Bundesrechnungsabschluss 2010

Gestern frisch veröffentlicht:

“Um die langfristige Nachhaltigkeit der öffentlichen Finanzen sicherzustellen, ist im Allgemeinen ein Primärüberschuss des öffentlichen Haushalts nötig. Im Jahr 2010 war der Primärsaldo des Bundes negativ (-3,067 Mrd. EUR). Das bedeutet, dass der Bund nicht nur den Zinsaufwand, sondern auch operative Ausgaben durch weitere Schulden finanzieren muss. “

So viel zur “grossartigen Bewältigung” der Finanzkrise. (hfk)

BRA_2010_-_Ueberblick__Voranschlagsvergleichsrechnung

Botox and beancounting

   Date: 28-04-2011
 Source: The Economist
Subject: Economics focus: Botox and beancounting

Do official statistics cosmetically enhance America’s economic appearance?

COSMETIC surgery is more popular in America than in Europe. Statistics, too, may be making things there look less saggy. For several headline economic gauges, America uses a different (and more flattering) measure from that employed on the other side of the Atlantic. The number-crunchers are not deliberately massaging the figures but the effect of some of America’s official statistics is to Botox its performance relative to Europe’s.

Take public-sector debt.

Angst in the United States: What’s wrong with America’s economy?

“Angst” wurde in den USA zum “Lehnwort des Jahres”, weil es im englischen “fear” nicht die feinfühlige Unterscheidung wie bei uns zwischen “Angst” (dumpf, unkonkret) und “Furcht” (fokussiert, rationalisert) gibt (hfk).

Date: 28-04-2011
 Source: The Economist
Subject: Angst in the United States: What’s wrong with America’s economy?

Its politicians are failing to tackle the country’s real problems. Believe it or not, they could learn from Europe

PESSIMISM about the United States rarely pays off in the long run. Time and again, when Americans have felt particularly glum, their economy has been on the brink of a revival.

Think of Jimmy Carter’s cardigan-clad gloom in the inflation-ridden late 1970s, or the fear of competition from Japan that marked the “jobless recovery” of the early 1990s. Both times the United States bounced back, boosted on the first occasion by Paul Volcker’s conquest of inflation and on the second by a productivity spurt that sent growth rates soaring in the mid-1990s even as Japan stalled.

The Global Village Idiot

Walter Molano, RGE Monitor, Apr 27, 2011 11:15AM

In 1964, Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian academic, developed the concept of the Global Village, whereby the advances in electronic communications would create the equivalence of a central nervous system that would allow the planet to become interconnected and act as if it was a single unit. The concept of the global village became prominent with the development of the internet. Advances in transportation and communications allowed goods and services to be cheaply transported to the four corners of the planet, thus erasing regional differences in products and practices. The concept was fully embraced by multinationals during the 1980s and 1990s, as they used their market clout to impose a global system of branding and product domination. This led to greater integration of the global economy and the synchronization of the business cycle. This is not to say that all regional differences disappeared. On the contrary, just as in a village where there is a division of labor, between butcher, baker and candlestick maker, the globe was segmented into areas of specialization, such as high tech design, commodity production and mass manufacturing. By raising the division of labor to a higher level, society was able to extract more efficiency and productivity, which in turn allowed for an improvement in social welfare. Although poverty still abounds, globalization led to more prosperity (for some). However, there was always a problem with the leadership issue. Each village has a leader, but at times it seems like the global village is managed by the local fool.