Tag Archives: US Deficit

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Mitt Romney and the Polls

28 Tuesday Aug 2012

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

On first appearance, Mitt Romney appears to be the perfect foil for the current President of the United States of America.

What he lacks in charisma, he more than makes up for with clear business sense – you only have to look at his ideas for making the US a self-sufficient oil producer by 2020 to realise that.

Yet, if the polls are to be believed he trails behind when Americans are asked who they would vote for.

And perhaps more worryingly there’s a huge gulf between him and the man on the street when it comes whether he is easy-going and likeable.

That’s of course, something the slick Obama campaign has seized on.

This election campaign promises to be the dirtiest so far.

So, with that in mind what are we to make of his choice of running mate – Paul Ryan, someone who is proposing ruthless cuts to Medicare, and of course to plans to cut tax rates for the richest from 35% to 28.

And what are we also to make of his choice of advisers, some known as zealots and others moderates.

Of course, there is little to choose between the two when it comes to Foreign Policy, both men will coldly follow their national interest.

And yet on the crucial pillar of the economy, Rommey scores high, he is someone who gives the impression that he has his own mind and will listen to everyone. The final decision though is his.

That is in stark contrast to the present incumbent who like everyone all the way back to Ronald Reagan – and including the much hyped Bill Clinton – have been little more than figure heads behind whom are very powerful advisors representing very powerful interests.

America and her still powerful economy needs someone with fresh ideas.

Trouble is those ideas may not be very popular.

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US Trade Deficit shrinks in April

08 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by in Financial 💷 💲 🏦, International News

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The US trade deficit – the difference between imports and exports – shrunk in April.

The US trade deficit now stands at $603bn for the year.

Overall, the trade deficit fell 4.9% to $50.1bn (£32.5bn), as exports saw their first decline since November with the deepening crisis in the eurozone hitting demand for goods, whilst imports also shrank because of weak domestic demand.

The Eurozone region accounts for almost a fifth of all US exports, however, exports to Europe were down 11.1% in April with a fall in exports of everything from commercial planes to industrial machinery.

A widening trade gap slows growth as it means the US is spending more on products made abroad than it is making on sales of domestically manufactured goods.

The trade data follows other weak US data, including flat service sector growth last month and the creation of fewer than expected jobs.

Raising that Debt Ceiling

28 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by in Analysis 🙌, Breaking News 📺 🎙🗞, Comment, Financial 💷 💲 🏦, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖

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The deadline of August 2 is fast approaching and US law makers have not decided whether they are going to raise the debt ceiling, that is whether it is going to have borrow more to sustain its expenditures which include an extraordinary amount on military spending.

It is often remarked that the military takes up a smaller portion of the country’s GDP, and that the real problem lies with social security and medicare.

This may well be the case, however, what benefit does this spending bring to its people and to the people of the world? In the case of military spending, endless hardship and suffering and in the case of welfare, some respite to its citizens for whom there is no American dream.

No one seems to have factored this in to their cold calculations.

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Now here’s a man, and he’s got a plan…

14 Thursday Jul 2011

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Playing the Long Game?

Ben Bernanke is currently explaining to an influential committee how his nation is going to tackle their astronomical debt burden. Critics say that apart from printing money, the chairman of the Federal Reserve hasn’t got any other plan. The time may come, one commentator claimed on yesterday’s CNBC, when China will call in that debt, it may well that Suez moment, when America reminded Great Britain that it was no longer a Great Power in a world dominated by two superpowers. So will China remind America that it is no longer has the economy to sustain its current military adventures? And has the miltary got too much power in the People’s Republic? There is no doubt that a move get America to pull back on its military engagements would play well in the Third World, increasing the incredible amount of goodwill that it already has among the weaker nations of the world. But China, despite its vast pools of wealth is still a very poor country, with millions of people still waiting to taste that Chinese miracle everyone keeps telling them that they are part of, and worse still, those people still have to find somewhere to live, in a land where there is too many people and not enough land. Having seen how the one true superpower in the world has squandered her wealth on expensive hitech weapons fighting inconclusive wars,  there doesn’t appear to be the taste for any military confrontation either – remember China lost a million men at Korea and her last adventure resulted in a thrashing from General Giap’s Vietnamese army.  So, my guess is that Ben Bernanke is betting that China has absolutely nothing to gain from crashing the system and far too much lose also from acting as a military superpower, which means that if  America is a status quo power, then her emerging rival is no great challenger, it’s not in its interest to be so.  As a result, the chairman of the Federal Reserve isn’t going to change his strategy, which is exactly what?

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The Volcker Rule

01 Tuesday Mar 2011

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Bernanke: Man for the Job?

 Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, financial publications have seen a growth in sales and subscriptions as everyone whether the bloke in the street or the professional all scramble to find out what is going on and could happen next. Everyday the FT flags up a guest interviewer normally on its back page. What this does is take the reader out of the dry print of the news pages to bring to life some of the issues and debates currently at the heart of the financial world. With this in mind, the Lex column which is easily the most informative and engaging part of the newspaper opened a debate on the so-called Volcker rule on its video page which was flagged up on the front page. America’s economy and how to deal with her multi trillion dollar debt has been the issue engaging economists and media pundits alike. Those who argue that Paul Volcker, the man his fans say steered his country out of the last recession during the Reagan era, believe that this is the man to the do the job again. They lament the fact that Barack Obama has not given him the position currently being occupied by Ben Bernanke who famously said that he would print money regardless of the consequences and was quite prepared to drop this paper money from a helicopter in the sky.

www.ftcom/lexvideo Lex:Volcker rule. Are the key issues being addressed?

Posted by Nayab Chohan