Entries from Asian Chemical Connections tagged with 'demographics'
Everything Is Going To Plan
By John Richardson So far so good - everything is going to plan. The flash Markit/HSBC China Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for May fell to 49.6, slipping under the 50-point level demarcating expansion from contraction for the first since October last year and...
Global Deflation
By John Richardson TEN trillion dollars doesn't buy what it used to do, according to The Wall Street Journal. The reason is that despite central banks across the world aggressively expanding their balance sheets, there is no inflation. "My customers...
Reviving Youngstown
By John Richardson THE blog turned 50 last week and so spare it some indulgence, as it is in a somewhat reflective mood. Yesterday, it attended a Bruce Springsteen concert in Melbourne, Australia - the great song writer/social commentator in...
China Manufacturing Relocation Accelerates
Source of graph: Standard Chartered By John Richardson WORKING conditions matter as much as higher salaries for China's emboldened manufacturing workforce, according to this article in the Financial Times. "As the number of available workers falls, factories struggle...
Innovation: No More Time Left To Lose
Source of picture: http://whyfiles.org/ By John Richardson MY colleague Nigel Davis has written an excellent Insight article which highlights how some chemicals companies are seeking to respond to changing patterns. As we have discussed before, Bayer Material Science...
Death By A Thousand Cuts
By John Richardson COST cutting and disciplined operating rates have been two of the factors that have helped maintain European cracker and polyethylene (PE) profitability at pretty healthy levels since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008....
China Govt Confirms Post-CNY Labour Shortages
The great news behind rising labour costs: Shan Dalin, pictured with his family, is a crane operator from Southwest China's Guizhou province who has worked in eastern Zhejiang province for 10 years. In 2012, Shan's monthly income rose to...
Ten Solutions For The Global Economy
By John Richardson LAST week we highlighted how a Boston Consulting Group study has reached many of the same conclusions as our e-book, Boom, Gloom & The New Normal, on the fault lines in the global economy. Similarly, many of...
Ponzi Scheme Economics
By John Richardson AN important study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) underlines most of the views we put forward in our e-book, Boom Gloom & The New Normal. "The developed world's Ponzi scheme is caused by record-high levels of...
"You Can't Turn Back The Demographic Tide"
By John Richardson Our argument ument that demographics drive demand is gaining greater traction. Demographic challenges apply both to developed markets, where populations are rapidly ageing, and to emerging markets such as China, which confronts ithe consequences of...
Average Babyboomer Turns 55
Today is a day for celebration, as it marks the day that the average Western BabyBoomer, born in 1958, will join the New Old 55+ generation! This is a truly remarkable moment. Even 100 years ago, as the chart above...
US Manufacturing Exam Question
A lot more than just the standard Model T.,,, Source of picture: cCSU Archv/Everett/Rex Features By John Richardson THE question on my exam paper this Monday morning is what this outstanding article by the author, Charles Fishman, in The Atlantic...
Demographics And Saudi Arabia
Source of picture: Wikimedia Commons By John Richardson EIGHTY percent of Saudi Arabian families get by on incomes of less than $3,300 a month, whereas Saudi Aramco makes $900m of profits every day, says Leslie McCune, managing director of...
New Business Mindset Needed
By John Richardson THE global chemicals industry became used to healthy and steady rates of demand growth during the "Great Moderation" in the West, before the 2008 crisis. As fellow blogger Paul Hodges wrote in January of this year:...
South Korea's Demographic Challenges
By John Richardson SOUTH Korea serves as another example of how demographics are reshaping Asian economic prospects. "By 2018, 14% of its population will be over 65, making it officially an 'aged society.' That is six years sooner than...
The Suspension Has Gone
By John Richardson WHAT a week it's been when, of course, politics has trumped everything else and has challenged the view of those who believe that demand will take care of itself. Demand did take care of itself during the Supercycle,...
Planning For New Growth Patterns
By John Richardson "Have you noticed that your parents spend less money than you do?" asks Merryn Somerset Webb in this Financial Times article. She agrees with us that the answer is, of course, "Yes". This very neatly brings the...
The BRICS Fallacy
By John Richardson THE above chart, from a new Research Note released by fellow blogger Paul Hodges, exposes the fallacy that BRICS and emerging-market growth can by themselves rescue the global economy. And, as we have highlighted before on this blog,...
The End Of Growth
By John Richardson OUR e-book, Boom Gloom & The New Normal, is a set of ideas meant to challenge conventional wisdom. Some of our ideas will need to be adapted and discarded. But our essential point is that the New Normal...
Foxconn And China Demographics
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/23/foxconn-taiyuan-riot/ By John Richardson THE riots and a strike at Foxconn factories in China point to demographic changes that have major implications for the country's economy. China's one-child policy means that it can no longer depend on a...
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries tagged 'demographics'. [What is this?]
