Weekly Economic and Market Review
It’s not exactly the Newsweek indicator but anyone with contrarian instincts had to note the cover story of Barron’s this weekend, Bears Beware!, with at least a modicum of concern. The story concerns the magazine’s recent Big Money Poll survey of money managers who it turns out are – surprise! – bullish on stocks. I’m .. 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
Weekly Economic and Market Review
If not for the turmoil of Greek bailouts and computer glitch induced stock market bunge jumps the economic reports last week would have been big news. The stock market may or may not be telling us something about future economic activity but it can’t be denied that current activity continues to accelerate to the upside. Led .. read more
Disgusted
From the Washington Post: The House ethics committee ruled Friday that seven lawmakers who steered hundreds of millions of dollars in largely no-bid contracts to clients of a lobbying firm had not violated any rules or laws by also collecting large campaign donations from those contractors. In a 305-page report, the ethics committee declared that .. read more
Weekly Economic Review
The economic data released this week continues the pattern we’ve seen for months. Manufacturing is leading the recovery while consumption continues to lag. This pattern is actually quite normal for recovery from recession and is consistent with economic theory. The mainstream view that the economy can’t recover without a rise in consumption is exactly backwards. This recession .. read more
