In honor of the 45th anniversary of the independence of Singapore,
Economy Watch will be on a somewhat abbreviated publication schedule this week.
Be sure to check in for both Features and In the News to keep your finger on the pulse of the world political economy.
Majulah Singapura – Onward Singapore !!!
Americans have always assumed that wealth comes and goes.
A poor person can work hard, become rich and pass his money on to his children and grandchildren.
But then, if those descendants do not manage it wisely, they may lose it.
“Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” the saying goes, and it conforms to our preference for meritocracy over aristocracy.
This assumption is now being undermined, however, through the increasing use of so-called dynasty trusts.
From the moment, George W Bush and his controller, “Vice-President” Dick Cheney began the post 9/11 drumbeat for war against Iraq,
we argued it was NOT about oil – everyone knew the post-insane Kuwait invasion of 1990 sanctions had been a “success”,
at least in crippling the Iraqi oil industry for years, as well as millions of Iraqis, above all children –
but, even worse, about no-bid contracts for the former and future employers of Cheney and Bush,
Great sweeps of Guatemalan rain forest, once the cradle of one of the world’s great civilizations, are being razed to clear land for cattle-ranching drug barons.
Other parts of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Central America’s largest protected area, have been burned down by small cities of squatters.
Looters and poachers, kept at bay when guerrilla armies roamed the region during the country’s 36-year civil war, ply their trades freely.
Losses at Greece’s national Hellenic Railways are mounting at the rate of 3 million euros ($3.8 million) a day.
Its total debt has increased to $13 billion, or about 5 percent of Greece’s gross domestic product.
Now, as a condition of Greece’s financial rescue, the International Monetary Fund is demanding that a solution be found.
The fund and the European Union, which also chipped in to provide the bailout, are requiring that the debt of Hellenic Railways,
Loans to European companies fell in June – a sign that economic expansion remains tepid,
according to data issued by the European Central Bank in July.
Growth in so-called M3, a measure of bank deposits, short-term debt and other elements of the money supply, rose at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in June after declining 0.1 percent in May.
The average growth for the last three months was zero, the E.C.B. said.
The economic insecurity of the American families is greater than at any time on record, according to a new report from the Rockefeller Foundation.
One in five Americans, the report found, has experienced a decline of 25 percent or more in available household income in the past – Cheney / Bush / Obama – decade.
The typical American experiencing such a plunge will require six to eight years just to climb back to previous levels of income.
Well-heeled Syrians had already been coming to the ancient Turkish industrial city of Gaziantep, drawn here by Louis Vuitton purses and storefront signs in Arabic.
But local shop owners say Israel’s deadly raid on a Turkish-led flotilla to Gaza in May has solidified an already blossoming friendship between Syria and Turkey, the new hero of the Muslim world.
“People in Syria love Turkey because the country supports the Arab world, and they are fellow Muslims,”
30 July 2010. By David Caploe PhD, Chief Political Economist, EconomyWatch.com
Even before we came aboard EconomyWatch.com, we’ve argued that,
in their pathetic “responses” to the twin disasters of Black September 2008 and the ever-roiling Euro-zone crisis,
the political leadership of US and European Union have been following Japan down the path of deflation and Lost Decade/S –
Internet TV has arrived in China.
Every month, about 300 million people in China are using a computer to watch Chinese TV dramas, Japanese and Korean sitcoms,
and even American films and television series like “Twilight” and “Gossip Girl.”
Live streaming of the recent World Cup also drew a huge online audience.
Analysts say young people in China are even starting to favor free laptop-viewing over TV sets,
