Alternative Visions – Europe Ups ‘Ante’ In Global ‘QE Currency Devaluation’ Game – 10.23.15

Jack reviews the most recent threat by Europe’s central bank to expand its ‘quantitative easing’ program in order to gain share of a slowing global trade pie. As the global economy slows and competition for exports intensifies from China to US to Japan to Europe, the European Central Bank announces plans to expand its $1.1 trillion free money program for bankers and investors. Jack explores the possible consequences of the likely decision: Japan will no doubt follow with further expansion of its own QE program to defend its share of global exports. The US federal reserve, its central bank, will be less likely to raise interest rates in turn—as US exports and manufacturing are already close to stagnating, and reducing US GDP. Simultaneously, China announces its sixth cut in interest rates. Major sectors of the global economy and intensifying competition over a shrinking global economy. Jack also updates recent Alternative Visions shows on the TPP, Big Pharmaceutical companies’ price gouging, and the Chrysler-Auto Workers recent negotiations. With TPP almost a done deal, now corporate America, Jack predicts, will focus on its second big objective: corporate tax cuts. How US multinational tech and pharma companies play the global tax avoidance game is explained.

The Numbers Are In: China Dumps A Record $94 Billion In US Treasurys In One Month

Shortly after the PBoC’s move to devalue the yuan, we noted with some alarm that it looked as though China may have drawn down its reserves by more than $100 billion in the space of just two weeks. That, we went on the point out, would represent a stunning increase over the previous pace of the country’s reserve draw down, which …

698K Native-Born Americans Lost Their Job In August: Why This Suddenly Is The Most Important Jobs Chart

After the Fed admitted over a year ago that the US unemployment rate (which in 2012 was supposed to be a rate hike “threshold” once it hit 6.5% and is now at 5.1%) has become irrelevant in a country where a record 94 million people have left the labor force, and with the Fed poised to hike rates even though …

Risk of financial crisis higher than previously estimated International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

The study, published in the journal Financial Stability, introduces a new method that allows researchers to estimate the systemic risk that emerge from multiple layers of connectivity. “Systemic risk is the risk that a significant part of the financial system stops working–that it cannot perform its function,” says IIASA Advanced Systems Analysis program researcher Sebastian Poledna, who led the study. …

EUGEN VON BÖHM-BAWERK – Productivity In America Now On Par With Agrarian Slave Economy

In the first episode we showed how the US became an unsustainable service sector based economy from the 1970s onward when service sector employment diverged from manufacturing without a corresponding boost in productivity. In the second episode we laid out the consequences that transition has had on labour in terms of lower wages and benefits. In addition, we reiterated our argument that monetary policy …

Wall Street Just Got More Pessimistic About the U.S. Economy. Will the Fed Follow Suit? – Matthew Boesler Catarina Saraiva

Federal Reserve officials will probably cut their forecasts for economic growth when they gather again next month, though not enough to deter their intent to raise interest rates later this year. The median respondent to a survey of 79 economists conducted by Bloomberg from May 8 to May 13 said U.S. gross domestic product would grow 2.3 percent in the final quarter of 2015 …

The U.S. Job Market Is Losing Its Dynamism

Part of America’s advantage over other economies historically has been the pace at which it both creates and destroys jobs. As they face slowing prospects or failure, companies, even whole industries, cut workers . The good news is that new businesses keep popping up to supply new jobs. More than 7 million jobs are created, and almost as many are destroyed, every …

NATO is Building Up for War

The German city of Frankfurt is continental Europe’s largest financial center and host to the country’s Stock Exchange, countless other financial institutions, and the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) which is responsible for administering the monetary policy of the 18-nation Eurozone. The place is awash with money, as demonstrated by the plush new ECB office building which is …

The Federal Reserve Board’s Plan to Kill Jobs

There is an enormous amount of political debate over various pieces of legislation that are supposed to be massive job killers. For example, Republicans lambasted President Obama’s increase in taxes on the wealthy back in 2013 as a job killer. They endlessly have condemned the Affordable Care Act as a jobs killer. The same is true of proposals to raise …