The Great Debate UK
Why meetings matter to the U.S. economy
This infographic, supplied by the Americas Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (AIBTM), aims to show that the travel sector is critical to economic growth in the U.S.
AIBTM’s exhibition director Mike Lyons says of the figures: “Despite recessionary economic periods, businesses recognise the continued importance and value of face-to-face meetings that current research shows accelerate business results and shorten the sales cycle. With every planned meeting, there’s a ‘cascade effect’ into local economies across the nation, feeding jobs, local spending, and fuelling the success of local business.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the meetings industry is expected to grow by just under 44 percent from 2010 to 2020, an uplift of 31,300 jobs.
Fiscal cliff deal is depressingly European
The deal to break the deadlock in the US looks awful, far worse than going over the cliff, which I suspect would have been a lot less damaging than is usually assumed.
The 1 January agreement was a compromise over the tax to be levied on high salaries, which is purely a political issue with little bearing on the critical economic issue of how to close the deficit, and otherwise simply takes the line of least resistance, avoiding the tax rise on middle incomes, extending benefits for the long-term unemployed and suspending the immediate cuts in defence spending which would have been enforced automatically in the absence of an agreement. Worst of all, it defers the really tough decisions on spending. In fact, given how easily America’s rich can avoid taxes, it is likely that the tax rise which the President has fought so hard to impose on them will generate nowhere near enough revenue to pay for the increased unemployment benefits agreed at the same time. In other words, far from being a first step towards dealing with America’s deficit, this is a step back which will only make things worse.
What if the U.S. labour market never returns to “normal”?
-Kathleen Brooks is research director at forex.com. The opinions expressed are her own.-
While the investment community trudged through the snow-fogged January labour market report, the only glimmer of hope was the fall in the unemployment rate to 9 per cent from 9.4 per cent in December. But while investors grabbed that as a sign that the economic recovery in the U.S. was back on track, the data is unlikely to have cheered Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke.
What to make of the U.S. resurgence
-Kathleen Brooks is
research director at forex.com. The opinions expressed are her own.-
Back in the summer, things in the U.S. were so dire that the Fed had to step in to the breach and boost the economy with a $600 billion cash injection. This was only formally announced in November, yet within two months the outlook for the U.S. economy has brightened markedly. The dollar has had a flying start to the year and appreciated more than 2 per cent against the other major currencies.
from Chrystia Freeland:
What’s good for the world is bad for the U.S. and China
This fall, much of the United States seemed to have settled on a narrative for the country’s struggle to adapt, after a debilitating financial crisis, to a post-industrial and post-unipolar global economy: China and its undervalued currency are largely to blame.
Proof that this was a nationally compelling storyline came during the acrimonious midterm election campaign. U.S. politics have rarely been more polarized, but complaining about China was something both parties could agree on.
Does the world need more QE from the Fed?
- Kathleen Brooks is research director at forex.com. The opinions expressed are her own -
The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting seems to suggest that more quantitative easing is a done deal for November. So far, the argument has centred on whether or not the U.S. economy needs another shot in the arm from the Fed to boost growth. The Fed certainly thinks it does. According to the minutes “many” members felt that the status quo – sluggish growth, inflation grinding lower and no sign of a recovery in the jobs market – was enough to justify more easing in policy.
Issues in monetary normalisation
– John Kemp is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own –
Investors like simple narratives, which is why markets swing erratically and illogically between extremes of hope and fear. Reality is more complex. As F. Scott Fitzgerald remarked “the true test of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time”.
