Your daily Economy dose!
Yesterday Eurostat released their annual comparison of food prices . It shows that the prices in Ireland are the second highest in the EU after Denmark. What is more worrying is that instead of coming down faster in Ireland than in other countries food prices were actually relatively higher in 2009 than in 2008 or 2007.
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Relative Food Prices Across Europe
The New York Times carries a lengthy article (plus plenty of photos in a slideshow format) on the Irish situation: you can read it here . A more accurate and comprehensive headline might have been: “Ireland paying a high price for boom-bust cycle in property sector and attendant banking crisis, amplified and abetted by procyclical fiscal policy and now requiring a sustained fiscal correction” – but that is probably too long! Update: Paul Krugman adds his view in this post .
The rest is here:
Ireland Paying a High Price for Austerity
A significant portion of the US food supply is produced by workers here illegally. A Google search for the phrase “ice raids” will produce numerous accounts of large food processing operations having to shut down for weeks because a large number of their workers were caught using fake SSN’s
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Importing workers or food supplies
Bryan Caplan of George Mason University and blogger at EconLog talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about two books: Eugene Richter’s Pictures of the Socialistic Future and F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom
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Caplan on Hayek, Richter, and Socialism
Scott Sumner of Bentley University and the blog, The Money Illusion, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the last 30 years of economic policy and macroeconomic success and failure.
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Sumner on Growth and Economic Policy
Jason Castriota, the U.S. designer known for creating the Ferrari P4/5 and Maserati GranTurismo, will head Saab Automobile’s design team to help the Swedish carmaker take on Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Audi AG.
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Ferrari Designer Castriota Hired by Saab to Speed Turnaround
The Japanese government wants its citizens to think so: Women Prefer Men Holding State Bonds, Japan Ad Says June 9 (Bloomberg) — Japanese women are seeking men who invest in government bonds, according to an advertisement being run by the Ministry of Finance. “I want my future husband to be diligent about money,” a 27-year-old woman says in an ad being run in free magazines promoting a fixed-rate, three-year note that Japan started selling last week
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Are bonds sexy?
Johanna Blakley of the University of Southern California talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the fashion industry and the role of intellectual property. In the fashion industry there is limited protection for innovative designs and as a result, copying is rampant.
Le Devoir, arguably Québec’s leading newspaper of record, yesterday uploaded an article by Benoît Dubreuil, (“Impact de l’immigration – Dépasser la pensée magique”, “The Impact of Immigration: Getting Past Magical Thinking”) that deconstructed some of the myths behind immigration in Québec.Immigration is a particularly controversial issue in Québec compared to the rest of Canada because of the
Original post:
On international migration and Québec
By Claus Vistesen: Copenhagen The GEM team is certainly hitting the tapes at the moment with Edward featured by the NYT and CNN as well as I was recently contacted by Adam Kritzer who is a lead editor on Forexblog, arguably the best one stop resource for people interested in FX (trading). He asked me whether I would answer some questions about macroeconomics and FX markets . You can see his questions and my answers below.
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Q&A on Macroeonomics and FX Markets
From a recent CBO presentation (via Keith Hennessey ): Rising health costs will put tremendous pressure on the federal budget during the next few decades and beyond. In CBO’s judgment, the health legislation enacted earlier this year does not substantially diminish that pressure ….Putting the federal budget on a sustainable path would almost certainly require a significant reduction in the growth of federal health spending relative to current law (including this year’s health legislation)
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CBO on Health Spending
Daniel Okent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, talks about the book with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. They discuss how the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, sale, and transport of intoxicating beverages came to pass in 1920, what life was like while it was in force, and how the Amendment came to be repealed in 1934.
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Okrent on Prohibition and His Book, Last Call
Xstrata Plc, the world’s largest thermal coal exporter, shelved spending on projects worth A$6.6 billion ($5.6 billion) in Australia, intensifying pressure on the government to wind back its proposed tax on mine profits.
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Xstrata Halts Spending on A$6.6 Billion of Australian Projects
China’s stocks rose, led by technology and health-care companies, on government plans to boost investments in industries that may drive domestic demand. Banks fell on concern fundraising will hurt shareholders’ stakes.
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China’s Stocks Climb, Led by Technology, Health-Care Shares
Japanese stocks rose, propelling the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to its biggest gain in six months, as increased sales of homes and cars in the U.S. boosted confidence in the world’s biggest economy
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Nikkei 225 Rises the Most in Six Months on U.S. Housing, Cars
The aging of populations has any number of consequences in any number of countries for any number of reasons. One consequence that I hadn’t imagined at all was a falling number of potential blood donors in Newfoundland and Labrador.Statistics Canada’s latest demographic projection singled out Newfoundland and Labrador as the province with the fastest aging population.As well, under a low-growth
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On population aging and Newfoundland’s blood supplies
BofA executive Jack Schakett made some interesting comments earlier today: “There is a huge incentive for customers to walk away because getting free rent and waiting out foreclosure can be very appealing to customers.” Schakett noted that the foreclosure process is currently taking 13 to 14 months … For many the timeframe is apparently much longer.
More here:
Research: 270 Days is Optimal Time in Foreclosure
Here is a theme we’ve been discussing for a few years – when a homeowner is underwater, it is difficult to make a career move … From Rana Cash at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Real estate market stalls recruiting, promotions (ht Ann) When executive Wade Ledbetter leaped at the opportunity to move up in his company, the shackles of relocation snatched him back down to earth. That fabulous promotion came with a price: The $30,000 he’d invested in home improvements, the 20 percent he’d put down on his house and the extra payment every year for 7 1/2 years would be a wash, along with settling on a selling price well below what he’d paid for the home and just about all its contents.
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Housing Bust and Labor Immobility
Yukio Hatoyama quit as Japan’s prime minister less than nine months after ending a rival party’s 50- year lock on power as money scandals and a broken promise to move U.S. troops cost him the support of four in five voters.
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Hatoyama Quits After U.S. Base Failure
From the American Bankruptcy Institute: May Consumer Bankruptcy Filings up 9 Percent from Last Year The 136,142 consumer bankruptcies filed in May represented a 9 percent increase nationwide over the 124,838 filings recorded in May 2009, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), relying on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center (NBKRC). NBKRC’s data also showed that the May consumer filings represented a 6 percent decrease from the 144,490 consumer filings recorded in April 2010.
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Personal Bankruptcy Filings increase 9% compared to May 2009
Based on an estimate from Autodata Corp, light vehicle sales were at a 11.63 million SAAR in May. This is up 18.1% from May 2009 (when sales were very low), and up 3.9% from the April sales rate
More here:
U.S. Light Vehicle Sales 11.6 Million SAAR in May
From Diana Olick at CNBC: BofA: Mortgage Walkaways Have Huge Incentive On the conference call … this morning, BofA’s credit loss mitigation executive, Jack Schakett, said the amount of strategic defaulters … are ” more than we have ever experienced before .” He went on to say, “there is a huge incentive for customers to walk away because getting free rent and waiting out foreclosure can be very appealing to customers .” Schakett says the foreclosure process is still taking 13 to 14 months ..
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Report: BofA acknowledges "foreclosure can be very appealing to customers"
The Mises Institute is very proud to offer an utterly unique skinny tie , unlike anything we have offered before. The black color and silhouette of Rothbard’s profile are not accidents. Anarchists love them, but minarchists who just like to make trouble are drawn to them too
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The Tie Is Finally Here
#fkcliches @flipkart; mickeykaicker Indian economy is coming out of the slowdown n must return 2 the path of fiscal prudence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday. a2ztechnews Quoted in ”: Manmohan Singh said in Zee News:Under …
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South African President Jacob Zuma arrives in India
Contact between companies driving an expanding Indian economy and those helping the U.S. economy regain its momentum can lead to huge trade and investment growth for both countries, he said.
Excerpt from:
Indian FM urges deeper business and research cooperation with US