Good morning readers…Herewith a scan of today’s stories on the web….
Thanks to Labour List for this great chart.
Prime’s economist, Michael Burke, is unequivocal about how bad yesterday’s GDP numbers are: he argues that “Government policy has turned 2.8% growth into economic stagnation.”
The British mainstream media however, is conflicted about yesterday’s GDP data….the BBC’s Stephanie Flanders, clearly aligned with No 10’s economic strategy, tried hard to maintain her upbeat analyses…..insisting in the title to her blog, that the economy is ‘not stagnant’. The Financial Times’s headline by contrast is firmly insistent: ‘UK GDP growth stagnant’.
The FT’s Alphaville, believes that “By any absolute standard they were awful.”
David Blanchflower, echoing the FT, thinks the growth figures ‘are disastrous’.
Are extreme weather events – like these Tornadoes in the US that killed more than 60 people yesterday – so routine, that they are not reported in the UK Press? This story is certainly news to me….
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/us/29storm.html?ref=us
Yesterday’s Federal Reserve press conference with Fed Governor, Ben Bernanke, brought “out in the open how the Chairman of the US central bank thinks and sadly that isn’t very compelling” writes Bill Mitchell at Billy Blog.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=14291#more-14291
Duncan Weldon remarks on some of the responses to the Vickers Commission on Banking Reform, and notes that Sir George Mathewson, former CEO of RBS, and the man responsible for the takeover of NatWest in 2001, recommends that both RBS and Lloyds should be broken up.
http://duncanseconomicblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/banking-reform/
Modern Monetary Theory gets a fillip in this column….
http://www.traderscircle.com.au/news-option-Trading.aspx?CID=17630
Fraser Nelson of the Spectator comments on Cameron’s (and Clegg’s) new cuts narrative…in case you had missed it – the new narrative that is…
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/6899298/camerons-new-cuts-narrative.thtml
Dog eats dog: South Africa benefits from Japanese tsunami…..
http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=14107C
Citing threats from China, US Senator calls for expansion of renewable energy.
And given these concerns from the Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency – so they should:
No government is prepared for Peak Oil – says IEA chief economist (again).
“Wealthy Leaving Las Vegas Mansions as Foreclosures Spreading” – what implications for the global banks, I ask? Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-26/wealthy-leaving-las-vegas-mansions-as-pain-of-foreclosure-crisis-spreads.html
Carbon emissions ‘hidden’ in imported goods – revealed. BBC Science…