On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed what he calls "Phase One" in a massive trade deal with China. On Thursday, he signed the rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement – all of it as the Senate prepared to begin its trial of the third impeached president in American history.
Consider the headlines on the day opening the Senate trial: the S&P 500 topped 3,300 for the first time. The market value of Google's parent company topped one trillion dollars for the first time. And the so-called "pick-up truck indicator" suggests the economy is strong.
This may worth something:
Free exchange - Economists explore the consequences of steering technological progress | Finance
S INCE THE ancient Greeks, at least, people have recognised that civilisational progress tends to create havoc as well as opportunity. Economists have had little time for such concerns. To them, technological progress is the wellspring of long-run growth, and the only interesting question is how best to coax more innovation out of the system.
Early models of growth did not explain technological progress at all, treating it rather like manna from heaven. In the 1980s some economists worked to build endogenous-growth models that said where innovation came from. They explained it as the consequence of investment in research and development, increases in the stock of human capital, or the (temporary) extra profits that can be reaped by firms with new technologies. Other economists have focused more on data than on theory.
U.S. to Change How It Releases Economic Data - WSJ
WASHINGTON—The Labor Department said technology upgrades will allow it to exclusively release high-profile economic data directly to the public, ending the news media's practice of transmitting economic stories the moment data is released.
China's Improving Economic Data Masks Deeper Problems - The New York Times
HONG KONG — China's factories are beginning to hum again. Its consumers are opening their wallets. Its trade tensions with the United States are easing .
On paper, the world's second-largest economy looks as if it may be shrugging off its worst slowdown in nearly three decades . China reported economic growth figures on Friday that suggest its economy is stabilizing after a year of consecutive quarterly declines. Wall Street has already been celebrating .
Check out this next:
Opinion | China Has a Big Economic Problem, and It Isn't the Trade War - The New York Times
A decade ago, after the 2008 global financial crisis, China seemed to save its economy by decoupling it from the rest of the world's with a massive domestic investment program. Today, it is progress on the trade war with the United States , or the recoupling of China's economy with those of other countries, that is seen as the way for it to regain momentum .
But to think in these terms is to miss the main point: The trade war has merely compounded an economic slowdown in China that is substantially of the country's own making.
The West's biggest economic policy mistake
Checks and Balance - "Checks and Balance"—The Economist's new weekly podcast on American politics
EVERY FRIDAY, The Economist' s editors and correspondents bring you a global view on democracy in America. Each episode will draw on the rigour and expertise of our network of journalists across the US and around the world. They will examine the social and economic forces that are shaping politics and assess President Donald Trump's record, the challenge from his Democratic opponents and how America's international role is changing.
* * *
And sign up for our Checks and Balance newsletter to receive exclusive analysis of the campaign and a selection of stories in your inbox each Friday.
UK consumers cut back on spending again, adding to economic gloom - Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - British consumers failed to increase their spending for a record fifth month in a row in December, adding to signs of economic weakening that might prompt the Bank of England to cut interest rates this month.
Official data on Friday showed sales volumes fell by 0.6% from November, defying the median forecast for a rise of 0.5% in a Reuters poll of economists.
Sales in monthly terms have not risen since July, the longest such run since records began in 1996, the Office for National Statistics said, adding that food sales fell by the most in three years.
No comments:
Post a Comment