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Chemicals and the Economy

Dow’s CEO says “pre-2008 economy was a bubble”

Now its official.  Andrew Liveris, Dow CEO, told CNBC last week that the “pre-2008 economy was a bubble“.  And exactly mirroring the analysis of Boom, Gloom and the New Normal, he went on to add that “for a couple of years after 2008, we had a head-fake that the growth might have returned, but it […]

Polyethylene, shadow banking and China’s ‘collateral trade’

The blog’s latest post for the Financial Times, published on the BeyondBrics blog is below. By Paul Hodges of International eChem Strange things are happening in China’s polyethylene (PE) market. Despite a slowdown in the economy, demand is surging. Our research suggests that PE, like copper and iron before it, is the latest instrument of China’s […]

$20tn US, China stimulus and lending – but recovery elusive

Despite all the positive headlines, the world’s two largest economies have failed to deliver sustained recovery, even though the 2 governments have now spent a combined $20tn in stimulus and lending. US STIMULUS REACHES $10tn The US government and Federal Reserve have spent $10tn since the Great Recession began in 2008.  Federal deficits have increased by $6.27tn, whilst […]

The €2bn WiFi company that wasn’t

Blog readers often travel a lot.  And they certainly use WiFi.  So here’s a question: Q.  Do you ever remember using a WiFi service called Gowex? A.  Lots of puzzled looks in response Q.   Not sure?  You think it might be vaguely familiar, but maybe not.  Well this is what the company’s website says: “Your […]

Do you know where your polyethylene is in China?

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York Mayor Ed Koch fronted a series of public service TV commercials asking parents: “Its 10pm.  Do you know where your children are?” The blog was reminded of this when checking China’s polyethylene (PE) import data on Global Trade Information Services for the January – May period, as shown […]

Will 2014 be a repeat of 2008, but worse?

Will 2014 turn out to be a repeat of 2008 for the US economy? 6 years ago, after all, not a single mainstream forecaster – including the IMF and World Bank – was forecasting a recession.  Even in September 2008, the consensus was still confident about the economic outlook.  Yet the National Bureau for Economic Research […]

China’s commodity imports have financed its property bubble

Today, the blog launches a major new Research Note in the ‘Your Compass on China’ series, produced in association with leading Hong Kong-based financial advisory firm Polarwide. Titled ‘Here today and gone tomorrow – a simple guide to China’s world of trade finance’, it is probably the single most important paper it will publish all […]

“Investors retreat as deflation fears rise”

The blog’s important eBook, ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal: How Ageing Western BabyBoomers are Changing Demand Patterns, Again’, was published 3 years ago this month.  Co-authored with John Richardson, it identified the major changes taking place in global and national demand patterns: Growth accelerated from the 1980s, as the population became concentrated in the wealth creating 25 – 54 […]

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