Dragon Transfer" Letter to Italy PM; Watch France CDS Rates as France is "New Italy"; Trichet Illegally Usurps Judge-and-Jury Power Agricultural Trade Wars Part Two As a followup to Border Attacks: Spanish Farmers Threaten to Block Border with France; Global Trade Wars Yet Another Sign of Deflation here are more articles and images of the escalating agricultural trade wars between France and Spain. Angry French Farmers Dump Spanish Peaches, Burn Tires Via French to English translation, please consider The anger of farmers Big day mobilization fruit and vegetable department. Objective of the mobilization: to maintain pressure on the government Tuesday after an action in the Gard region, where several trucks carrying merchandise Spanish saw their cargo spilled on the road.Should we nationalize supermarkets? You know trade wars are intense when you see questions like this in French headline news: Should we nationalize supermarkets? Yesterday, at the toll Lancon, motorists could not believe their eyes. Fifty people brutally emptied the cargo trucks to foreign registrations. These people, it is the farmers of Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône and Gard that have exploded in anger.Which Comes First, Harmony or Workable Currency Unions? While pondering the meaning of escalating trade wars between France and Spain, please consider this excerpt from When money brought us together The dream that a common currency can foster harmony has a long history. But if the past is any guide, proponents of the euro may have it backward: Where money is concerned, harmony has to come first. You can't create a currency to unite people; you must unite people in order to have a currency. Given the growing tensions between the members of the eurozone, that unity, like de Parieu's dream of "pacific federations of the future," seems more distant by the day.Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List |
Posted: 14 Aug 2011 03:46 PM PDT Bloomberg reports Franc Weakens Against Dollar, Euro After Report Currency Target Discussed The franc weakened after SonntagsZeitung reported over the weekend that the Swiss government and the central bank are in "intense" talks over setting a possible target for the currency, citing unidentified people close to the situation.Talk is Cheap OK, once you decide a target, how do you get it there? I addressed that question previously in Swiss Central Bank Ponders "Temporary" Peg to Euro; Franc Trades Sharply Lower; This a Bluff? What Does it Take to Maintain a Peg? Is the Threat a Bluff?Let's return to the question: Is it a Bluff? I still don't know but now I think it's more likely than I previously thought. Bear in mind, setting a target and hoping the market reacts to it, and officially setting a peg are different things. However, once bureaucrats start marching down a certain path it is hard to get them to stop, no matter how futile the march. I have never seen currency intervention work. It's hard enough if you are a large country, but the size difference in economies and forex trading says the idea cannot work unless the target just happens to be at or near where the market thinks it should be. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List |
Growing Gloom for States and Cities; Who is to Blame? What About Solutions? Posted: 14 Aug 2011 11:29 AM PDT A New York Times article accurately describes a set of fiscal realities in Sunday's editorial A Growing Gloom for States and Cities. The New York Times wildly misses the mark as to who is to blame for this crisis. NYT: Washington should have been trying to find a way to help states avoid the layoffs and cutbacks that have contributed heavily to the high unemployment rate. Instead, it seems to be doing everything possible to make the situation worse in state capitals around the country. Mish: That is essentially correct (except the implied tone). I proposed three items that would most assuredly help cities and states. Once again, here they are.
Point blank, the public is fed up with higher taxes to support public unions who get vastly superior wages, benefits, and guarantees than they do. NYT: A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed that nearly all states will spend less on vital services in 2012 than they did in 2008, after inflation, even though there are more children in public schools and more poor people on the Medicaid rolls. Mish: Sounds like a good idea to me. We have overpaid for services delivered. My proposals above will help address that issue. NYT: And now comes the Budget Control Act of 2011, the deal reached in Congress to cut $2.4 trillion over the next decade in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Although the deal could have been worse and was structured by White House negotiators to reduce the impact on safety-net programs like Medicare and Medicaid, it will do real damage at the state and local level. Mish: The budget deal could hardly have been worse. There were no spending cuts, tax hikes, or reforms in the measure. The only agreement was to cut a lousy $2.4 trillion ($240 billion a year), all back loaded, not Congressionally binding, when the budget deficit is $1.4 to $1.6 trillion a year. How could it possibly have been worse? NYT: The credit downgrade that resulted from the debt crisis has yet to directly affect state and city bonds, many of which are now absurdly rated higher than Treasury bonds, but credit scrutiny will only get stricter for already weakened states and cities. Mish: I certainly agree it is absurd for city and state bonds to be rated higher than US treasuries. However, the S&P downgrade of the US was fully warranted, even if the S&P went about it in a horrendously sloppy manner. Moreover, increased scrutiny of city and state bonds is a fabulous thing. They are living beyond their means and accurate bond ratings can only help. NYT: If investors start to get nervous about the public sector, borrowing costs could go up. Stock volatility is also taking a toll on state pension funds, which are often heavily invested in the market. Last Monday, when the Dow Jones fell by more than 600 points, the California retirement system lost $6 billion. Declines in the market also lower income tax revenues for state coffers. Mish: It is the height of absurdity to manage interest rates, bond ratings,etc. for the benefit of the stock market. The fact of the matter is stocks are priced for perfection and they should fall because perfection is not on the way. Thus, the NYT is openly encouraging bubbles to bail out pension plans. I have a better idea: Let's start tackling the idea that promises to public union workers and government workers are untenable and need to be reduced. Come to think of it I need to add point 4 to my list. Here it is. 4. Immediately kill defined benefit plans for government workers and accept the idea that promised benefits will be reduced voluntarily or via bankruptcy. NYT: The Republicans who produced this artificial crisis, and are responsible for its effects, say they would like nothing more than to see a reduction in state as well as federal spending. That is where government hits closest to home, affecting the size of classrooms, the bulbs in streetlights, the asphalt in potholes, and the lines in emergency rooms. They are well on their way to achieving their goal, making life more difficult in every city and town. Mish: That is one of the biggest pieces of nonsense in the entire article, chock full of complete nonsense. It certainly is not Republicans who support Davis-Bacon, Collective Bargaining for public unions, or forced union employment against the free-will of employees. Indeed forced union employment is tantamount to forced slavery. I discussed the slavery aspect of forced union membership many times. Here are a pair of articles to consider:
Thus, not only does ridding the US of collective bargaining for public unions and instituting national right-to-work laws make economic-sense, it also makes moral-sense. However, there is plenty of blame for Republicans too. They failed to put these issues on the table. Republicans and Democrats alike refuse to do anything about bloated defense budget that could easily be cut in half at no expense to the security of the US. Indeed, if the US stopped trying to be the world's policeman, our security concerns and enemy list would plunge. Cutting the defense budget by a mere 25% would save at least $2 trillion over 10 years. Sadly, both parties support unsustainable US war-mongering policies. So, yes, I blame Republicans too, but 180 degrees removed from what the Times suggests. Finally, it is primarily Democrat support for unions and untenable union pensions that is at the heart of the crisis in city, state, and municipal governments. There is plenty of blame to go around, let's recognize all of it, and for the right reasons. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List |
Stanford Offers Free Robotics and Artificial Courses; 10,000 Already Sign Up Posted: 14 Aug 2011 09:47 AM PDT In the realm of good (as well as deflationary) news You (YOU!) Can Take Stanford's 'Intro to AI' Course Next Quarter, For Free Stanford has been offering portions of its robotics coursework online for a few years now, but professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig are kicking things up a notch (okay, lots of notches) with next semester's CS221: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. For the first time, you can take this course, along with several hundred Stanford undergrads, without having to fill out an application, pay tuition, or live in a dorm.10,000 have already signed up, and there is no limit. Parents, if you have kids in high school, I encourage you to have them take this course. It may change their career plans for the better. For signup information and more details, please see the opening link. I applaud the professors for offering these courses for free. Since the materials will be graded, college credits should apply but they don't. It's a start. Addendum: 10,000 had signed up according to the article. The number is currently 56,000 and counting in various free courses. Here is a list of Free Stanford Courses Some objected to the $58 (discounted) cost of the required book. Here's the deal. Paying $58 for a book is peanuts compared to cost of 3 semester hours. Of course (and as I have pointed out) credits are not given for the free course. They will. Eventually, some college will get accredited and will accept these courses. It is inevitable. This is a far better development than the failed policy "no child left behind" or raising taxes to throw at teachers' unions. Indeed, this is the future of education and it is very deflationary. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List |
You are subscribed to email updates from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 |
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu