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Chemicals and the Economy

China’s lending continues to tighten

Financial bubbles are like balloons. Only instead of air, they need to be constantly pumped up with new lending. Otherwise they begin to deflate, and the Minsky Moment occurs. The above chart of China’s bank lending shows, as discussed last month, that the Minsky Moment is getting close. August’s lending (red square) was exactly the […]

Algebra is the new alchemy for central banks

The blog’s Boom, Gloom and the New Normal eBook highlights the impact of the ageing Western babyboomers on future demand patterns. Yet central banks such as the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank believe demographics have nothing to do with demand. For them, as one former central banker told the blog “demand is […]

Central banks alchemy fails to convince

Alchemists have always claimed to be able to perform the impossible. The most common claim was that they could turn lead into gold. In Europe, the European Central Bank has been trying the same trick. It claimed to turn near-worthless Greek bonds into German-quality euros. Now its German board member Jürgen Stark has followed German […]

OECD warns economic growth “close to a halt”

The IeC Downturn Alert has hopefully done the job for which it was intended. It was launched at the end of April, when the blog became convinced that the global economy was highly likely to enter a new downturn. It also realised from its experience in 2007-8, when it later became known as ‘The Crystal […]

China heads for 45% over-capacity in autos by 2013

China’s auto market growth has clearly stalled. As the chart above shows, August figures (red square) continued the trend of recent months, and were only 5% above 2010 levels (brown line). Rao Da, head of China’s automotive association, also repeated his warning that “there is no sign of a market recovery“. The reason is not […]

Budgeting and the New Normal

Companies are now starting the Budget process for 2012-14. As always, the blog will present its own view next month. It will also review last year’s Budget Outlook, presciently titled ‘Budgeting for Uncertainty’. In the meantime, companies might like to use its recent ‘The world in 2021′ as a way of challenging their own thinking […]

US auto sales continue to disappoint

One characteristic of recessions is that recovery is always ‘just around the corner’. We can see this pattern in today’s US auto market. Since 2009, forecasters have been convinced that sales will quickly return to Supercycle levels of 15-17 million/year. But sadly, by around this time of year, it has become clear that nothing has […]

The blog in the Financial Times today

The Financial Times kindly prints a letter from the blog today, under the headline “The golden age of the baby boomers is gone – for ever“. It summarises the key ideas in its new eBook, Boom, Gloom and the New Normal, co-authored with John Richardson. Coincidentally, it appears 4 years after the blog’s famous letter […]

Boom/Gloom Index suggests downturn resuming

A recession is often defined as being when your neighbour loses their job. A depression is when you lose your job. Latest industrial production data shows output is falling around the world. And US unemployment is rising again, with the wider measure at 16.2% as long-term joblessness becomes a major problem. Last month’s IeC Boom/Gloom […]

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