The Effect of Government on the Economy of a Country

I believe government is an important institution to keep order in a society of a country. It should focus mainly on the country's defense and should obey the constitution of the country. By no means it should involve with the economy of a country as the government is always less efficient as free market capitalism. Governments should be as small as possible, in order to let the private economy flourish. Today, governments are standing in the way of free market capitalism through taxation, regulations and counterproductive measures. What governments don't know are the unintended consequences they cause. I'm sure that governments are the root cause of all the problems in Europe and soon in the United States.

In this article I want to give an overview of several countries and their government involvement. The best measure to rate government involvement would be the amount of spending as a percentage of the country's GDP. We will discuss the effects of a big government on the country's economy and give advice to investors on how to act on this knowledge. We will see that there is a direct correlation between government size and unemployment/debt/tax rate.

To read the article go to: The size of governments and the effect on their economies.

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Copper Inventories Rising

With the China PMI indicating a contraction in GDP growth (of which I talked about HERE), another sign has emerged of China slowing down.

The LME Copper Warehouse Stocks Level has started a trend change and is actually rising (Chart 1). This build in inventories is probably indicating a slowing down the economy. A part of this build is due to Chinese markets staying shut for a public holiday on Wednesday 4 April 2012: Qing Ming Festival (清明节). Shanghai reopened on Thursday.

To see my analysis on this trend change go to Copper Demand and the Importance of China.

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