Tag Archive: fiscal stimulus

Spending Here, Production There, and What Autos Have To Do With It

2021-03-17

While the global inflation picture remains fixed at firmly normal (as in, disinflationary), US retail sales by contrast have been highly abnormal. You’d think given that, the consumer price part of the economic equation would, well, equate eventually price-wise.

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Consumer Confidence Indicator: Anesthesia

2020-10-24

by Jeffrey P. Snider

2020-10-24

European Commision Consumer Confidence Indicator, 2006-2020

Europeans are growing more downbeat again. While ostensibly many are more worried about a new set of restrictions due to (even more overreactions about) COVID, that’s only part of the problem. The bigger factor, economically speaking, is that Europe’s economy has barely moved, or at most not moved near enough, off the bottom.

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Science of Sentiment: Zooming Expectations Wonder

2020-08-12

by Jeffrey P. Snider

2020-08-12

It had been an unusually heated gathering, one marked by temper tantrums and often publicly expressed rancor. Slamming tables, undiplomatic rudeness. Europe’s leaders had been brought together by the uncomfortable even dangerous fact that the economic dislocation they’ve put their countries through is going to sustain enormously negative pressures all throughout them. What would a “united” European system do to try and fill in this massive hole?The...

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Three Short Run Factors Don’t Make A Long Run Difference

2020-03-25

by Jeffrey P. Snider

2020-03-25

There are three things the markets have going for them right now, and none of them have anything to do with the Federal Reserve. More and more conditions resemble the early thirties in that respect, meaning no respect for monetary powers. This isn’t to say we are repeating the Great Depression, only that the paths available to the system to use in order to climb out of this mess have similarly narrowed.

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Germany’s Superstimulus; Or, The Familiar (Dollar) Disorder of Bumbling Failure

2019-08-24

by Jeffrey P. Snider

2019-08-24

The Economics textbook says that when faced with a downturn, the central bank turns to easing and the central government starts borrowing and spending. This combined “stimulus” approach will fill in the troughs without shaving off the peaks; at least according to neo-Keynesian doctrine. The point is to raise what these Economists call aggregate demand.

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China’s Blowout IP, Frugal Stimulus, and Sinking Capex

2019-04-19

by Jeffrey P. Snider

2019-04-19

It had been 55 months, nearly five years since China’s vast and troubled industrial sector had seen growth better than 8%. Not since the first sparks of the rising dollar, Euro$ #3’s worst, had Industrial Production been better than that mark. What used to be a floor had seemingly become an unbreakable ceiling over this past half a decade. According to Chinese estimates, IP in March 2019 was 8.5% more than it was in March 2018. That was far more...

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Brad DeLong on Jackson Hole and Quantitative Easing

2012-08-22

by George Dorgan

2012-08-22

Berkeley Professor Brad DeLong has delivered a nice allegorical entry in his type pad on a quick Quantitative Easing. Letting speak old greek mythological figures he hides his personal opinion. A half now completely written platonic dialogue on what the Federal Reserve is Doing — or not Doing — Right Now DeLong explains the …

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Swiss National Bank Still Committed to FX Intervention (July 2009)

2009-07-17

by George Dorgan

2009-07-17

Jul. 17th 2009 Extracts from the history of the Swiss franc (July 2009). When the Swiss National Bank (SNB) intervened three weeks ago in forex markets, the Swiss Franc instantly declined 2% against the Euro. Since then, the Franc has risen slowly, and it’s now in danger of touching the “line in the sand” of …

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SNB Intervenes on Behalf of Franc (June 2009)

2009-06-26

by George Dorgan

2009-06-26

swiss franc rises after snb intervention

Jun. 26th 2009 Extracts from the history of the Swiss franc (June 2009) Back on March 12, the Swiss National Bank issued a stern promise that it would actively seek to hold down the value of the Swiss Franc (CHF) as a means of forestalling deflation. The currency immediately plummeted 5%, as traders made … Continue...

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