The Big Picture: Google, Wikipedia, 1000s Go Black to Protest SOPA/PIPA

The Big Picture: Web Sites to Go Dark

The Big Picture: IMF wants more cash, glass half full or half empty?

FT Alphaville: Goldman in Q4…

FT Alphaville: China’s property sector goes from bad to worse

FT Alphaville: World Bank joins the gloomfest

FT Alphaville: The great Australian bond run

Calculated Risk: Industrial Production increased 0.4% in December, Capacity Utilization increased

the bonddad blog: The ECRI Weekly Leading Index, unmasked

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The consensus with which I agree is that the Euro zone is heading into a recession. While the economic activity has somewhat improved over the last months in the U.S. I remain doubtful whether the U.S. can escape the recession when Europe enters one. The data coming from China doesn’t (jet) point to a hard landing. For the time being it looks like that the Chinese government is in control. The measures to contain inflation and raising real-estate prices are successful, while in the same time China is has taken early steps to increase domestic consumption and re-balance the economy. One should not disregard and keep close watch on soft data coming from China especially in real estate and commodity related industries which are not reflected in the official data and could be pointing to serious issues.

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Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, talks about the growth outlook for China and the impact on the global economy. (Source: Bloomberg)

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