Economy

Canadian construction slowdown in the cards; Catch-22s everywhere; Montreal the next shoe to drop (westcoastjan)

There's no question that builders will be forced to slow their pace of construction if sales trends don't reverse course in short order. What this means for the job market is up for debate, but consider this: In order for construction jobs to realign with their long-term proportion of all Canadian jobs, it would mean a loss of 200,000 positions. If the "unthinkable" were to happen and Canada were to experience a US-style construction slowdown, it would result in closer to 400,000 jobs lost.

21 Signs The Global Economic Crisis Is Headed To A Whole New Level (David B.)

#7 The government debt to GDP ratio in Italy is expected to hit 126 percent this year. In Greece, it is expected to hit 198 percent. In Japan, it is expected to hit a whopping 237 percent.

When Credit Bites Back: Leverage, Business Cycles, and Crises (westcoastjan)

This paper studies the role of leverage in the business cycle. Based on a study of nearly 200 recession episodes in 14 advanced countries between 1870 and 2008, we document a new stylized fact of the modern business cycle: more credit-intensive booms tend to be followed by deeper recessions and slower recoveries. We find a close relationship between the rate of credit growth relative to GDP in the expansion phase and the severity of the subsequent recession. We use local projection methods to study how leverage impacts the behavior of key macroeconomic variables such as investment, lending, interest rates, and inflation. The effects of leverage are particularly pronounced in recessions that coincide with financial crises, but are also distinctly present in normal cycles. The stylized facts we uncover lend support to the idea that financial factors play an important role in the modern business cycle.

Eight Ways China Is Changing Your World (westcoastjan)

This transformation has changed the way the world does business. Cheap Chinese labour has helped dampen prices in the West for everything from moccasins to mops to mobile phones. It is now the biggest investor in Africa, promising to shift the continent's focus away from Europe and the US for the first time in two centuries. And China is now the biggest foreign holder of US government debt - a threatening stick, or a foolhardy bet?

Energy

FAQs: Hydro-fracking (westcoastjan)

Hydro-fracking wells can be drilled vertically, vertically and horizontally or directionally, i.e. on a slant. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), wells can be anywhere from 300 metres to 2.5 kilometres deep and extend for hundreds of metres horizontally from the well site.

Environment

Reduce Animal Unemployment: Hire A Goat (Sally O.)

The homesteading movement hearkens back to a self-sufficient, sustainable lifestyle that includes growing one’s own food, reusing greywater, and keeping livestock. Allowing animals to maintain the lawn makes a lot of sense. Instead of spending money on gas that pollutes the air and pesticides that poison the ground, homeowners can keep the grass trimmed while also feeding their animals.

Indonesian farmers reaping social media rewards (westcoastjan)

There's even talk of a Silicon Valley-style boom taking place in Jakarta's suburbs, with the likes of US tech giant Yahoo snapping up an Indonesian start-up.

But while urban Indonesians are considered to be as plugged-in as their counterparts in Singapore or Seoul, out in the countryside, it's a different story.

UN warns of looming worldwide food crisis in 2013 (Tina S.)

Prices of main food crops such as wheat and maize are now close to those that sparked riots in 25 countries in 2008. FAO figures released this week suggest that 870 million people are malnourished and the food crisis is growing in the Middle East and Africa. Wheat production this year is expected to be 5.2% below 2011, with yields of most other crops, except rice, also falling, says the UN.

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