Economics/Geekonomics

One Third Of Americans Have Debt In Collections

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OK Econogeeks and non-econogeeks, this is interesting news.  One third of us have debt in collections, but the details on debt are fascinating and relevant to those of us who watch markets as well as careerists.

  • Consumer Debt isn’t easily distributed.
  • Mortgage debt is a huge part of debt – and isn’t evenly distributed.
  • Non-mortgage debt IS more evenly distributed.
  • Debt can correlate with income – but collection debt is also correlated with lower income.

Lots of useful information here!

 

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Chinese Companies And Their Huge Debt?

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Quartz notes it’s pretty bloody impressive.  It also seems to be the result of a kind of weird round robin in shadow banking to keep propping them up – shades of Japanese Zombification.

China’s a big economic driver.  We will feel this when it implodes – though my theory is the Chinese government is going to try to kick them into new industries (possibly green power) to try and keep things going.

So keep an eye on this.  What do you thinks up with China’s economy, and how far will the impact go if it slows down?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

A Bit Of Geekonomics: Oil Prices Aren’t Going Down

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Quartz is there on why they won’t be going down.

A lot – but not all – is unrest and political (with China’s hoarding).  What I find intriguing is the idea this is the end of the Petro-state (which Canada occasionally flirts with being, warning to my Canadian friends).  If one things of it, a petrostate is basically reliant on one resource, and the inherent vulnerabilities within and created by that reliance and its limits.  You can’t eat oil after all.

I’ve seen some talk of an oil shock in 2015.  Seems more and more likely.  There could be some nasty economic issues.

However this probably has more repercussions for solar and green tech, if only because people like to bandwagon-jump.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.