EconomyWatch.com

Sovereign debt crisis global, far from over Black Sept 2008 permanent shock to tax revenues, transfer liabilities & risk from private to public sector w/out = transfer of resources Deepened conflict btwn bond & other stakeholders 4 finite resources

Plunging home sales, bleak job mkt, Q3 growth 1.6% has left US hopes pinned to HOPING things SOMEHOW get better Economists debate policy ideas, but sterile exchanges seem irrelevant & unreal Deep intellectual void @ center of US econ policymaking

Detailed analysis of China plans in 4 key areas @ high-value-added end of scale: solar power / automobiles, esp electric cars / low-emission & fuel-consuming power plants / magnetic levitation high-speed trains – & how using W technology to do it

W Africa Benin rare success story in continent not full of them Long taken pride in stable political life: no military in streets, Parliament not in pocket of president, relatively free press Now tho shaken by massive Ponzi scheme thru whole society

De-linking yuan/$ wd barely dent US trade deficit US lacks domestic industry to make most things currently buys from China Take lesson from recent history w Japan Yen-revaluation did nothing Key: get China to INVEST in US to avoid tariff war etc

TPG, Blackstone & Carlyle succeed raising huge funds denominated in yuan Part of China plan to build financial services industry & turn Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing into world financial cenetrs able 2 compete w New York London Tokyo HK etc

Academic economics culpable 4 today's US global mess w models assuring powerful markets self-regulated efficient self-correcting Efficient markets hypothesis, prices fully reveal all relevant information, ruled Econ broken as is paradigm – & shd be

Last 5 years Portugal launched clean energy revolution ~45% of electricity will come from renewable sources this yr up from 17% 2005 Land-based wind power up 7 X same period Required NO rise in taxes / public debt Will cost ~ $2.3 bn/yr LESS 2 run

So-called quantitatives or quants seen as best & brightest, able 2 outwit Wall St w PhDs & superfast computers But after missing financial panic, losing big 2008, lagging badly 2009, quants, & academic economist peers, looking wrong & irrelevant

China trade most important driving force behind current German upswing - fastest growing segment of German foreign trade Exports there up by ~ 60% this year For same reason, economists see bright medium term but worry about long-run situation