20th+

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Comment A: The Zimbabwean government is banning the export of unprocessed lithium by what they call 'artisan miners', basically illegal miners. This ban does not extend to the giant corporations who are exporting raw lithium now and who will continue to export raw lithium. It's basically investors telling that govt to shut down the small operators. The whole video is pointless.

Comment B:
Companies don't want to build plants in Zimbabwe because they have reasons not to. Endemic corruption is one such reason. Banning the export of a particular raw material (e.g. lithium) does nothing to change that unfavorable business environment. I think the result is pretty darn predictable.

Mining The World: Comment: This video is incredibly over optimistic for the following reasons:

First, Zimbabwe has only 1.2% of global lithium reserves, 30x less than Chile and 20x less than Australia, really a negligible amount and certainly not enough to move lithium prices as the video claims.

Second, having a lot of mineral resources might make you a geologic powerhouse, but it doesn't make you an economic powerhouse and certainly not a "superpower" unless you know how to exploit those resources. For Zimbabwe to have any hope of profiting from these resources, it needs to provide proper incentives to mining companies and other foreign investors - not radical policies like export bans that have a high likelihood of backfiring.

Meanwhile there is little chance of it ever building refining capacity or battery metals production as this requires advanced manufacturing and technical capabilities and stable power generation.

This is why China, Japan and South Korea, which have all spent decades building up refining and manufacturing expertise, lead at this end of the mineral value chain, while very poor countries with regular power blackouts such as Zimbabwe do not.

The final point was that for Zimbabwe to generate economic growth (and for a country with a GDP per capita comparable to Yemen and Afghanistan, it should be aiming for incremental growth, not superpower status), it should look no further than its neighbour Botswana for a how-to guide. Botswana is the actual African economic success story ($20,000 gdp per capita - 10x higher than Zimbabwe) and did it by putting in place the right conditions (e.g. a constitution in place at independence, democratic and stable government, security of tenure for foreign investors, low corruption) to profit from its diamond resources. There's a video about Botswana and its diamond industry on my channel if you're keen on learning more.

Monday, April 23, 2012

FDR & New Deal

Racist aspects of the program that "saved" America - TED-Ed > .

First New Deal: Stemming the Tide of Depression in 1933 - Mega > .

History Brief: The New Deal - rth > .

The New Deal: Crash Course US History #34 > .

1932-7-8 Dow Jones falls to lowest point during Great Depression - HiPo > .

How Did the Great Depression End? - HiHu > .

F.D.R - The Four-Term President - Biog > .

Eleanor Roosevelt - The First Lady to the World - Biog > .

1929 Stock Markets Slump & Crash ..
Economic Recessions and Recoveries ..

New Deal ..
Recession, Depression ..

Roosevelt, Eleanor (USA) ..

What ended the Great Depression from 1929? The economic crisis kicked off at Black Thursday on October 24, 1929 when the stock market on Wall Street crashed. American president Herbert Hoover had no answer to the crisis. The economic recession became an economic depression. In 1933 Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and said: “this nation asks for action, and action now.” He had a plan named the New Deal. This was a package of laws for economic and social reforms. Did Roosevelt's New Deal stop the Great Depression?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the longest serving President in US history, serving 12 year in office from 1933-1945. He steered the nation through its worst economic crisis, only to be faced with the most horrific war in history. Though facing titanic physical challenges of his own, he imbued America with the indomitable fortitude and sense of morale that was required to spur the nation to victory.

Fiat Currency

23-5-1 How Money is Created | Understanding Fiat Currency | Wondrium > .

24-10-15 How the US Debt Crisis Affects Us All - Cold Fusion > .

23-5-1 Should Currency Be Centralized? | Macroeconomics | Wondrium > .

23-4-30 Conjuring Money & Inevitability of Credit Suisse's Fall - M&M > . skip > .

23-1-16 Bretton Woods - Why it's Important - EEE > .

2019 Why the US labelled China a currency manipulator | FT > .

>> Economics >>>

Currency Manipulation - Weighs >> .

Don't Bank On It - Weighs 'n Means >> .

Fed, Monetary & Fiscal Policy - anffyddiaeth >> .

Rise & Fall of Economies - Money & Macro >> .

Ups & Downs & Ups - Weighs 'n Means >> .

>> Money & Macro >>

Currency manipulation is a policy used by governments and central banks of some of America’s largest trading partners to artificially lower the value of their currency (in turn lowering the cost of their exports) to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

Simply explained, in order to weaken its currency, a country sells its own currency and buys foreign currency – usually U.S. dollars. Following the laws of supply and demand, the result is that the manipulating country reduces the demand for its own currency while increasing the demand for foreign currencies.

Currency manipulator is a designation applied by United States government authorities, such as the United States Department of the Treasury, to countries that engage in what is called “unfair currency practices” that give them a trade advantage. Such practices may be currency intervention or monetary policy in which a central bank buys or sells foreign currency in exchange for domestic currency, generally with the intention of influencing the exchange rate and commercial policy. Policymakers may have different reasons for currency intervention, such as controlling inflation, maintaining international competitiveness, or financial stability. In many cases, the central bank weakens its own currency to subsidize exports and raise the price of imports, sometimes by as much as 30-40%, and it is thereby a method of protectionism. Currency manipulation is not necessarily easy to identify and some people have considered quantitative easing to be a form of currency manipulation.

[Following the 1985 Plaza Accord]: Under the 1988 Omnibus Foreign Trade and Competitiveness Act, the United States Secretary of the Treasury is required to "analyze on an annual basis the exchange rate policies of foreign countries … and consider whether countries manipulate the exchange rate between their currency and the United States dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade" and that "If the Secretary considers that such manipulation is occurring with respect to countries that (1) have material global current account surpluses; and (2) have significant bilateral trade surpluses with the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury shall take action to initiate negotiations with such foreign countries on an expedited basis, in the International Monetary Fund or bilaterally, for the purpose of ensuring that such countries regularly and promptly adjust the rate of exchange between their currencies and the United States dollar to permit effective balance of payments".

A designated currency manipulator can be excluded from U.S. government procurement contracts.

According to the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, the Secretary of the Treasury must publish a semi-annual report in which the developments in international economic and exchange rate policies are reviewed. If a country is labeled a currency manipulator under this Act, "The President, through Treasury, shall take specified remedial action against any such countries that fail to adopt policies to correct the undervaluation of their currency and trade surplus with the United States."
It has been argued that the concept of "currency manipulation" is hypocritical, given that the US already has the privilege of having the main reserve currency of the world, which is needed for international trade. Massive interventions of the Federal Reserve since the financial crisis of 2008, such as Quantitative Easing and interventions in the REPO market have been cited as alleged examples of the U.S.. itself engaging in currency manipulation.

Currency Manipulation ..

Digital Yuan ..
85-9-22 Plaza Accord (G5) ..

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Gilded Age & Robber Baron Myth

22-11-7 The Robber Baron Myth - Patrick Boyle > .

The term robber baron is frequently used to describe men like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, along with other powerful 19th-century American industrialists. These men came from nowhere and made fortunes building out Americas industrial infrastructure. In their pursuit of wealth, they put railroads in place, provided energy to American homes and manufactured the steel that built American cities. Many of the 19th Century American industrialists ended up giving away the majority of their fortunes in great acts of philanthropy. Is it correct to call them Robber Barons?