Akkam’s Razor

• Black September | The Big Picture - September 2008 marked the beginning…
• Robert Reich’s Blog: And Now Deflation - The good news is that all this price cutting is helping average people at a time when wages and benefits, and jobs, are also being cut. The bad news is it's also cutting deep into producer profits, causing them to cut even more jobs and wages. The big danger is it may cause some consumers to delay purchases, thinking they can get a better deal when prices drop further. That's a self-fulfilling prophesy. If more and more consumers take this view, sellers will have to reduce prices further to get them to buy now. That may sound good until you realize it means more layoffs, and more cuts in wages and benefits.

• A Sea of Unwanted Imports - NYTimes.com - And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning dozens of acres of the nation’s second-largest container port into a parking lot, creating a vivid picture of a paralyzed auto business and an economy in peril.

I’ve been following the rapid ascent of the value of gold, and wondering why I remember this as being important, regarding inflation and so on…Economic Dreams/Nightmares believe it’s due to flagging confidence in paper money (72-years since the demonitisation of gold?!?)

The Wall Street Journal (subscribers only) has come to the same conclusion I did about Ben Bernake, prospective replacement for Alan Greenspan - he’s been very influenced by his academic research into the Great Depression.

Lastly, a whole bunch of economics related graphs from various blogs via Economist’s View.