Archives for Macro - Page 10
Last week the US released a Senate report on CIA torture. Apparently the torture included “rectal feeding”, which sounds more like sexual assault to me. Anyway, it appears little was gained from the torture, perhaps other than gratifying retribution. It has been known for centuries that torture doesn’t work. The…
These days, we are told that the US has powered out of recession and the country can look forward to GDP growth next year of 3% or so. Or perhaps not. The chart below shows annual growth in private sector jobs in the US since 1949. It is not pretty.…
This week China reported quarterly gross domestic product (“GDP”) growth of 7.3%, compared with the third quarter last year. The government target was 7.5% – so well done China. Here in Australia, this result was considered “supportive for commodities” (such as iron ore and coal) and led to a rise…
The US Federal Reserve (“FED”) has published comics for many years, usually directed towards children and students. The comics are designed to educate, but the main theme is “without the FED we would be ruined”. The image below is called “the road to success” (no joke), and illustrates how they…
John Exter (1910 to 2006) was a highly regarded American economist. He spent the early part of his career, until 1959, on the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve. He is perhaps best remembered for creating “Exter’s Pyramid” in the 1970’s. John Exter Exter’s Pyramid below classifies asset classes…
It is widely accepted that the size of the US military, and the ridiculous number of military bases worldwide (according to the Pentagon there are around 5,000 bases in total with around 600 overseas), is to support the petrodollar. Presumably, petrodollar support would also apply to the current wars in…