China’s office workers are tightening their belts, cutting back spending on everything from clothes to fast food, despite government efforts to boost consumption to stave off the worst effects of a global recession.
Many governments are trying to boost asset markets directly. The US suspended short-selling for a period. Pakistan and Russia closed stock markets from time to time. China cut stamp duties. These measures have had little effect for a good reason. Most of the reductions in asset prices are due to bubble bursting, i.e., the prices were too high before, not too low now. For example, the average price-book ratio for the US stock market for the past eight decades is 2. The current level is 1.7, not a big discount from the historical norm.
The book spawned a genre, selling more than two million copies in China on the premise that any child, with the proper upbringing, could be Ivy League material.
About 12,000 people marched through London on Saturday in protest against Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, police said, in a demonstration that began peacefully but ended in a string of arrests.
There’s a lesson for China’s car makers in the fate of the ailing U.S. auto industry: develop smaller, fuel-efficient models instead of betting on gas-guzzlers, industry analysts have warned.
Ezra's chart is very similar to SMM's. Many oil related stocks are showing the same pattern. Can refer to comments in SMM post. Only difference is Ezra hasn't broken out of the wedge yet.