
October 14, 2011 by Elliot · 2 Comments
The Friday File: Baseball's 3 teams with the highest payrolls are watching the playoffs on TV. The Yankees ($202.6 million) were upset by the Detroit Tigers ($105.7 million), while the Philadelphia Phillies ($172.9 million) were upset by the St Louis Cardinals ($105.4 million). The Boston Red Sox … [Read More...]

October 12, 2011 by Elliot · Leave a Comment
The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to Tom Sargent at NYU and Chris Sims at Princeton. Sargent's work has helped us understand the impact of permanent changes in economic policy. Sim's research has helped us measure the effect of temporary changes, or shocks, on the economy. Sims said he was … [Read More...]

August 5, 2011 by Elliot · Leave a Comment
The stock market has fallen by about 10% in the last two weeks, destroying about $2 trillion of wealth. If the market does not rebound quickly this will cut GDP by about $70 billion; half a percent. Here's why. Suppose you just lost $10,000 due to the market decline, will you cut your annual … [Read More...]

August 2, 2011 by Elliot · Leave a Comment
The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index fell 4.4 points to 50.9% in July, the worst reading since 7/10; barely above the 50% mark signaling growth. Since 4/11 the ISM has fallen 9.5 points; the worst 3-mth skid since 9/08-11/08 when Lehman failed. Other parts of the ISM like new … [Read More...]

July 28, 2011 by Elliot · Leave a Comment
Federal budgeting is nutty because the federal budget assumes every item in the budget automatically rises annually regardless of economic conditions by somewhere between 3% and 10%. Based on this insanity if we simply freeze spending at the current level and do it for a decade, the Congressional … [Read More...]