Archive for December 2008
Scrapped – the Atlantic
An article in the Atlantic shows how fragile the global supply chain can get during times of financial crisis. It details the sorry state of scrap metal trading between US and China. The much talked about “trust” between trading partners seems to be taking a back seat in the current “survival” crisis.
US employment – the last of the economists’ variables spiraling out of control?
The US seems to be heading towards something scary. The last of the variables that was being flaunted by economists to ward off any suggestions of something similar to the great depression seems to be spiraling out of control.
Latest (un)employment figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 533000 U.S. jobs were lost in November 08. This is almost 73% of the 723000 jobs lost in September(403000 job losses) and October(320000) put together.
The average job loss over the past 3 months has been 419,000 per month; the same figure stood at 82,000 per month from January 08 to August 08 – now that’s like over 400% increase.
But please don’t worry…let’s just get back to being optimistic, and hope that the wizards who turned us into paupers will get us back on our feet.
Or maybe, it’s already time for us to start learning to make some ‘depression cake‘, if not actually start making it.
