» mike shedlock

Inquiring minds are reading an excellent report China Real Estate Unravels by Patrick Chovanec, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China. The report confirms many of the things I said would happen in regards to the Chinese real estate bubble and...

China bulls are in for a multi-year shock because rebalancing from an economy overly dependent on exports is going to be far more painful, and last much longer than most think. Data is coming in much weaker than expected, but I propose this is only the very beginning. The New York Times reports D...

The quote of the day goes to Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report. Faber says “I do not have a high opinion of the U.S. government, but the bureaucrats in Brussels make the government in the U.S. look like an organization consisting of geniuses.” Marc Faber spoke wi...

Australia is in grim shape. Retailers are going under, home prices are sinking, and there is an enormous collapse in the entire service sector. Collapse in Service Sector Markit reports Australia Services Sector Slumps in April  KEY FINDINGS The latest seasonally adjusted Australian Industry Gro...

via email from Barclay’s Capital, Spain: Q1 unemployment rate rises; trend likely to continue into H1 2013.  This morning Spain released labour market statistics for Q1. Seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate rose to 23.6% from 23.1% in Q4 last year (Figure 1). We think that the labour ma...

Inquiring minds are listening to Marc Faber on the global economy. Link if video does not play: Marc Faber speaks of Imminent Market Crash Faber says China faces a recession defined as a slowdown to 3%. Interestingly, 3% is the same long-term target that Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets ...

Bloomberg authors By Steve Matthews and Tom Keene report Greenspan Says U.S. Stocks ‘Very Cheap,’ Likely to Rise Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said U.S. stocks offer good value and are likely to rise as corporate earnings increase over time. “Stocks are very cheap,” Greenspa...

The word of the day is plunge. Retail sales fell like a rock in Germany and fell at a record pace in France. Jobs and retail sales plunged at a record pace in Italy, and in general, did a nose-dive across the entire Eurozone German Retail Sales Plunge Into Contraction Please Consider the Markit Germ...

Today, European data shattered two long held beliefs by Markit and in general, unthinking economists everywhere. Shattered Myths European recession would be mild Germany would continue to diverge from the rest of Europe Markit reports Eurozone sees stronger rate of decline at start of second qua...

Noted financial author Richard Duncan says Capitalism is Dead, Credit New King. The world needs to clue in to changes to its economic system, including the death of capitalism, according to noted financial author Richard Duncan, who warns that attempts to turn back the clock on our credit-driven e...

CDS rates to protect against default by Spain rose to an all-time high today as Investors brace for more pain in Spain. Spain was firmly back in the spotlight on Friday, after news of a sharp rise in borrowing by the region’s banks from the European Central Bank triggered losses across European ...

Of all the inept policy moves in the midst of a clear depression, hiking taxes is right at the top of the list. Yet, that is the path Spain is on, because it will not meet its budget projections. Here is a link to an amusing “as is” Google translation of an article on El Econimista whose...