By Paolo von Schirach February 17, 2013 WASHINGTON – The usually sober The Economist, after providing a scathing indictment of the Italian society and its ruling elites, (Who can save Italy?, Feb. 16 – 22, 2013), engages in the worn –and in this case almost silly– wishful thinking whereby a major challenge (fixing Italy) is [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 16, 2013 WASHINGTON – With all its problems, due to the discovery and exploitation of new carbon based energy reserves, and to public policy that strongly favors consumers, America has a major comparative advantage vis-a-vis global competition: rock bottom electricity prices. Some of America’s competitors like Australia are energy rich. But [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 7, 2013 WASHINGTON – The American economy has yet to recover from the spending binge that led to the 2008-2009 financial collapse. Simply stated, most American households are spending less as they are trying to pay back the debt they accumulated during the go-go years. And they are doing so while [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 6, 2013 WASHINGTON – Economist Tyler Cowen calls it “The Great Stagnation”. 2010 Nobel Prize winner for physics Andre Geim calls it the “tech crisis’ in a recent FT op-ed piece. (Be afraid, be very afraid of the world’s tech crisis, February 6, 2013). Others may call it more simply “lack [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 5, 2013 WASHINGTON – China’s journey from a state run economy to free market capitalism –assuming that this is the intended final destination– will be long and complex. In the West many (wrongly) assume that China’s staggering growth is entirely due to its capitalistic conversion.
By Paolo von Schirach January 30, 2013 WASHINGTON – The shale gas revolution is probably the best economic news for America in the last decade. The development of this new resource means large domestic investments, jobs creation, business for energy companies and for their vast networks of vendors and suppliers.
By Paolo von Schirach January 27, 2013 WASHINGTON – America’s biggest problem –as the recent presidential elections have demonstrated– is that a bit more than half the country no longer believes in unfettered free enterprise as the main engine of both personal and national growth.
By Paolo von Schirach Related story: http://schirachreport.com/index.php/2013/01/17/boeing-787-dreamliner-grounded-all-over-the-world-due-to-serious-malfunctions-aerospace-giant-image-tarnished-has-america-lost-it-as-technology-leader/ January 25, 2013 WASHINGTON – I pointed out just a few days ago (see link above) that the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a public relations disaster, (on top of the economic damage), for America’s leading aerospace company.
By Paolo von Schirach January 24, 2013 WASHINGTON – The US stock market is buoyant. Investors seem to have a lot of confidence. And yet the country’s fiscal picture is a cloudy as ever. There is no agreement between Republicans and Democrats in Washington on a credible long term strategy involving taxes and spending that will bring [...]
By Paolo von Schirach Related story: http://schirachreport.com/index.php/2013/01/12/extreme-air-pollution-levels-in-beijing-indicate-a-deep-environmental-crisis-in-china-can-the-country-grow-the-economy-while-spending-hundreds-of-billion-to-fix-the-environment-a-huge-political-cha/ January 14, 2013 WASHINGTON – I wrote recently, (see link above), that Beijing’s dismal air quality signals a tough road ahead for China’s economic development and for its Communist Party managers. Indeed, under Party supervision, impressive growth was achieved in large part because of total disregard for environmental protection. The unanticipated byproduct of [...]