Employment Report Showed Solid Improvements in January
JEC Weekly Economic Digest – February 7, 2012
Employment rose solidly in January…
Average weekly earnings rose last month…
The unemployment rate declined in January…
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January 31, 2012
Fourth-Quarter Growth Disappoints and Earnings Lag Inflation
JEC Weekly Economic Digest – January 31, 2012
U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter was a bit weaker than expected…
The typical earnings of wage and salary workers failed to keep up with inflation again in the fourth quarter…
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World Economic Outlook Update – Global Recovery Stalls, Downside Risks Intensify, January 24, 2012
"The global recovery is threatened by intensifying strains in the euro area and fragilities elsewhere. Financial conditions have deteriorated, growth prospects have dimmed, and downside risks have escalated. Global output is projected to expand by 3¼ percent in 2012 — a downward revision of about ¾ percentage point relative to the September 2011 World Economic Outlook (WEO). This is largely because the euro area economy is now expected to go into a mild recession in 2012 as a result of the rise in sovereign yields, the effects of bank deleveraging on the real economy, and the impact of additional fiscal consolidation. Growth in emerging and developing economies is also expected to slow because of the worsening external environment and a weakening of internal demand. The most immediate policy challenge is to restore confidence and put an end to the crisis in the euro area by supporting growth, while sustaining adjustment, containing deleveraging, and providing more liquidity and monetary accommodation. In other major advanced economies, the key policy requirements are to address medium term fiscal imbalances and to repair and reform financial systems, while sustaining the recovery. In emerging and developing economies, near-term policy should focus on responding to moderating domestic growth and to slowing external demand from advanced economies."
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION REBOUNDED WHILE PRICES WERE FLAT IN DECEMBER
JEC Weekly Economic Digest – January 24, 2012
Industrial production rebounded in December…
On average, consumer prices were flat again in December…
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COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745331003&
Panayotakis is associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology at CUNY and author of “Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.” He said today: “As global financial markets and the world are anxiously watching to see if the negotiations to restructure the Greek debt held by private investors come to fruition in the coming hours, it is important to remember that even if these negotiations do bear fruit, the Greek and eurozone crises, with all the risks these pose for the global economy, will not abate. The voluntary haircut that these negotiations are after will not make the Greek debt sustainable and, even under the most optimistic (and highly unrealistic) projections, will only lead to the reduction by 2020 of the Greek debt to 120 percent of GDP, or what it was before the first rescue loan and austerity package were adopted almost two years ago. This lack of progress on the fiscal front will have been bought with a brutal restructuring of Greek society that has led to skyrocketing unemployment and poverty as well as a liquidation of labor rights and the social safety net. Not surprisingly, these developments are fueling both a sense of despair that is leading many educated young Greeks to seek a better future abroad and a growing disapproval by Greek citizens of the austerity policies behind these developments. Meanwhile, the generalization of these failed policies across Europe is putting into question the very future of the eurozone and the European project itself. In this context continuing and escalating anti-austerity struggles across the continent are the only way that the new year will turn out better for ordinary European citizens and workers than the disastrous last one."
See Panayotakis’ pieces: "The Eurozone Fiasco"
http://www.indypendent.org/2011/12/19/eurozone-fiasco
Debunking the Greek (and European) Crisis Narrative"
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/panayotakis171111.html
From: the Institute for Public Accuracy
Book: Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy (The Future of World Capitalism) by Costas Panayotakis
The dominant schools of neoclassical and neoliberal economics tell us that material scarcity is an inevitable product of an insatiable human nature. Against this, Costas Panayotakis argues that scarcity is in fact a result of the social and economic processes of the capitalist system.
The overriding importance of the logic of capital accumulation accounts for the fact that capitalism is not able to make a rational use of scarce resources and the productive potential at the disposal of human society. Instead, capitalism produces grotesque inequalities and unnecessary human suffering, a toxic consumerist culture that fails to satisfy, and a deepening ecological crisis.
Remaking Scarcity is a powerful challenge to the current economic orthodoxy. It asserts the core principle of economic democracy, that all human beings should have an equal say over the priorities of the economic system, as the ultimate solution to scarcity and ecological crisis.
Economic imbalances and social inequality risk reversing the gains of globalization, warns the World Economic Forum in its report Global Risks 2012. These are the findings of a survey of 469 experts and industry leaders, indicating a shift of concern from environmental risks to socioeconomic risks compared to a year ago. Respondents worry that further economic shocks and social upheaval could roll back the progress globalization has brought, and feel that the world’s institutions are ill-equipped to cope with today’s interconnected, rapidly evolving risks. The findings of the survey fed into an analysis of three major risk cases: Seeds of Dystopia; Unsafe Safeguards and the Dark Side of Connectivity. The report analyses the top 10 risks in five categories – economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological – and also highlights "X Factor" risks, the wild card threats which warrant more research, including a volcanic winter, cyber neotribalism and epigenetics, the risk that the way we live could have harmful, inheritable effects on our genes. Key crisis management lessons from Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters are highlighted in a special chapter.
