Showing posts with label currency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label currency. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Rest of Europe vs. Germany
Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
I am a little confused by the statement: "its (Germany's) currency is undervalued". Germany uses the Euro, just like many of the other European countries, including the ones that are in trouble. But the German economy is well-managed. No doubt about that.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Rest of Europe vs. Germany
By FLOYD NORRIS
The German economy has been one of the wonders of the world over the last couple of years. While the rest of Europe staggered, German unemployment fell to the lowest level in decades.
This week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of developed economies around the world, issued a new “Economic Survey of Germany.” The biggest challenge it could find facing the country was finding enough workers.
It recommended steps to encourage more women to work.
“Please accept our sincere congratulations for a well-managed economy,” said Angel Gurría, the O.E.C.D.’s secretary general, in a speech in Berlin. The country’s “growth model has been so successful in navigating through the stormy waters of the crisis.”
The German labor system, with its incentives to move workers to part time rather than lay them off, does appear to have been critical in keeping the country’s unemployment rate from rising more than it did during the credit crisis.
But the decline of unemployment since then has more to do with the fact that Germany — perhaps unintentionally but certainly effectively — has managed to assure that its currency is undervalued, both relative to that of its neighbors and to much of the rest of the world. That has helped the country’s exporters and brought more business to the country.
In the Great Depression, many countries tried devaluations to gain export advantages over rivals. The strategy became known as “beggar thy neighbor.” It generally failed to work because other countries responded with their own devaluations.
Now some of Germany’s neighbors have been reduced to begging. They cannot take a page from the Depression playbook and devalue their own currency. They no longer have one.
I am a little confused by the statement: "its (Germany's) currency is undervalued". Germany uses the Euro, just like many of the other European countries, including the ones that are in trouble. But the German economy is well-managed. No doubt about that.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Rest of Europe vs. Germany
By FLOYD NORRIS
The German economy has been one of the wonders of the world over the last couple of years. While the rest of Europe staggered, German unemployment fell to the lowest level in decades.
This week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the club of developed economies around the world, issued a new “Economic Survey of Germany.” The biggest challenge it could find facing the country was finding enough workers.
It recommended steps to encourage more women to work.
“Please accept our sincere congratulations for a well-managed economy,” said Angel Gurría, the O.E.C.D.’s secretary general, in a speech in Berlin. The country’s “growth model has been so successful in navigating through the stormy waters of the crisis.”
The German labor system, with its incentives to move workers to part time rather than lay them off, does appear to have been critical in keeping the country’s unemployment rate from rising more than it did during the credit crisis.
But the decline of unemployment since then has more to do with the fact that Germany — perhaps unintentionally but certainly effectively — has managed to assure that its currency is undervalued, both relative to that of its neighbors and to much of the rest of the world. That has helped the country’s exporters and brought more business to the country.
In the Great Depression, many countries tried devaluations to gain export advantages over rivals. The strategy became known as “beggar thy neighbor.” It generally failed to work because other countries responded with their own devaluations.
Now some of Germany’s neighbors have been reduced to begging. They cannot take a page from the Depression playbook and devalue their own currency. They no longer have one.
Let Greece Go Bankrupt: Jim Rogers
"Let Greece go bankrupt, let all the people who are bankrupt go bankrupt, and then you can start over. You reorganize the assets and start over," Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holding told CNBC. "Until that happens, this is going to be an on-going discussion," he said. To see a video of this and other thoughts, click the link below:
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000073700
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000073700
Monday, February 13, 2012
Putting a Price on Personal Data
Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Monday, February 13, 2012
Start-Ups Aim to Help Users Put a Price on Their Personal Data
By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN
Facebook’s pending initial public offering gives credence to the argument that personal data is the oil of the digital age. The company was built on a formula common to the technology industry: offer people a service, collect information about them as they use that service and use that information to sell advertising.
People have been willing to give away their data while the companies make money. But there is some momentum for the idea that personal data could function as a kind of online currency, to be cashed in directly or exchanged for other items of value. A number of start-ups allow people to take control — and perhaps profit from — the digital trails that they leave on the Internet.
“That marketplace does not exist right now, because consumers are not in on the game,” said Shane Green, who founded a company called Personal in 2009.
The idea behind Mr. Green’s company involves two steps. First, his team created a series of personal data vaults, which contain thousands of data points about its users (the company calls them owners). This data can be as prosaic as birth dates, or as specific as someone’s preference for spicy foods. People control what information they share and remove data they don’t want to share at any time.
The problem is that companies don’t need to pay for the information when they get it free.
“The killer app isn’t here yet,” said William Hoffman, who is working on a multiyear study of the economics of personal data for the World Economic Forum. But with increased consumer awareness of the value of that information — Facebook could be worth as much as $100 billion — that may soon change. “I’m willing to bet that within the next 12 months something big will catch on,” he said.
The concept of treating data like currency has long excited certain computer programmers and academics. But to almost everyone else, it is boring. Personal data management has none of the obvious appeal of social networks or smartphones. But concerns about privacy may be changing that, Mr. Hoffman said.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Start-Ups Aim to Help Users Put a Price on Their Personal Data
By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN
Facebook’s pending initial public offering gives credence to the argument that personal data is the oil of the digital age. The company was built on a formula common to the technology industry: offer people a service, collect information about them as they use that service and use that information to sell advertising.
People have been willing to give away their data while the companies make money. But there is some momentum for the idea that personal data could function as a kind of online currency, to be cashed in directly or exchanged for other items of value. A number of start-ups allow people to take control — and perhaps profit from — the digital trails that they leave on the Internet.
“That marketplace does not exist right now, because consumers are not in on the game,” said Shane Green, who founded a company called Personal in 2009.
The idea behind Mr. Green’s company involves two steps. First, his team created a series of personal data vaults, which contain thousands of data points about its users (the company calls them owners). This data can be as prosaic as birth dates, or as specific as someone’s preference for spicy foods. People control what information they share and remove data they don’t want to share at any time.
The problem is that companies don’t need to pay for the information when they get it free.
“The killer app isn’t here yet,” said William Hoffman, who is working on a multiyear study of the economics of personal data for the World Economic Forum. But with increased consumer awareness of the value of that information — Facebook could be worth as much as $100 billion — that may soon change. “I’m willing to bet that within the next 12 months something big will catch on,” he said.
The concept of treating data like currency has long excited certain computer programmers and academics. But to almost everyone else, it is boring. Personal data management has none of the obvious appeal of social networks or smartphones. But concerns about privacy may be changing that, Mr. Hoffman said.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Happy Birthday, Euro!
Yesterday (January 1), I was watching Fareed Zakaria's program on CNN. He began by talking about his predictions for 2011 and how some of them worked out and some of them did not.
One thing he was sort of right and sort of wrong about was the financial crisis in Europe. At the beginning of 2011, Mr. Zakaria expected Germany to bail out its less responsible neighbors because Germany had the money. Well, Germany did dole out some money, but it did not do so freely and it was not happy about it. Furthermore, Mr. Zakaria said that in 2012, he expects Germany to continue to help out its southern neighbors, but that Germany would try to get the best deal that it could before doing so. So look for more austerity in Europe.
Towards the end of the program, Mr. Zakaria mentioned that the Euro had turned 10 years old.
Mr. Zakaria played a video that had been played all over Europe when the Euro was launched. The video spoke of Europeans moving forward into the future with hope and confidence. After the video was over, Mr. Zakaria asked, "Hope? Confidence?" Those emotions are not exactly what most Europeans of feeling right now.
Mr. Zakaria ended his discussion of the Euro by considering the Euro note's physical appearance. There are no politicians, statesmen, or human figures of any kind. This was a deliberate decision made so that no one would be offended. When you look at the Euro note, what you do see are bridges and architectural forms. What is interesting is that these bridges and architectural forms do not really exist anywhere in the real world.
We were left to draw our own conclusions.
One thing he was sort of right and sort of wrong about was the financial crisis in Europe. At the beginning of 2011, Mr. Zakaria expected Germany to bail out its less responsible neighbors because Germany had the money. Well, Germany did dole out some money, but it did not do so freely and it was not happy about it. Furthermore, Mr. Zakaria said that in 2012, he expects Germany to continue to help out its southern neighbors, but that Germany would try to get the best deal that it could before doing so. So look for more austerity in Europe.
Towards the end of the program, Mr. Zakaria mentioned that the Euro had turned 10 years old.
Mr. Zakaria played a video that had been played all over Europe when the Euro was launched. The video spoke of Europeans moving forward into the future with hope and confidence. After the video was over, Mr. Zakaria asked, "Hope? Confidence?" Those emotions are not exactly what most Europeans of feeling right now.
Mr. Zakaria ended his discussion of the Euro by considering the Euro note's physical appearance. There are no politicians, statesmen, or human figures of any kind. This was a deliberate decision made so that no one would be offended. When you look at the Euro note, what you do see are bridges and architectural forms. What is interesting is that these bridges and architectural forms do not really exist anywhere in the real world.
We were left to draw our own conclusions.
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