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Common knowledge is that the American consumer is now doing what he or she must do to confront life in the “New Normal” – that is, paying down debt diligently. This perception, though, appears to be a bit “overrated” – especially if you look at things like, well, the actual data. The WSJ reports that […]
There are so many economic indicators being published weekly that it’s very easy to get distracted and lost. Which of them really matter? Which are actual leading indicators – and which are trailing ones, reporting old news from six months ago? Here’s a great column by Forbes columnist Bert Dohmen, who makes the case that […]
Former hedge fund manager Andy Kessler, one of our favorites, believes that we are 3 years into a 7+ year consumer deleveraging cycle. Andy writes: The blue is actual through the first quarter of 2010. The red is trendline and the transparent blue box is my estimate for household debt to get back to trendline. […]
Our pal Brian Hunt has been doing an excellent job of finding favorite economic indicators that are surprisingly breaking out, rather than down. Last week, Brian noted that Dr. Copper was surging, despite the overall gloomy economic outlook: While you can barely watch a minute of financial television without hearing about horrid unemployment numbers, gloomy […]
The FDIC released its Quarterly Banking Profile for the 2nd quarter of 2010 today, and listed 829 banks as “problem” banks, up from 775 in Q1. (Full Story at Calculated Risk). And here’s a nice chart put together by the Calculated Risk guys as well, showing the ebb and flow of problem banks since 1990. […]
Today, Karl Rove penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal blasting Barack Obama for “one of the all-time presidential PR disasters” in describing Obama’s economic summer 2010 policies. Rove cited Obama’s falling approval rating – from 42% in May, to 35% in August as evidence of his ineptness. Now I’m not exactly a fan […]
This is a pretty cool and illuminating comparison of the statements issued by the FOMC after their last 2 meetings. See for yourself as the realization and terror that the economy is heading back down the toilet strikes the hearts of committee members! Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz and Andrew H. Also see: Fed, Bernanke […]
Last week we issued a Renter’s Manifesto of sorts, which took a look at the virtues of renting (versus buying). One of the items we touched – demographic trends here in the US, which are not as favorable to housing as they’ve been over the past 50 or so years. On that thread, Symmetry Capital […]
If your personal income is stagnant, or even declining, you’re not alone in the US. Personal income declined 1.8% year-over-year in 2009 according to data released from the Commerce Department. The Wall Street Journal reports: Income declined in 223 metro areas last year, increased in 134 and was unchanged in nine regions. Even though prices […]
Today’s unemployment report was a big disappointment – and I’m not quite sure why to be honest, because I don’t see any noticeable private sector hiring. Nevertheless, the market was spooked as stocks moved sharply down early in the trading day, though they managed to pare back much of their losses later in the session. […]
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