January has come and gone with rapid pace and world markets have seen downturns and US recession is being talked about in nearly every media article. Unless you have studied Macroeconomics you may not know how a recession is defined quantitatively.

A recession is  defined as negative real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for two successive quarters.

Now that we have that out of the way with lets get onto our list of weekend reading. Time to sit back grab a cup of coffee and look through some articles that are of interest to all of the finance geeks out there. This weeks list will be a bit longer then usual.

Weekend Reading Articles Read the full story

Popularity: 2% [?]

Well the first week of the New Year drawing to an end it is time for some light weekend reading. The start of the year has seen oil crack the US$100 mark if but briefly. Nearly every media outlet in Australia jumped on the band wagon spreading fear that the price increase for the February delivery light sweet crude contracts would continue unabated. Here are some of the headlines:

“Oil price surge signals financial pain”

“Fears petrol could hit $1.50 [per litre in Australia]”

“Oil price hike sign of things to come”

“Asian shares down after oil hits $100″

“Record oil price deepens US woes”

It is amazing the psychological effect the passing of the US$100 mark has had, it will be interesting to see if all the hype is warranted. The chart below shows the passing of the US$100 mark for the February delivery light sweet crude contracts. Read the full story

Popularity: 20% [?]