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BusinessDesk: "US economy remains vulnerable to shocks from Europe" - Interest, 3 Feb 2012 Tweet It's been a great start to the year and investors found little reason to change much today, ahead of January's US jobs report due tomorrow. While Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers there were signs of improvement in the...


Oi! You’ve missed a bit... - Economist - Babbage, 3 Feb 2012 HOW much easier it would be to locate and repair damage to bridges, wind turbines and other dumb objects if those objects could tell you what the problem was. Researchers at the University of Strathclyde, in Britain, led by Mohamed Saafi, are therefore trying to give them a voice, by devising a...


Survey of Banks Shows a Sharp Cut in Lending in Europe - New York Times, 3 Feb 2012 The figures raise concern that Europe is on the verge of a credit crunch that would cause a deeper recession than had been expected.


TYSON: America’s Three Deficits - Project Syndicate, 3 Feb 2012 TYSON: America’s Three Deficits The US faces painful choices about how to close its long-run fiscal gap, and a credible plan should be decided now and implemented promptly – but only after the economy has recovered. For the next few years, the priorities of fiscal policy should be jobs,...


Dollar hampers 'knowledge intensive' exports - Stuff, 2 Feb 2012 The strong kiwi has stymied growth of high value exports in "knowledge intensive manufacturing", according to briefing papers from MED.


EUROPE: Austerity vs. Europe - Project Syndicate, 2 Feb 2012 EUROPE: Austerity vs. Europe Ominously, the same arguments that turned the 1929 financial crisis into the Great Depression are being used today in favor of austerity at all costs. All of Europe must agree on a short-term growth strategy – and implement it quickly.


In Atlanta, Housing Woes Reflect Nation’s Economic Pain - New York Times, 2 Feb 2012 Housing prices continue to fall nationwide, with Atlanta earning the distinction as the weakest performer.


A pretty hefty multiple - Economist - Babbage, 1 Feb 2012 FACEBOOK may announce its IPO, Twitter takes heat for new censorship rules and Apple continues to dominate


ECON WEEKLY: Blaming Capitalism for Corporatism - Project Syndicate, 1 Feb 2012 ECON WEEKLY: Blaming Capitalism for Corporatism One of the big debates at Davos this year will concern the future of capitalism. But the system that is now in crisis is not capitalism, but corporatism, which chokes off the dynamism that makes for engaging work, faster economic growth, and greater...


English says exporters need to get used to NZ$ around 80 USc; high currency good for consumers... - Interest, 1 Feb 2012 Tweet New Zealand exporters need to be competitive with the currency around 80 US cents, as the New Zealand dollar is staying around that level, Finance Minister Bill English says. The...


House for sale hit four-year low - Stuff, 1 Feb 2012 The number of homes for sale in New Zealand's three largest cities has fallen to a four-year low, data released today shows.


House Prices outlook for 2012 - Steve Keen's Debtwatch, 1 Feb 2012 Click here for this post in PDF: Debtwatch Members; CfESI Members Click here for the data in this post: Debtwatch Members; CfESI Members The ABS house price data for December 2011 has just been released, and it shows that house prices fell 4.8% in nominal terms between December 2010 and December...


Labour OK with foreign land purchases as long as new owner lives in NZ, but absentee owners big... - Interest, 1 Feb 2012 Tweet By Alex Tarrant If a foreign purchaser of New Zealand land is going to live here and not "bugger off" back overseas, then the Labour Party is not opposed to the sale, the party's finance spokesman David Parker says. But absentee owners, who...


Standard and Poor's affirms Kiwibank's AA- credit rating but lowers its outlook to negative from... - Interest, 1 Feb 2012 Tweet State owned Kiwibank says international credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has lowered the outlook on its AA- credit rating to negative from stable. Kiwibank said the change came in a review by S&P of its parent New Zealand Post's credit...


Strike Grips Belgium Ahead of European Union Summit - New York Times, 1 Feb 2012 Belgium was paralyzed by a national strike Monday as unions, angry at austerity measures, timed their protest to coincide with a one-day meeting of European Union leaders in the capital, Brussels.


The pound is a poison pill for an independent Scotland - John Kay, Financial Times, 1 Feb 2012 Money is accepted when people accept it, and a currency union exists when people believe that it does, writes John Kay


Too dangerous for words - Economist - Babbage, 1 Feb 2012 RESEARCHERS are used to explaining scientific processes. Recently they have taken to explaining themselves. As we reported last week , on January 20th scientists who have created a new, more contagious form of bird flu explained in Science and Nature that...


Two potential candidates ruled out for Bollard's job - Stuff, 1 Feb 2012 Former Reserve Bank acting governor Rod Carr and current central bank chairman Arthur Grimes have both ruled themselves out of the running to replace present governor Alan Bollard.


EU leaders struggle to reconcile austerity, growth - Stuff, 31 Jan 2012 European leaders have struggled to reconcile austerity with growth at a summit due to approve a permanent rescue fund for the euro zone and put finishing touches to a German-driven pact for stricter budget discipline.


Nicolas Sarkozy Proposes Tax Increases for France - New York Times, 31 Jan 2012 Insisting he was not acting as a candidate, President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would raise consumer taxes to make French companies more competitive and reduce the budget deficit.


YAO/YU: Rattling the Renminbi - Project Syndicate, 31 Jan 2012 YAO/YU: Rattling the Renminbi From July 2005 until this past December, China’s renminbi appreciated steadily. So why, if China was still running a decent current-account surplus and a long-term capital surplus, did the currency suddenly depreciate, forcing the PBoC to intervene to prevent it from...


Car insurance another cost to bear - Stuff, 30 Jan 2012 Car ownership is a fantastic way to burn through cash. A friend learnt this cheerful lesson just last week. She was aghast at an insurance quote in which the annual premiums were half the price of her new car.


GROWTH: Taking Back Globalization - Project Syndicate, 30 Jan 2012 GROWTH: Taking Back Globalization At Davos this year, the world’s economic and political leaders stand warned: do globalization better, or it will be derailed by the growing legions of the discontented. That means finally going beyond trade deficits and debt ratios to pay attention to the wider...


Law change to make foreign ownership of NZ land harder would be knee-jerk reaction to Crafar... - Interest, 30 Jan 2012 Tweet A law change to further restrict foreign purchases of New Zealand farmland would be a knee-jerk reaction to the sale of the Crafar farms, and is not needed now, Prime Minister John Key says. Key has been quick to defend the Overseas Investment...


Opinion: Bernard Hickey surveys the potential candidates to replace Reserve Bank Governor Alan... - Interest, 30 Jan 2012 Tweet By Bernard Hickey There is a wide and deep set of candidates to replace Alan Bollard when he retires after 10 years as Governor of the Reserve Bank on September 25. Unlike with the recent appointment of the Secretary of the Treasury, where the...


Workstation: Workstation: Building a Bridge to a Lonely Colleague - New York Times, 29 Jan 2012 Researchers have found that workplace loneliness hurts both individuals and the entire organization.


Relearning to forget - Economist - Babbage, 28 Jan 2012 ON JANUARY 25th the European Commission formally unveiled an overhaul of the continent's data-protection rules. The proposal for a snappily titled "Regulation on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of Such Data” is unlikely to...


CHINA: Why Capital Flows Uphill - Project Syndicate, 27 Jan 2012 CHINA: Why Capital Flows Uphill One would expect fast growing, capital-scarce (and young) developing countries to be importing capital from the rest of world to finance consumption and investment. So, why are they sending capital to richer countries, instead?


DealBook: Hedge Funds Scramble to Unload Greek Debt - New York Times, 27 Jan 2012 Hedge funds that bought an estimated $5.2 billion of beaten-down Greek bonds in the last month are now finding it difficult to find buyers for their positions.


Govt must adjust for global economic decline - Dunne - Stuff, 27 Jan 2012 Revenue Minister Peter Dunne says the Government will be forced to look at how it can tighten the tax system if the global economy deteriorates further.


Market price in a 20% chance of a 25bps rate cut in the year ahead - Interest, 27 Jan 2012 Tweet by Kymberly Martin Overall, the NZ market’s reaction to the US FOMC meeting and subsequent RBNZ meeting was relatively muted. Following the RBNZ statement (little changed), and in sympathy with the fall in US bond yields following the...


BusinessDesk: "It’s going to be a mediocre US corporate earnings season" - Interest, 26 Jan 2012 Tweet Underpinning today's mixed bag of American corporate results, the Federal Reserve said it will keep interest rates low until at least late into 2014 as the world's largest economy still needs plenty of help. Economic conditions "are...


ECON WEEKLY: New Year, Same Crisis - Project Syndicate, 26 Jan 2012 ECON WEEKLY: New Year, Same Crisis The measures introduced by the European Central Bank last December have relieved the liquidity problems of European banks, but have not cured the financing disadvantage of the highly indebted member states. Since high-risk premiums on government bonds endanger...


Mega shutdown - Economist - Babbage, 26 Jan 2012 RIM shakes things up, America shuts down a big file-sharing site and the EU gets new internet privacy rules


Official interest rates on hold at 2.5 per cent - Stuff, 26 Jan 2012 The Reserve Bank has left interest rates unchanged this morning, with Governor Alan Bollard warning that New Zealand banks will face higher funding costs over the coming year.


Rise in Oil Imports Drives a Rare Trade Deficit in Japan - New York Times, 26 Jan 2012 Exports fell slightly in the wake of last year’s devastating tsunami, tepid global demand and a punishingly strong yen.


BusinessDesk: 'The epicentre of the danger is Europe but the rest of the world is increasingly... - Interest, 25 Jan 2012 Tweet Equities dropped after the International Monetary Fund slashed its forecast for global economic growth and European Union finance ministers rejected a debt swap deal between Greece and its private bondholders, saying the latter needed to...


I.M.F. Reduces Estimates for Global Growth - New York Times, 25 Jan 2012 The International Monetary Fund warned that global growth prospects have dimmed as the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone has entered a “perilous new phase.”


LA: Southern Resilience - Project Syndicate, 25 Jan 2012 LA: Southern Resilience Latin America’s resilience in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis has been remarkable. But, as the world economy faces renewed uncertainty, the region must find new strategies to reduce the impact of potentially volatile financial markets and protracted stagnation...


PM Key won't reiterate 2014/15 surplus track at Post-Cabinet press conference on Wednesday, says... - Interest, 25 Jan 2012 Tweet Prime Minister John Key will not say whether the government still expects to get its books back to surplus in the 2014/15 year. Speaking to media at a post-Cabinet press conference on...


Starting from scratch - Economist - Babbage, 25 Jan 2012 SUNNY countries are often poor. A shame, then, that solar power is still quite expensive. But it is getting cheaper by the day, and is now cheap enough to be competitive with other forms of energy in places that are not attached to electricity grids. Since 1.6 billion people are still in that...


When capitalism and corporate self-interest collide - John Kay, Financial Times, 25 Jan 2012 IBM's engineers changed the world. In the process, they nearly destroyed the company that gave them the freedom to do so, writes John Kay


FRANKEL: Will Emerging Markets Fall in 2012? - Project Syndicate, 24 Jan 2012 FRANKEL: Will Emerging Markets Fall in 2012? While emerging markets have far outperformed industrialized countries in recent years, many investors are concerned that these countries could be due for a fall in 2012, triggered by Europe’s woes or a hard landing in China. The timing of...


Milk price monitoring under plans to rein in Fonterra - Stuff, 24 Jan 2012 Competition watchdog the Commerce Commission will annually monitor milk pricing in New Zealand under a raft of Government proposals announced today to rein in Fonterra's market power and restore public confidence in the milk market.


Neighbourly advice - Economist - Babbage, 24 Jan 2012 GETTING rid of an infectious disease reduces human suffering. But it can be a wise investment, too. It is estimated that America recouped the $21m it contributed to eradicating smallpox in the ten years to 1978 in just 26 days, simply by dispensing with the need for further jabs. (Polio may be...


Prototype: Inventions Offer Tools to Endure Future Disasters - New York Times, 24 Jan 2012 The tsunami in Japan last year is spurring innovations like a mini-ark called “Noah” and a 3-D emergency communication system.


Fay wants Crafar sale court test - Stuff, 23 Jan 2012 A Kiwi group in a last ditch battle to buy the Crafar farms ahead of a Chinese company wants Government ministers considering the sale to impose a condition involving the High Court if they allow the Chinese deal.


Micro no more - Economist - Babbage, 23 Jan 2012 THE idea of collecting cash online through a mix of patronage and prepayment sprouted informally a few years ago. Initially bands used it to raise money for studio rental and the production costs for releasing an album. But the idea took off and is now offered by a plethora of middlemen, and...


PM Key starts new year more optimistic than others on Euro debt crisis, sees no reason to alter... - Interest, 23 Jan 2012 Tweet Prime Minister John Key is starting the new year still optimistic the Eurozone will survive its sovereign debt crisis due to actions taken by policy makers there during the Christmas period, although the process is likely to be rough and...


SKIDELSKY: Does Debt Matter? - Project Syndicate, 23 Jan 2012 SKIDELSKY: Does Debt Matter? As with “the specter of Communism” that haunted Europe in Karl Marx’s famous manifesto, so today “[a]ll the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise” the specter of national debt. But statesmen who tremble before their national debt should...