http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics from the Center for Geoeonomics Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:13:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The United States is rapidly approaching its legal debt limit of just over $12 trillion. As of September 2009, U.S. debt stood at $11.9 trillion. As these charts indicate, Congress has raised the limit four times in the past three years, as the need for financing has risen. Some ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/11/16/debt-ceiling/ Over the last decade, Asia has developed into a major manufacturing base for the developed world. This relationship has provided mutual benefits: the West has received cheap goods while the East has developed its production capacity more quickly. China, to a significant extent, has been the assembler nation, importing raw ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/11/09/global-supply-chain/ The greatest challenge of European monetary union is devising a single monetary policy for a large grouping of countries facing divergent economic conditions. As these charts show, this challenge has been thrust to the fore since 2008, as eurozone employment conditions have diverged dramatically across member countries. Whereas the effectiveness ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/11/02/stressed-union/ Near zero T-bill yields throughout 2009 is keeping U.S. debt service low even though the amount of outstanding debt continues to rise. A forecast increase in U.S. interest rates, along with growth in the amount of debt, will lift interest expenses sharply over the next ten years. In fact, ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/10/26/interest-expense/ China has accumulated a massive stock of U.S. dollar reserves in recent years. Statements of concern from China regarding the risk that U.S. economic policy might undermine the future purchasing power of these assets has fuelled the market’s concern that China may shift away from dollar purchases. Yet the chart ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/10/19/china%e2%80%99s-dollar-addiction/ This chart shows who financed the massive amounts of debt that the U.S. government issued in the first half of 2009. The total net issuance of treasuries and agencies is shown on the left, and economic sectors are ordered from left to right by the size of their total purchases. ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/10/07/government-debt-financed-by-official-sector/ This chart shows the U.S. federal gross debt issuance, the sum of debt refinancing and fiscal deficits, as a percentage of GDP. The U.S. Treasury must issue debt to finance expenditures in excess of receipts as well as to pay off debts that are due. Although it is often assumed ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/09/28/u-s-federal-debt-issuance-risks-ahead/ This chart shows China’s overweight or underweight observed external investment position since 2000 in a given sector relative to that sector’s share of world market capitalization. A positive number indicates that China is overweight in a given sector; a negative number indicates that China is underweight. As the chart below ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/09/21/china%e2%80%99s-external-investments/ In a typical post-war recession, recovery would be well under way after twenty-one months. This time around, all that has emerged is limited optimism over ‘green shoots.’ Although conditions in financial markets have improved (e.g., the spread between AAA corporate debt and treasuries has narrowed by over 150 basis points ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/09/11/unemployment-2/ The Federal Reserve responded aggressively to the economic crisis with unconventional monetary policy measures. These measures have vastly expanded the size of the Fed’s balance sheet, leading to concerns over future inflation. Chairman Ben Bernanke has argued that the Fed has the tools to fight any uptick in inflation; ... http://blogs.cfr.org/geographics/2009/09/08/the-great-inflation-debate/