WCA November 2010

From the americas

So wrote Francine Kiefer, of the Christian Science Monitor , in reference to Mark Zandi, who joined the Boston newspaper’s reporters on 25 th August to discuss near- and far-term prospects for the US economy. Mr Zandi, who is chief economist of Moody’s Analytics and co-founder of Economy.com, earned his reputation for credibility over a career as an influential source of economic analysis for businesses, journalists and the public, and a trusted adviser to policymakers. In 2009, the Wall Street Journal called him the “de facto chief economist to Congress.” While the ensuing six months or so would be rough, Mr Zandi said, he is optimistic about the period after that. He told the Monitor staffers, “I firmly believe that, once we get by the next six to twelve months, we are going to get our groove back and we are going to be surprised at how well the economy is doing.” Here, lightly edited from Ms Kiefer’s article, are some of the reasons for optimism cited by Mr Zandi (“One Economist Who’s Expecting Clear Skies in Another Year,” 26 th August): America’s consumers, whose spending beyond their ❖ ❖ means contributed heavily to the nation’s financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, have tightened their belts several notches by lowering debt and increasing savings.

GM’s hourly work force in China has grown to 32,000 people at 10 factories, including its joint ventures, while its American operations have shrunk to 52,000 hourly employees from a peak of 468,000 in 1979. Analysts estimate GM is worth $50 billion to $90 billion, with China accounting for about $15 billion of that total. It is a field which GM is assiduously cultivating. In addition to greatly enlarging its engineering and design work force in China, it is building the country’s largest proving grounds. And, also in July, it broke ground on a $250 million advanced technology centre there to research batteries and other alternative energy sources.

The economy

Let the good times return: US households have their balance sheets in order and exports show promise “Just when America is feeling blue again about the economic outlook – a sharp drop in housing sales is the latest reason to sigh – along comes a credible someone to cheer us all up.”

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2010