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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Tim Woods

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Tim Woods

Op-Ed Columnist - Is China the Next Enron? - NYTimes.com - 3 views

www.nytimes.com/...13friedman.html

shared by Tim Woods on 13 Jan 10 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 13 Jan 10
       
      This is why I worry so much about the amount of debt the US has. If China gets into trouble, it's going to ask the US for them to return the money China lent them. The US can't afford that, so they'd then have serious problems. It's all very risky.
  • Tim Woods on 14 Jan 10
     
    A lot can change in 5 years. It would take only a matter of days for China to move their reserves into Euros, thereby removing the obstacle you mention. My point is that the US, with such a massive debt, isn't looking so good itself.
  • Tim Woods on 14 Jan 10
     
    You're quite right though Julien, that it's hard to see such a move being in China's best interests at the moment. But, as the Chinese economy matures maybe they will become less dependent on exports. Then they might not worry about taking actions that might devalue the dollar (and thereby make their exports seem more expensive to Americans). That's when I'd start to worry.
Tim Woods

Economics 101: How little they know - The Boston Globe - 0 views

boston.com/...omics_101_how_little_they_know

shared by Tim Woods on 16 Dec 09 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 16 Dec 09
       
      A good article discussing the limitations of economic understanding.
  • “There is no reliable way of knowing whether the stimulus package has averted a worse situation - or whether it’s part of the problem. There is no consensus in the economics profession on this question, and no empirical evidence that can settle the dispute.’’
  • Economics isn’t rocket science or any other hard science, and never will be. Human motivations, appetites, relationships, expectations - the raw stuff of economic life - cannot be perfectly modeled or reduced to an unvarying equation.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.’’
Tim Woods

Three cheers for the death of old economics | Anatole Kaletsky - Times Online - 1 views

www.timesonline.co.uk/...article6892820.ece

shared by Tim Woods on 18 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 18 Nov 09
       
      This is worth a read. It highlights the fact that a lot of the most important ideas of economics weren't thought up by economists at all. You won't find this in astrophysics my friends.
Tim Woods

BBC NEWS | Europe | Medvedev calls for economy reform - 2 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8356122.stm

shared by Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09
       
      Hey guys what do you think of this?
  • Inefficient state giants should be overhauled and issues of accountability and transparency addressed, he said. "Instead of a primitive economy based on raw materials, we shall create a smart economy, producing unique knowledge, new goods and technologies, goods and technologies useful for people," Mr Medvedev said. "Instead of an archaic society, in which leaders think and decide for everybody, we shall become a society of intelligent, free and responsible people."
Tim Woods

BBC NEWS | Business | Oil rise 'could derail recovery' - 4 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8356332.stm

shared by Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09
       
      HOw does this relate to Supply and Demand class? --cuz you know you're all smarties and know so much!
  • The IEA also warned that signs of renewed economic growth remained "tentative". In its monthly report, the agency said China was driving demand and revised upwards its forecasts. In 2010, it predicts a 1.6% increase in demand to 86.2 million barrels a day.
  • Tim Woods on 26 Nov 09
     
    Good conversation you two. You might consider choosing a topic like this for your first Internal Assessment --which we'll start in January. You've covered a lot in this conversation already, but I thought I'd mention something about the substitute goods available. A lot of the substitute goods, available on the market at the moment actually require oil to make. Ethanol (oil from corn) uses oil as a factor of production in farming. And hydrogen powered things sound great, but a lot of oil is used to distil the hydrogen. So alternatives are a difficult thing as well. Energy production is a serious challenge.
  • Tim Woods on 12 Jan 10
     
    I think the best alternative at the moment is natural gas, with biofuels coming in second. Solar and wind energy will increase a lot in the next decade, but depend on a lot on innovations in battery power and also in the harnessing technologies (solar cells and kites, etc).
Tim Woods

BBC NEWS | Business | Surprise rise in Australian jobs - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8356129.stm

shared by Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09
       
      HOw does this relate to Macro?
  • It is the second monthly gain in a row and has led analysts to speculate that interest rates will be increased in December to 3.75% from 3.5%.
  • Tim Woods on 26 Nov 09
     
    Also, a rise in interest rates means that the government is trying to slow down economic growth. This is because when the rates are low people can borrow money cheaply and invest in things, like new machines for their business or whatever. Exchange rates are a bit trickier. What you say Thomas is right, but the reasons for this are a bit complicated. The main effect of the interest rate rise is a slowdown of growth because people have less money that they can spend. However, a bit ironically, an increase in interest rates actually means that the economy there must be doing really well. They wouldn't dare raise the rates in the US at the moment.
Tim Woods

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Surpass 300,000 for 8th Straight Month - Bloomberg.com - 3 views

www.bloomberg.com/...news

shared by Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 12 Nov 09
       
      You can see how this relates to supply and demand. We're not out of the woods yet, as far as the recession. But it may be a good opportunity to buy (if you're looking to start your empire early).
  • “The foreclosure problem is still with us and will keep prices down,” Stephen Miller, chairman of the economics department at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said in an interview. “The real issue is we don’t know what inventory banks are holding that they have yet to put on the market.” Distressed real estate transactions accounted for 30 percent of all home sales in the third quarter as the median price fell 11 percent from a year earlier to $177,900, according to the National Association of Realtors. U.S. unemployment surged to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October as payrolls fell by 190,000 workers, the Labor Department said last week.
Tim Woods

BBC NEWS | Business | US jobless rate rises to over 10% - 4 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8346936.stm

shared by Tim Woods on 09 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Department.It rose from September's figure of 9.8%. The economy lost 190,000 jobs in the month. Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed has risen by 8.2 million, while the jobless rate has risen from 4.9%. President Barack Obama described the rise in unemployment as "sobering". "I will not
Tim Woods

Editorial - Jobless Recovery - NYTimes.com - 2 views

www.nytimes.com/...08sun1.html

shared by Tim Woods on 08 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Tim Woods
      Tim Woods on 08 Nov 09
       
      What answers, from our course, would help with this problem of underemployment?
Tim Woods

Paul Krugman: We Are In Economic "Purgatory" (VIDEO) - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...man-we-are-in-ec_n_266445.html

shared by Tim Woods on 06 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Tim Woods on 06 Nov 09
     
    "We've got a problem with terminology because we usually say either the economy is in recession or the economy is recovering. Either you're in hell or you're in heaven. And the trouble is we're actually in purgatory. We're actually in a situation almost for sure GDP is growing; almost for sure the business cycle leading committee will eventually decide the recession ended this summer. But almost surely also we're still losing jobs. The unemployment rate is going to continue to rise. So we're in that infamous jobless recovery state. "
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