November headline inflation was 0.34 percent, bringing the year-on-year figure down to 4.15 percent, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced on Thursday.

From January to November, inflation grew 3.2 percent, well below the government’s 5.65 percent and central bank’s 4 to 6 percent targets for this year.

BPS deputy chief for distribution and services statistics Djamal said gold, red chili and rice prices pushed inflation upward in November, but a slide in fresh fish, spinach, cucumber and onion prices eased the pressure.

“Inflation might end the year at below 4.15 percent if December inflation is not too high,” he added.

Benign inflation has been foreseen by Bank Indonesia (BI) at least until 2012, when inflation might end at below 4.7 percent due to the global economic slowdown that could affect Indonesia, said BI’s director for economic and monetary policy research Perry Warjiyo.

To mitigate the impact of the current crisis, BI has cut its overnight policy rate to 6 percent in November from 6.75 percent in September to provide lower borrowing costs and stimulate people’s consumption and businesses’ expansion.

Analysts are mixed in forecasting BI’s next move when the board of governors meets for a policy meeting on Dec. 8. Some justified the recent inflation data to provide more room for further rate cuts, but others said BI should give more time for the previous cuts to take effect.

Bank Mandiri chief economist Destry Damayanti said the inflationary pressures may rise next year given administered price increases in the government’s plan to raise electricity tariffs and the rupiah’s weakening trend, which would increase imported inflation.

Indonesia’s infrastructure bottlenecks might affect the supply side amid strong domestic demand that would spike prices and rainy weather predicted for 2012 would also affect soft commodity prices such as rice, she added.

“The inflation time bomb is still a big possibility. A drastic change would be too dangerous because of the many challenges next year. If all has been done now, there will be no ammunition left in the future,” Destry said.

Prakriti Sofat, a Singapore-based economist at Barclays Capital, also sees increasing inflationary pressures next year due to strong bank loan growth — which reached 26 percent in October — robust domestic demand and elevated commodity prices.

“However, we believe there is an outside chance that BI will use the window of opportunity provided by the current benign inflation data to implement a 50 basis point cut [early next year] to shore up domestic demand, given its bearish view of global conditions,” she said.

Image by YoTuT via Flickr

It was a day of infamy for Americans of all generations, their savings, checking accounts, and private banks were broken into to bailout firstly banks issuing loans who did not have enough customers to even pay off their loans, secondly the increase in the US National debt,

the value of the US dollar plummet against it’s counterpart the Euro, there for increasing company costs mainly in American based banks which were loosing foreign investment in their banks. Secondly when the Federal Reserve printed more increasing the amount of money in circulation thus giving more to US banks to loan out to Loaners AND companies, as the general rule of thumb is that the more money supply around due to many US labor laws, Unions, and the Federal minimum the US worker has his salary raised DUE to the amount of money the individual posses to buy services & products. Such as in Wal Mart or your typical Winn Dixie usually the Middle class worker who as an utter desire to buy more useless electronics, or new garden fixtures, or whatever has more money to spend due to the increase in amount so he can buy more things. 

The store generally realizes that they either don’t charge enough on exports from Chinese manufacturers or needs to raise the prices on their products and services. So thus driving up market prices, secondly your lose in purchasing power in your money due it the amount of it printed by the US government, thirdly a huge factor in DE valuation is the amount of expenditures that government spends on. 

To upkeep the US military, make new advances in Medicare or Medicaid, keep supplying US Agriculture with Federal subsidies, and our biggest Abomination Welfare which cost’s in the billions must be be all payed for by Tax payers money or be printed out which only De values the US dollar, raises market prices, it’s just private market feeling the grim affects of government intervention. Our Nations GDP is almost at serious breaking point, the current numbers of debt exceeded over ten trillion last Christmas and if what the Fed’s say is true then our recent GDP which is estimated at 14.4 trillion a year is exceeded by our debt, it’s utterly mathematically impossible to pay it off. True our economic crisis is much more serious than our political leaders play it out to be, much more serious, but the affects nearly don’t have to be as horrendous unless we stop this utter madness of spending billions more to keep a few in jobs, companies just barley running, and supposedly keep a little Social security money for retirees. I believe recent my most favorite politician Ron Paul was the only hope left for this countries economic fate, he was for a sound stable currency, preached the Mises School of Austrian Economics principles of the benefits of Capitalism, only working unless government does NOT play a key in the markets, and if we have a dollar backed by gold and silver making our currency much for valuable. Sure to cut down on government spending would obviously make a huge drop in government employment significant and making a cut in money drastic, but for the good of the private sector also allowing it to expand in size to make more money, employ more people, and also allow an individual to maintain his purchasing power in a commodity currency.

Mr. Obama just the same as his predecessor’s Bush, Clinton, and Bush before did understand the principles to a sound money system, the after affects of the Ponzi scheme of Social security nor the cost of welfare, are now seeing the price this country is dearly paying for it’s entitlements. I would say Regan had good ideal principles for the nations economy and tried to sincerely to solve the unemployment issue, but did not cut spending due to trying to collapse the Soviet Union in military spending, and did realize the evil of the IRS. A central private bank, taxes, government bureaucracies, military imperialist ventures, and government Law enforcement agencies just all of the many bugs that have effected America’s former greatness, and have made also made it infamous as well hated. Histories after effects, it’s politicians decisions can never be solved nor our in our power to change, but if your of a strong faith it never does hurt to pray for better times. And if you seek the best financial advice in turbulent times such as these I would say one word, gold, or just maybe if the economy plummets completely, also silver. Gold and silver have stood the test of time, they have been accepted over fiat based currencies and credit based markets in debt ridden countries, good civil citizen, buy buy buy as much as you can now. 

Everyday I look at the commodity market to see realize two things, one, if the dollar plummets as it does it increases the drive in gold and it’s price, or second if interest rates were up at all and if printing were halted then it usually makes gold fall thus the US dollar rises. I see the financial Armageddon coming, 1920s Germany coming down upon us, 1930’s China’s financial calamity is now becoming the same reality here in the United States. Be ready, be prepared, it’s coming any day, any month from now.

But as the economy countinues to improve from recission is unemployment getting better?
In recent months the unemployment has barley droped as it countinues to hover near 10% unemployment

Is it the presidents falt for this? who’s falt for this?

On the other hand I think the government his sepnding way to much money!!!

the united states debt is closing in on 13 trillion dollars and I do think they are at risk of bankruptcy

How well the united states get out of the debt and jumpstart the economy?

The industrial sector can be divided into sectors of its own. Since there are many different kinds of industries, it can be divided into four different sectors. The primary sector is the extraction of raw materials. The secondary sector, what people usually refer to as “industrial,” is the manufacturing. The tertiary sector is the service production. And finally, the last sector, known as the quaternary sector, is research and development. The industrial sector also provides a variety of products and services, though mostly products. These include chemicals, petroleum, food, software, paper, metals, and semiconductors. The industrial sector can further be divided into light industry and heavy industry. Light industry focuses on goods that are more consumer-friendly whereas heavy industry focuses on “big” projects, such as construction and military equipment.

Amongst the variety of products produced by this sector, a number of large businesses can be found. Intel, led by Craig Barrett and Paul Otellini, is the world’s largest producers of semiconductors. They are well known for the computer processors they create, such as the Intel Pentium Dual-Core I am currently using. Both ExxonMobil and Chevron are amongst the largest energy companies in the world, specializing and gas and oil. As a matter of fact, ExxonMobil was founded by the business tycoon John D. Rockefeller as Standard Oil. Rockefeller was well known as an industrialist who revolutionized the petroleum industry. In the pharmaceutical section of the industrial sector, major companies include Pfizer and Merck, led by Jeff Kindler and Richard Clark respectively, both of which are amongst the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Pfizer ranks number one in the world in terms of sales. Its power was recently augmented by its purchase of another major pharmaceutical company, Wyeth.

The industrial sector has existed for millennia, though it was during the industrial revolution that it has truly taken significance. Prior to the industrial revolution, there were guilds and minor industrial production. The industrial revolution, during the late 18th Century and early 19th Century, completely revolutionized the economy and society. Mechanical labor was preferred over manual labor. Technological innovations, such as steam power and iron founding, allowed for greater production. Canals and railroads were built to allow greater trade. The per capita GDP, which was previously fairly stable, grew significantly in developed countries. Finally, industry took over agriculture’s economic dominance.

In recent years, the industrial section has had a major shift, particularly in the United States. The United States and other developed nations are currently undergoing a post-industrial shift where economic priority is changing from manufacturing-based to service-based. Production of goods such as steel and clothing is currently declining, whereas production of services such as investment advice is currently increasing, relatively. According to George Ritzer of the University of Maryland, these changes may include an emphasis on services such as health and education; a de-emphasis on blue-collar workers and a greater emphasis on professional workers such as lawyers, engineers, and scientists; a greater valued placed on theoretical knowledge rather than practical knowledge, since theoretical knowledge leads to greater innovation; a greater control and development of newer technologies; and finally, an established relationship between scientists and newer technologies, leading to a stress placed on university-level education.

In line with the post-industrial economic and social shift, the industrial sector has been doing quite poorly recently along with the rest of the American economy stuck in the current recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a stock index which measures the performance of the 30 largest public companies in the United States, has been consistently dropping since the recession. During the black week of October 6th, 2008, the DJIA fell 18%. On March 2, 2009, the DJIA dropped below 7,000 points for the first time since 1997. Although the term “industrial” is largely historical, since many of the thirty companies in the DJIA are unrelated to the industrial sector, it is still an accurate measure of the industrial sector. Focusing solely on the industrial sector, MarketWatch has a list of major indices for the industrial sector. These indices include the Pharmaceutical Index, Amex Natural Gas Index, and the Phlx Utility Index. Currently, almost all indices are recording losses, without much prospect for gains in the near future.

Additional statistics also illustrate the declining industrial sector. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in the year 2007, the finance and insurance sector recorded a decline for the first time since 1992. Also for 2007, the construction industry has recorded a slowdown of 12.1% and the growth rate of the mining industry has been lower than 0.1%. However, there has been a good amount of growth as well. Relative to all the other areas in the industrial sector, the IT and technology sectors have been performing fairly well for the year 2007.

Nevertheless, in spite of all the current downturns in the industrial sector, it is still a very formidable sector. With a history of innovation and technological advancements, this sector still maintains a significant position in the American economy. It has completely changed Western history, economics, and society. Some of the largest companies in the world are industrial companies and some of the key innovators in our history participated in the growth and evolution of the industrial sector. Perhaps, its future, a future dominated by information and the services, may not be too bright. Perhaps, it is not what it used to be, given the current economic crisis and the losses in the industrial sector. Whatever the case may be, it will continue to play a key in the present and in the future.

The stock market is dead. Right now it is just still twitching a little. Within six months the DOW will most likely be trading below three thousand. Most stocks will probably be labeled as penny-stocks. (When a stock is worth less than one dollar) AIG is only worth fifty cents a trade. If you put every financial institution’s stocks together, Wells Fargo, bank of America, Citi Group, and the rest, even if you added all of their stocks value together, it still wouldn’t be worth what Wal-Mart’s stock is worth.

I’ve been saying for years that people should buy a couple shares from Wal-Mart. And it seems that I was right all along. It still isn’t too late to invest. Even if you’re worried about your money, Wal-Mark is a pretty safe bet.

Everyday at closing time the markets are down. Usually down two to three hundred points a day. So its future is sadly grim. A lot of far-left people think that the stock market is fine. And that the stimulus bill will make it resurface. But the more the Presidents talks about the economy, the worse the market does. People think sell, sell, and sell whenever he talks.

The people who invest, the same people who are controlling the amount of jobs on Wall Street are the ones who don’t trust Obama’s economic plans. So they don’t believe their money is safe while he is running things. If every investor, every economist, every advisor is against he economic policy than what does that tell you. The market is dead and buried.

The little life that is left in the stock market won’t last long. Every time the government has a big spending bill the market slows. People run the market, those little green numbers aren’t random, and they don’t trust these spending plans. And most likely never will. Watch out people, the stock market crash is coming.

The Great Depression (1929)

The Big Crash

After the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties, the American stock market was getting shaky amidst speculative fears. Between 1 September and 21 October, the market fell by 40 percent. On 24 October 1929, the stock market began to drop drastically. It was known as Black Thursday.  By July 1932, it was down by 90 per cent.

By 1933, a quarter of the American workforce was out of job. Widespread unemployment and misery followed. It caused the world to plunge into a global depression that lasted for more than a decade until World War II.

People could be seen everywhere on the streets on Black Thursday, 24 October 1929, as the stock market crashed. (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Recovery

World War II was declared in 1941 and the preparations brought the economy back on track.

Importance

The Great Depression, which is the worst that the world has ever seen, is still being used as a benchmark for how far the economy can fall.

The Oil Shock (1973)

The Big Crash

It began when the world’s oil producers quadrupled oil prices. On 17 October, they announced that they would stop shipping oil to the United States, its allies in Western Europe and Japan. It was a move to retaliate against US for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War against Iraq, Syria and Egypt in 1973.

The surge in oil prices caused a jump in inflation which led to the first instance of stagflation (people were out of jobs but prices remained stubbornly high). It was the worst thing that could happen to an economy.

Recovery

Oil prices stabilised in the late 1970s, but rose to a new peak when war broke out in 1981 between Iran and Iraq. However, it declined gradually again after the war.

Importance

The Oil Shock is brought up as a warning to the economy each time oil prices shoot up to new records.

Black Monday (1987)

The Big Crash

A dark cloud loomed across the nation as the trade deficit continued to widen and there was a rash of investigations into insider trading. On 19 October 1987, jittery investors who were hit by confidence moved en masse out of stocks into safer bonds. Computers automatically cut their traders’ losses by issuing a large number of sell orders. This caused the system to lag, creating mass panic among investors. They reacted by dumping stocks in the darkness before they fell by more.

That day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw the biggest percentage drop in history by 22.6 per cent, wiping out US$500 billion in one day.

Panic selling swept through Wall Street as the Dow dropped by more than 500 points. (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Recovery

Global markets restricted trading. Liquidity was pumped into the system. Recovery was fairly rapid and the Dow rebounded to its previous level within a year.

Importance

Though macro-economic factors played a part, this was the first instance of computer trading systems contributing to such a huge loss. Also, no one knows the exact cause despite the US stock market losing almost a quarter of its value in one day.

The Asian Financial Crisis (1997)

The Big Crash

The Thai government ended the baht’s peg to its US dollar due to the speculative attacks to its currency. As a result, it caused the baht to halve in value and the Thai economy to come to a halt.

Most of Asia was affected as currencies buckled, stock markets crashed and asset price fell. The Thai stock market fell by 74 per cent, followed by Hong Kong’s 23 per cent and South Korea’s 7 per cent in a single day. Asian economies went into recession, causing global growth to slow down.

Local residents rushed to buy bags of government discounted rice with the little money they had in Jakarta, Indonesia, which was one of the countries hardest hit by the Asian Financial Crisis. (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Recovery

The road to recovery was slow and painful despite help from the International Monetary Fund. It suffered more economic shocks along the way. But the economies in the region got back on track when they were boosted by a global boom.

Importance

Asian governments have learnt their lessons from the financial crisis and built up hefty reserves. Thus, it helps them to be better insulted from the current downturn.

The Dot.com Bust and 9/11 (2001)

The Big Crash

With the rise of internet in 1995, a completely new online market was created. Companies and investors greedily invested into it but their dreams were dissolved as newly listed start-ups folded quickly for having spent and borrowed more than what they could earn in time.

The US Nasdaq lost nearly 9 per cent within a week in March 2000. Furthermore, the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 caused The Dow to suffer its worst losses which weakened the economy even further.

Recovery

Western countries such as the United States and the European Union were worst hit. They went into recession. However, the market rebounded in 2003.

Importance

The crisis is the most recent example of what happens when a healthy stock market abruptly crashes when it is being pushed up by speculative activity.

SARS and Iraq War (2003)

The Big Crash

The world was badly hit by the Sars epidemic and the Iraq war. Asian economies were forced back into slower growth and recession fears, just when they were starting to recover from the financial crisis of the 1990s.

Recovery

After Sars was contained, many economies including Singapore and China embarked on an economic expansion which was fuelled by the long-delayed property booms, as well as growing demand in exports.

Importance

People remember the downturn as it is still fresh in their minds. Much has been experienced and learnt during the Sars period. As such, countries will be more prepared to combat future epidemics.

The Current Global Economic Crisis (2008)

The Big Crash

The US sub-prime mortgages became worthless when home owners defaulted on their loans. This caused the housing and property market to collapse, which wiped out Wall Street’s revered investment banks. It pulled down companies, stock markets and economies around the world along with it.

On 29 September, the Dow posted its biggest loss in history by falling 777.68 points. As a result, more than US$1 trillion was lost in a single day in the US.

The powerful Group of Seven finance chiefs discussed ways to fight the global economic crisis and to restore confidence in the financial system. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

Recovery

Countries around the world have come up with drastic measures to counter the financial crisis but recovery is nowhere in sight yet.

Importance

According to experts, this is the closest the world has come in rivalling the Great Depression. With the complex financial system still unwinding by the day, the crisis is nowhere near over. Countries have to stay united to combat it together.

The world has come a long way and has learnt its lessons from past stock market crashes of the century. I am confident it will pull through the current financial meltdown. Let us pray the crisis will end soon. Let us remain as optimistic as we possibly can. Let us stay united together!