Weekly Economic and Market Review
Some not as bad as expected news on the real estate markets, some pretty damn good earnings, a Bernanke assurance that he remains vigilant at the controls of the printing press and the release of the results of the European bank stress tests were enough to move the US stock market higher by 3.5% last .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The economic reports last week continued the trend of reports showing a drop off in growth. Worse actually since several of last week’s reports were just plain bad and indicated outright contraction rather than just a reduction in growth. The market held up fairly well until Friday as good earnings offset bad data, but by .. read more
The Euro and the Gold Standard
The Pragmatic Capitalist has a post about how the Euro is similar to the gold standard in practice. First he quotes this story from Edward Chancellor at GMO: “The euro has also failed to meet the expectations of its exponents. Like the gold standard, it lacks a self-equilibrating mechanism. Instead, countries with chronic trade deficits, .. read more
Public Opposes Drilling Ban
Considering the consensus view that the Democrats are due to lose a bunch of seats in the mid-term elections you’d think the Obama administration would be trying to do something – hell, anything – that the public supports. Alas, no (via Bloomberg): Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s ban on deepwater oil drilling in response .. read more
Would More Monetary Stimulus Be Effective?
Paul Krugman, having failed at getting Congress to spend more, has now shifted his more stimulus rhetoric to Ben Bernanke and the Fed: But here we are, visibly sliding toward deflation — and the Fed is standing pat. What should it be doing? Conventional monetary policy, in which the Fed drives down short-term interest rates .. read more
Good News: Small Investors are Giving Up on Stocks
From the WSJ comes this story about small (individual) investors giving up completely on stocks: Many individual investors were tiptoeing back into stocks in the spring. Now, they’re running for cover again. Karen and Roger Potyk, a comfortably retired couple in San Antonio, Tex., had clung to some stock mutual funds despite their anxiety following .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The gloom lifted last week long enough for the stock market to stage an impressive 5% sprint higher even in the absence of significant positive economic news. As usual the data was mixed with some good stuff and some not so good stuff indicating that basically nothing has changed. The economy is slowing – has .. read more
