Weekly Economic and Market Review
I spend a lot of time reading the economic tea leaves. Given my well known distrust of politicians and government, it is a bit of ironic that I spend so much time poring over the details of government produced reports but there really is little choice. I also look at privately produced reports such as .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
See if you can guess what economy produced the following year over year changes: GDP growth rate +56% Personal Income +4.35% Savings Rate +23.91% Fixed Investment +5.37% Steel Output +10.32% Business Sales +8.86% Durable Goods Sales +12.2% Factory Shipments +7.21% Retail Store Sales +7.31% Factory Orders +17.18% Exports +12.58% You wouldn’t know it from all .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The market got exactly what it expected last week and the result was another leg higher in a rally built on two dubious assumptions: gridlock is good and the Fed can fix what ails the economy. The mid term elections delivered control of the House of Representatives to John Boehner and the Republicans while the .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
It was a light week for economic data and what we did get served more to confuse than clarify. Market action seems to indicate that the data at this point is basically irrelevant anyway as all the market’s attention is focused firmly on the potential actions of the Federal Reserve. There appears to be a .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
So maybe the economy isn’t headed over another cliff after all? Last week’s economic data wasn’t great but it was enough to rally the market 3.5% just because it wasn’t as awful as expected. I haven’t been particularly worried about the prospect for a double dip into recession land because I’m an eternal optimist – .. read more
Fixing the Trade Deficit
The Economist asks: Should Government take any steps to boost exports? The overwhelming answer of the economists who were asked? No, the government should find ways to encourage savings. What the politicians would have us believe is that the Chinese are taking advantage of Americans by keeping their currency cheap. That’s the same argument they .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The economic data last week continued to show strength but there were hints of a softening in a few reports which the bears seized on to make their case. For now, I don’t think the data supports the idea of a double dip recession but there are plenty of people who want to believe it so .. 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
