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India’s growth fails to reduce poverty; ranks 119, China 89

  
Analysis, Economy, Education, Life

India has failed to make any significant improvement in its poverty figures, with over 400 million – more than the total in the poorest African nations – still struck in poverty, the Human Development Report 2010 said, listing India at the 119th position on the Human Development Index. Though India has jumped one position during the last five years, it continues to have high absolute poverty of people living below $1.25 per day along with high incidence of multidimensionality which is characterized by lack of access to health, education and living standards.

“Eight Indian states with poverty as acute as the 26 poorest African countries are home to 421 million multidimensionally poor people, more than the 410 million people living in those African countries combined,” says the report issued by the UN Development Programme.

At present about 1.75 billion people live in multi-dimensional poverty and 1.44 billion live below absolute poverty in the world. While Norway, Australia and New Zealand lead the the world in HDI achievement, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe figure at the bottom of the pile among 169 countries in HDI – a composite national measure for health, education, and income.

In sharp contrast, China moved up the HDI ladder by 8 positions to occupy the 89th rank in the world during the last five years. China is now estimated to have 16% of its population living below $1.25 a day and 12% of the people caught in multidimensional poverty.

Since its inception in 1990, the UNDP’s Human Development Report has become a barometer to judge how countries are performing in improving the social, economic and political well-being of their population.

U.S. Treasury to China – Revalue Remnimbi or We Will

  
Analysis, Economy, Education
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There’s a lot of talk around the markets and in Washington about China’s currency policy. What many want to know is whether the US Treasury will name China as a currency manipulator. Perhaps a more important question is, should China be named as a currency manipulator? And if it were named as such, what actions could the US take? In recent days the Chinese and the US administration have taken shots in the press at each other. The US is hinting that China is manipulating its currency to boost its economy. The Chinese is firing back saying that the US “should not politicize the remnimbi exchange rate issue.”

First, some background on the problem. Basic economics says that if you keep the currency of your country at a weak (but not so weak as to cause a collapse in it) level you help boost exports. The currency becomes weaker making your goods cheaper for foreign consumption. In a freely floating exchange system, the market determines the equilibrium value. Speculators look at economic statistics like GDP growth, interest rates, inflation etc. to figure out what a currency should be worth and then place bets accordingly. If speculators think that an economy can grow strongly while keeping inflation at a benign rate, they will bid up the currency of that economy. As that happens, the country whose currency is getting stronger could see a decrease in exports. This is caused by the larger amount of currency the importer uses to make the same purchase as previously made. (more…)

15 Facts About China That Will Blow Your Mind

  
Analysis, Economy, Education
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1.) By 2025, China will build TEN New York-sized cities.

2.) By 2030, China will add more new city-dwellers than the entire U.S. population.

3.) China already consumes twice as much steel as the US, Europe and Japan combined.

4.) If the Chinese, one day, use as much oil per person as Americans, then the world will need seven more Saudi Arabia’s to meet their demand.

5.) There are already more Christians in China than Italy, and China is on track to become the largest center of Christianity in the world.

6.) Chinese are far more likely to believe in evolution than Americans.

7.) Chinese internet users are five times as likely to have blogs as Americans.

8.) China has 150% more soldiers than America does, plus a high tech ‘Kill Weapon’ the U.S. can’t deal with.

9.) China still hasn’t rid itself of Europe’s medieval plague.

10.) 40% of Chinese small businesses went bust or almost went bust during the world financial crisis.

11.) China executes three times as many people as the rest of the world COMBINED… and uses mobile execution vans for efficiency.

12.) China averages 274 protests PER DAY.

13.) When you buy Chinese stocks, you are basically financing the Chinese government. Eight of Shanghai’s top ten stocks are state-controlled arms of the government.

14.) 50% of counterfeit goods come from China.

15.) The majority of Chinese drink polluted water.

Pepsi To Cease Advertising

  
Analysis, Economy, Education, Uncategorized
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‘We Know It’s Good, And That’s Enough’ Says CEO
Pepsi-To-R_article
PURCHASE, NY—PepsiCo sent shockwaves through the carbonated beverage industry Monday when the multibillion dollar corporation announced that it would cease all advertising of its popular soda product, effective immediately.

“We know it’s good, and everyone’s pretty happy with the overall taste, so why spend all our time worrying about what other people think?” PepsiCo CEO Indra K. Nooyi told reporters during a press conference at the company’s corporate headquarters. “Frankly, it just feels sort of weird and desperate to put all this energy into telling people what to drink. If they don’t like it, then they don’t like it.”

Added Nooyi, “That’s not really any of our business anyway.”

According to Nooyi, top PepsiCo brass held a series of meetings over the past several months before unanimously agreeing Monday that they all enjoyed Pepsi, and that the company’s century-old history of massive, high-budget ad campaigns, cross-promotional tie-ins, merchandising, and Super Bowl halftime extravaganzas had been “a big mistake.” (more…)

U.S., U.K. 'most stretched' by debt, Moody's says

  
Analysis, Economy, Education
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Uncle Sam isn’t in danger of losing his top credit rating, but he’s not in the greatest shape, either.

So says Moody’s Investors Service in its quarterly assessment of triple-A-rated countries.

Paying the interest on their debt remains manageable for these countries, Moody’s says, so their governments aren’t in any immediate danger of a downgrade.

But among the AAA countries, the U.S. and the U.K. are “most stretched” by their debt obligations, Moody’s says.

The debt ratings are important because a downgrade raises a country’s borrowing costs. And virtually every big country faces a difficult challenge in removing bailout and stimulus money quickly enough to avoid inflation and slowly enough to keep the weak recovery going.

“This exposes governments to substantial execution risk in the implementation of their exit strategies, which could yet make their credit more vulnerable,” says Arnaud Mares, senior vice president in Moody’s sovereign risk group and the main author of the report.

US National Debt is at $11.9 trillion.

  
Analysis, Economy, Education, US Market
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US-DEBTI came across this national debt clock today and it is crazy. It breaks out the complete US balance sheet in real time. Numbers include: US National Debt, US Spending, Debt Per Citizen, Debt Per Taxpayer, US Budget Deficit, US GDP, US Federal Tax Revenue, GDP Per Citizen, Income Tax, Payroll Tax, Total Federal/State/Local Tax Revenue, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, Trade Deficits, Imported Oil, Personal Savings, Food Stamp Recipients, Auto Sales, Household Assets, Interest on Debt, Defense/Wars, US Private Debt, Mortgage Debt, Personal Debt, Credit Card Debt, Money Creation and more. It is the craziest counter I have ever seen. Go to USDebtClock.org and see for yourself.

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