Economics and International Affairs Blog

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Interesting Economic News

Impact of Aging Baby-Boomers on the US economy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-30/aging-baby-boomers-shrinking-labor-force-may-curb-u-s-growth-for-20-years.html

India’s China Obsession

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/business/global/india-looks-to-china-as-an-economic-model.html

Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs considers the possibility of a BRIC century
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/print/article/ready-for-a-bric-century/441453.html

Growing Number of Millionaires in Asia
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/china-to-have-half-of-asia-s-millionaires-by-2015-baer-says.html

Bloomberg's William Pesek looks at what ails Japan
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/rock-n-roll-line-rings-true-in-deflation-nation-william-pesek.html

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Best Undergrad College Degrees, By Salary

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp

Economics has slipped slightly to 12 for 2011-2012, but is still the only non-science or engineering major in the top 12.

Best Undergrad College Degrees, By Salary
	*Starting Median Pay*	*Mid-Career Median Pay*
Petroleum Engineering	$97,900	$155,000
Chemical Engineering	$64,500	$109,000
Electrical Engineering (EE)	$61,300	$103,000
Materials Science & Engineering	$60,400	$103,000
Aerospace Engineering	$60,700	$102,000
Computer Engineering (CE)	$61,800	$101,000
Physics	$49,800	$101,000
Applied Mathematics	$52,600	$98,600
Computer Science (CS)	$56,600	$97,900
Nuclear Engineering	$65,100	$97,800
Biomedical Engineering (BME)	$53,800	$97,800
Economics	$47,300	$94,700
Mechanical Engineering (ME)	$58,400	$94,500
Statistics	$49,000	$93,800

Have Gold Prices Reached Bubble Territory?

This Bloomberg article appears to suggest that Gold prices are headed for a correction:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-28/gold-s-absurd-price-makes-stocks-look-cheap-chart-of-the-day.html

Emerging Markets - Slowing Down?

India real GDP grew only 7.7%.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/08/30/india’s-gdp-growth-not-as-good-as-it-looks/

Is decoupling still possible?
http://www.economist.com/node/21526923

Prominent Economists Express Concern as Global Economy Slows

Stephen S. Roach
Kenneth Rogoff
J. Bradford DeLong
Jeffrey Sachs

Meanwhile, PIMCO's Bill Gross offers his take on where to invest in these troubled times:

"In this environment, the world’s biggest manager of bond funds favors investing in Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Canada, along with non-dollar currencies that have strong ties to the Asian continent, Gross, co-chief investment officer and founder of Pimco, reiterated. Although global equities are attractive because dividend yields in many cases are higher than bonds, they’re vulnerable to faltering growth, Gross wrote in a monthly investment commentary published on Pimco’s website today."