Has production become more fragmented? International vs domestic perspectives

There are two big emerging economic stories coming out of the U.S. There's the American energy boom, which will be driven by drillers tapping American shale. And there's the American manufacturing renaissance, which is supposed to be driven by rising overseas labor costs and falling domestic energy costs (thanks to the energy boom). But so far, there's little evidence to suggest the manufacturing renaissance is underway.

UK’s industry with an encouraging start in 2013. BlackBerry introduced its new operating system. Japan’s manufacturing sector dropped below 10 million for a first time in 50 years. Car maker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) announced 10.70% growth to 49,503 cars in January 2013.  

Michael Johnston submits:In 2010 the ETF industry stumbled coming out of the gate, as more than $17 billion flowed out of exchange-traded products in the first month of the year. This year’s January figures showed an opposite result, as the latest data released by the National Stock Exchange shows that U.S.-listed ETPs took in more than $10 billion last month.

Article written by Prieur du Plessis, editor of the Investment Postcards from Cape Town blog.When reporting on the unfolding of the credit crisis I often referred to the Barron’s Confidence Index. This Index is calculated by dividing the average yield on high-grade bonds by the average yield on intermediate-grade bonds.

Rahul Anand, Saurabh Mishra, Nikola Spatafora, 3 June 2012Recent research has argues that what a country produces and exports matters for growth. This column presents a new dataset on export sophistication and reveals that in many countries the importance of modern services, and the sophistication of manufactured and service exports, has increased over time.