Check out this figure from VisualizingEconomics comparing Egypt and China growth over the past 200o years. As Egypt enters a new era, the question is, is it too late for Egypt to catch up to China and shrink the gap? Primary revenue for Egypt’s economy comes from agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism. Wages are low, unemployment is high, and there is no middle class.

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Check out this info chart comparing the best and worst cities performance’s during the recovery since the recession.

Source: www.visualeconomics.com

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Has the market gone bear? Or is it just a bad week of news? Out of the last 7 trading days, 5 closed down. China and Europe concerns continue to drive the U.S. market down. The Dow has retreated more that 400 points since than and fallen below a psychological point “11000.” Emotional trading has reentered the markets and has taken hold.

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As the economy continues its slow recovery from the “depression.” Below are the top 20 industries that have added jobs in 2010, and comparing the change since 2007.

Industry                                                                     Jobs Gained 2010                        Change from 2007

Admin and support                                                 286,000                                          817,000 jobs lost
Employment services                                              262,000                                          591,000 jobs lost
Healthcare                                                                 204,000                                         738,000 jobs gained
Restaurants                                                                143,000                                         150,000 jobs lost
Retail                                                                            128,000                                         1.1 million jobs lost
Mining                                                                          79,000                                           28,000 jobs gained
Religious and nonprofit groups                             56,000                                           9,000 jobs gained
Salespeople and customer-service reps                36,000                                          437,000 jobs lost
Computer systems design                                        43,000                                           52,000 jobs gained
Transit and ground transportation                      20,000                                           17,000 jobs gained
Hotels                                                                           27,000                                           124,000 jobs lost
Federal government                                                  19,000                                             88,000 jobs gained
Management                                                              16,000                                              63,000 jobs lost
Performing arts and recreation                             24,000                                             96,000 jobs lost
Warehousing                                                             12,000                                               30,000 jobs lost
Oil and gas extraction                                             11,000                                               17,000 jobs gained
Rail transportation                                                   9,000                                                9,000 jobs lost
Waste management                                                  8,000                                                3,000 jobs lost
Web portals and Internet publishing                   6,000                                                11,000 jobs gained
Management and technical consulting               2,000                                                 1,000 jobs gained

Source: RICK NEWMAN

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How stupid can investors get, this is all old news. We have all known about Europe’s debt problems, so how do you get a market to crash? You have the media bring it to the spotlight again. What is another driving factor causing this downturn? … yes thats right, China! The Chinese government is considering tightening their currency policy to counter inflation.

Fear has driven the market down 4 days in a row.

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Brief rundown;

• Retail sales increased 1.6% from February to March
• February was reported at $355.5 billion
• March was reported $363.2 billion

U.S Census Bureau Report:

“The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $363.2 billion, an increase of 1.6 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month and 7.6 percent (±0.5%) above March 2009. Total sales for the January through March 2010 period were up 5.5 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The January to February 2010 percent change was revised from +0.3 percent (±0.5%)* to +0.5 percent (±0.3%).”

This graph shows the monthly retail sales.

Graph Source: www.calculatedriskblog.com

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One way to measure a country’s debt position is by comparing GDP to gross external debt. Through that method we can determine what are the odds that a country will be able to repay its debt. Figures were referenced from the World Bank.

The World’s Top 20 Debtor Nations. These rankings my surprise you!

                                                                     External debt                Gross external debt             2009 GDP (est)
                                                                        (as % of GDP)                  (2009 Q3)

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Check out this Graph for NewGeography.com it shows the labor force growth in the U.S. compared to China, Japan, Europe and Korea. The graph indicates that the U.S will add another 100 million to its population 2000-2050 based on the census projections, and have a strong labor force and social benefits for the future. However, what this graph doesn’t address is that you might have a large labor force but will that labor force have jobs in America!

Source Reference:

www.newgeography.com
U.S. Census Bureau, International Database

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Check out this article from WSJ: China Takes Aim at U.S. on Economy By ANDREW BATSON, IAN JOHNSON And ANDREW BROWNE

Couple of issues discussed;

• Premier Wen Jiabao said U.S. efforts to boost its exports by weakening the dollar amounted to “a kind of trade protectionism.”
• Recent deterioration in what he (Jiabao) called China’s most important foreign relationship was because of the arms sale to Taiwan and meeting with the Dali Lama.

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Press Release Federal Reserve: Industrial Production/Capacity Utilization

“Industrial production edged up 0.1 percent in February following a gain of 0.9 percent in January. Production was likely held down somewhat by winter storms in the Northeast. Manufacturing decreased 0.2 percent in February, with mixed results among its major industries. The output of mines rose 2.0 percent, while the index for utilities rose 0.5 percent. At 101.0 percent of its 2002 average, industrial output in February was 1.7 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry moved up 0.2 percentage point to 72.7 percent, a rate 7.9 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2009.”

This graph shows the capacity utilization since 1967. Capacity utilization is up 6.5% since the record low set last year.

Graph Source: www.calculatedriskblog.com

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