Entries from Chemicals & The Economy tagged with 'UK'
UK downturn follows the 1930/34 path
Politicians and analysts often focus on selling dreams. Otherwise, we might not be tempted to buy their promises of better times ahead. But those running businesses have to remain realistic. BASF's CEO, Jurgen Hambrecht, did exactly that in his comments...
US and EU dominate global consumption
Interesting new research from Prof Nouriel Roubini provides some perspective on relative levels of consumer spending around the world: • US private consumption accounted for 16% of total global output in 2008 • It was valued at $10trn, just ahead...
Exporting is no fun anymore
Japan and Germany are the great exporting countries of the industrialised world. They didn't have the consumer booms seen in the USA and UK. Yet their economies are plunging, as export opportunities dry up. Yesterday, the Japanese finance minister, Kaoru...
G-20 plans still short on substance
The G20 represents over 85% of the world's economy. And there is certainly no shortage of major issues for government leaders to discuss when the G20 meets next month in London. But the blog is not over-hopeful about their ability...
Crisis "more serious than the 1930's"
Last August, the blog noted that politicians were beginning to wake up to the scale of the current crisis. There are still many politicians (and businessmen) who still hope we are facing just a 'normal recession'. But last week, IMF...
A fistful of dollars
The US Federal Reserve used just to manage monetary policy for the 12 'districts' of the USA. But now, it is going global. First, it opened unlimited "swap lines" with other G7 countries through the European Central Bank, the Bank...
The Swedish model
The blog has given up counting the number of US banks that have failed in recent weeks, away from the headlnes. Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, predicted last month that half of all US banks would fail, and...
'Our entire economy is in danger' - Bush
In early August, the blog noted that politicians were beginning to recognise the seriousness of the economic situation. First, China's finance minister Liu He warned that 'an economic restructuring was inevitable'. Then the UK's finance minister said the 'global economy...
The global stock market decline
Alan Greenspan's comments (below), led the blog to investigate how the world's major stock markets had moved since their recent peaks. All, as shown in the chart, are now in bear markets. Stock markets often forecast economic developments 6...
'A very, very serious global economic slowdown'
A trend seems to be developing amongst the world's policy makers. Last month saw China and the UK's finance ministries warning of bad times to come. Yesterday, France's finance minister joined the chorus, saying that she had 'underestimated the spillover...
'Global economy at 60-year low' - UK Finance Minister
Another policy maker has decided realism is the best policy when talking about the current credit crunch. China's Liu He started the trend earlier this month, by talking about the need for 'economic restructuring'. Now the UK's Finance Minister, Alistair...
Fuel subsidies to double in 2008
Fuel subsidies are set to double this year to at least $100bn, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Nobuo Tanaka. This is in spite of the fact that some countries such as Taiwan have recently abolished...
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