The Automatic Earth

The Great Wall of China (built in Ming Dynasty) winds its way through deserts, basins, plains and mountains of North China extending over 6,350 km (3,947 miles) Please allow me to start off with a few explanatory bits. At The Automatic Earth, we have always defined inflation in a different manner from most other sources. That is to say, we define inflation as an increase in money and credit supply (relative to available goods and services), combined with velocity of

Gordon Parks Seafood City June 1943 "A scene at the Fulton Fish Market, New York" The only thing that has been achieved -if we can even use that word- by the European bailouts thus far, is that bank debt is kept hidden from view. That's all. No economies have been rescued or restored, no jobs have been created, nothing. And the bank debt that we now can't see even though we know it's there, will one day forcibly be forced

A shuttered shop window reading: “here you can really save your money” in Rome. When we talk about economies that are looking horrendous these days, it is important to remember that there are other economies out there looking just as bad or worse, either right now or in the near future. The reason is because the global economy is so damn inter-connected that no large national economy can sustain any modicum of growth on its own. This fact is obviously

Photo: Jessica Smith Production and exports are plummeting in Italy, Holland, Finland, Germany, just about anywhere; in China, production growth falls sharply. But your "leaders" will keep on talking about restoring growth, recovery etc. Spain will – secretly – ask for some $200-300 billion in bank bail-outs on Saturday (and get much less, the Wall Street Journal reports it will be €125), and 24 hours later play its first game in the Euro Cup, for which it's the great favorite.