Major change is underway in the global economy: Global GDP has grown 10-fold over the past 60 years; life expectancy has risen by 20 years; average time in education has risen from 3 yeas to 8 years; 70% of the world now has access to the internet Today, the scale of technological change means 40% […]
Chemicals and the Economy
US jobs participation rate at 37-year lows
Yesterday’s US jobs report showed people are continuing to exit the workforce whilst earnings remained flat. The key number is the participation rate, which measures the percentage of people who have a job. As the chart above shows, this has now been falling for nearly 20 years: The peak rate for total employment was back in 1997, […]
China’s new car market goes ex-growth as used car sales take off
My latest post for the Financial Times, published on the BeyondBrics blog is below |Jun 30 17:45 By Paul Hodges of International eChem Major structural change is under way in China’s passenger car market. New car sales grew just 1.2 per cent in May, as the country develops a used car market for the first time in its history. […]
Fears of Austerity rise again, as Stimulus proves ineffective
Austerity is in the news again, as the Greek/Eurozone debt negotiations continue. So it seems interesting to see how financial market sentiment has been moving with regard to the issues of austerity and stimulus. The above chart is therefore modeled on the familiar IeC Boom/Gloom Index It shows the ratio of sentiment for Austerity versus […]
Jump to page: