Economics and Investing:

Items from Mr. Econocobas:

Obama Administration Pushes Banks to Make Home Loans to People with Weaker Credit – This is both stupid, and desperate….

Venezuela Orders Long Weekends to Stave Off Power Crisis

U.S. Braces for Worst Earnings Season Since 2009 Crisis: Chart

Items from Professor Preponomics:

A Brief Commentary from Professor Preponomics

Currency valuation is a topic of great interest among economists and is both simultaneously simple (within the framework of free market exchange) and complex (especially when economic engineering is involved). Included here are a selection of articles that make for interesting reading and some variation in points of view. In today’s news and resource review, the Personal Economics and Household Finance section includes a couple of links that may be helpful to readers hoping to learn more about currency exchange and valuation.

US News

Currency Wars, the Devaluation Delusion (Cato) Excerpt: “So, if devaluations fail to deliver more trade and higher GDP growth rates, what do they deliver? Well, one thing devaluations deliver is inflation.”

Bucking the Trend (The Economist) Excerpt: “An exchange rate is the relative price of two currencies, so the dollar’s recent decline reflects more than just Fed policy.” We’re Nearing a Major Turning Point in the Currency Wars (Daily Reckoning) Excerpt: “Right now, the most powerful indication and warning is coming from what I call “Yellen’s Conundrum.”

International News

Two Birds, One Yuan as China Gets Both Weak and Strong Currency (Bloomberg) Excerpt: “China’s exchange-rate strategy has implications far beyond its own borders.”

Following the Mugabe Model: Spot the Difference (The Economist) Excerpt: “The Venezuelan government spends like Father Christmas after too much eggnog, subsidizing everything from rural homes to rice. It cannot pay its bills, especially since the oil price collapsed, so it prints money.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

Foreign Exchange (The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics)

The Pros and Cons of a Strong Dollar (Investopedia)

o o o

SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.