By EconMatters

In a recent working paper, researchers at the the IMF (International Monetary Fund) attempt to reconcile the Peak Oil debate that whether resource constraints will dictate the future of oil output and prices, or advance in technology motivated by high oil price would eventually provide…

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By EconMatters


The biggest news in the airline sector of late is probably the announcement by Delta Airlines to buy a Phillips 66 refinery in Trainer, PA.  Delta will pay $150 million for the 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) facility, spend an additional $100 million to upgrade the plant, and get…

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By EconMatters

In the 60 years since Chinese Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, the tiny island country has transformed itself quite differently from the mainland China.  Thanks to a series of financial and economic reform by the Nationalist Party (KMT), Taiwan got a head start on economic a…

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By EconMatters

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program initiated by the US government, funded by taxpayers, in October 2008 to bail out the banking and housing sector after the 2008 financial crisis. Due to the program's complexity and "repayment" schemes, there has been different estim…

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By EconMatters

Brent crude ended trading above $120 a barrel on Friday, April 13, while WTI crude on NYMEX for May delivery settled at $102.83 a barrel.  Oil has traded above $100 for all but a couple of days in the past year (see chart below).  This persistent high oil…

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By EconMatters

Every year Americans are forced to go through this arbitrary time change (aka DST- daylight saving time), just when their bodies finally adjust to the new time, they have to mess up their sleep schedules once again, and move time an hour ahead or behind for the sake…

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By EconMatters

I'm not sure what's up with some of these big corporate CEOs keep making the news headline for having "inappropriate relationship" with a female employee.  The latest episode of high-profile executive resignation (read: fired) came from Best Buy (BBY), the electronic retail gian…

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By EconMatters

The ink on our last article is barely dry when its dire prediction actually came true 48 hours later--natural gas price dropping below $2, a level not seen in over a decade.  Henry Hub natural gas front month futures declined to $1.982 per 1,000 cubic feet (mcf)…

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By EconMatters

As discussed in our previous post, Chesapeake Energy is one natural gas producer taken the road less traveled by entering 2012 "naked" with none of its gas volumes hedged, betting that gas prices would rise.  Exiting the positions was profitable, but could prove to be short-sigh…

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By EconMatters

Copper fell more than 3% on Wednesday, April 4, its most in nearly two months after the latest meeting minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed policymakers seem not quite ready to launch further economic stimulus.  The red metal did manage to rebound a bit to $3.79…

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By EconMatters

Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart (WMT) used to serve two very distinct customer groups. Amazon, the online mega mall attracts the more tech smart and higher income crowd, while the brick-and-mortar mass retailer Walmart serves the lower income and more traditional customers. However, the ev… Read full post »

By EconMatters

Apple stock price rallied to $602.50 on March 21 partly due to the the company's decision to spread some of its huge pile of cash ($97.6 billion in cash equivalent with no outstanding debt at the end of 2011) in the form of dividend and a share buyback program.

Apple…

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By EconMatters

Specialty retail companies were hit pretty hard after the financial crisis mostly due to the pullback of consumer spending as well as the economic slowdown.  But not all specialty retailers are created equal.  For example, Best Buy is typically viewed as a consumer electron…

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By EconMatters

In addition to suffering a one-day $2 billion loss in market value on March 12 bestowed upon by the Goldman Letter at New York Times on March 12 , Goldman also has to deal with God problem regarding executive compensation packages as well.

According to Reuters, in…

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By EconMatters

Scandal and headlines seem to perpetually follow Goldman Sachs (GS), a firm that's simply doing "God's Work".  On Wed. March 14, Goldman's name once again burnt up the Internet, and social media.  This time it was from a resignation letter by one of its top executives publi…

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By EconMatters

Student loan debt is surging, partly boosted by many who became unemployed during the Great Recession going back to school hoping for a better job prospect.  An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) showed that student loan debt stands at $870 billion national…

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By EconMatters

U.S. regular gasoline price has spiked almost 4% in one week to $3.688 a gallon as of Feb. 26, the highest level since last September, with residents in three states--Alaska, Hawaii, California-- are already seeing above $4 at the pump, based on AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.…

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By EconMatters

Oil futures spiked more than 2% in one day to their highest level in nine months on Tuesday Feb. 21.  WTI front month contract closed at $105.84, while Brent ended at $121.66 on ICE, primarily on investors fear of potential conflict over the escalating tensions between the…

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By EconMatters

By EconMatters

The latest January trade data of China showed the broadest measure of China's global trade surplus fell to a several-year low to around 2.7% of GDP.  Export also collapsed to a negative 0.5% year-over-year in January, down from +13.4% in December.  Imports looked even more…

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By EconMatters

A recent article at Foreign Policy noted that the $10 trillion global black market is now the world’s fastest growing economy, and that in 2009, the OECD concluded that half the world’s workers (almost 1.8 billion people) were employed in the shadow economy. By 2020, the…

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By EconMatters

Bob Doll, chief investment officer at the world's biggest money manager-- BlackRock ($3.6 trillion in assets), who has produced an annual prediction for over a decade, just published his 10 predictions for 2012:

1. The European debt crisis begins to ease, even as Europe experien
… Read full post »

A Happy New Year Wish to All from EconMatters !


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By EconMatters

In the previous post, we briefly mentioned that

"....there could be some hidden debt bombs as a recent Bloomberg finding suggests that China's banks may be understating their exposure to runaway local borrowing by possibly billions of dollars that is raising fears of a government bail… Read full post »