France’s economic foundations are cracking. Unemployment hit 10.5% and is incessantly rising. The private sector is becoming comatose. Car sales sank 13.9% in 2012, from a lousy 2011; sales by its native automakers plunged even more: PSA PeugeotCitroën down 16.6%, Renault Group down 19.8%. Now home sales are grinding to a halt. And the finger-pointing has already started. In…
Contributors- Economic and Financial, Must Read, Wolf Richter
Paradigm Shift For The Healthcare Expense Monster | Wolf Richter- Testosterone Pit
by Wolf Richter •
A sadly familiar theme in the US—the growing ranks of the working poor—was fleshed out today. But the report, “Low-Income Working Families: The Growing Economic Gap,” did something else: it added graphic details to the conundrum of US healthcare spending. While it ballooned to $2.7 trillion, 17.9% of GDP, or $8,680 per capita, households have loweredtheir share. And so…
Contributors- Economic and Financial, European Crisis, Must Read, Wolf Richter
Bracing for a Euro Crash and Creating A Housing Bubble: The Swiss Caught in a Vice
by Wolf Richter • • 0 Comments
As developments in the Eurozone veered from bad to awful, with Greece on the brink and Spain getting closer, Switzerland, a speck with 7.9 million people surrounded by turmoil, is bracing itself, according to the President of the Swiss National Bank a…
Wolf Richter
The Natural Gas Massacre Gets Bloodier
by Wolf Richter • • 0 Comments
The plight of natural gas driller Chesapeake Energy could almost make you feel sorry for CEO McClendon. He lost his chairmanship after his conflicted entanglements and an in-house hedge fund had seeped out. The company announced it may run out of cash…
