Just a note: The NAHB Housing Market Index will be released today at 1 PM ET, and the Fed Senior Loan Officer survey for July will probably be released today or tomorrow. Click on graph for larger image in new window. The Shanghai SSE composite index is cliff diving again following ... Rea ... Read more

The Chinese central government has made it clear that a key to the nation’s economic recovery is strong consumer spending. The $585 billion stimulus package that has been in effect since early in the year is meant to improve the availability of to both individuals and businesses. That ... Read more

China's central government has sought to shift from an extensive to an intensive development model — from growth based on capital accumulation to growth based on improvements in productivity. This year, however, while the planners continue to talk about the need for this long-sought-after transfer ... Read more

As the US started to head into the worst part of the recession, several members of Congress tried to float legislation that would strongly encourage US citizens to buy products made in America. Most moderate thinking from the Administration and mainstream members of House and Senate killed the initi ... Read more

There is no shortage of cleverness among the bureaucrats who run China. Exports in May fell more than 26% according to the country’s custom’s agency. That rate was worse than the 22.6% decline in April. To balance the drop in exports, the Chinese government has continued to pump what it says wil ... Read more

Very recently there was a news article that China officially passed Germany as the third largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. and Japan. Most people shrugged, it was inevitable. But it shows that China’s role in the global economy is bigger than ever. Even amid a global depression, ... Read more