Month: March 2011
We are in a very different political environment in 2 key respects than during the shutdown of ’96. 1st in ’96 there was no Internet, blogosphere or Fox News and talk radio was in it infancy. Thus the liberal inclined…
Read MoreWe know the Bernanke lead Fed is willing to be extremely aggressive. But as we saw in 2010 the hurdle is high for more Quantitative Easing. We need evidence of A) a double-dip B) a stock market correction of at…
Read MoreThe good: Consumer spending rose in Feb for an 8th consecutive month, spending rose 0.7% in February after a 0.3% increase in January. The Bad: Adjusted for inflation, consumer spending was up just 0.3% last month after being flat in…
Read MoreOil companies produce less gas in the spring to make it more costly. NOT! Prices do rise in spring, but is because there is less cheap butane in it. Butane boils at low teperatures. In winter that is not a…
Read MoreSales for US durable goods fell 0.9% in Feb. Economists were looking for a rise of 1.5%. Oh well! Orders have declined in 4 of the past 5 months. Core capital goods (excludes volatile defense and transportation) declined 1.3% on…
Read MoreIn Feb there was no rise in average weekly wages, but there was a 0.5% inflation in consumer prices meaning that real incomes fell by 0.5%. They have now fallen in 5 of the last 6 months during with time…
Read MoreLatest job data for Jan showed job openings dropped 161K after a 45K decline in Dec and are at lowest level since 7/09. New hires also fell 193K and are down in 6 of last 7 months. The fact layoffs…
Read MoreCan markets correctly price outsized risk? Given 9/11, Katrina, the financial collapse of ’08, the BP oil spill, the turmoil in the Arab world and the quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, there are huge threats to stability. Unfortunately,…
Read MoreAT&T to buy T-mobile USA for $39bn from Deutsche Telekom creating the 2nd largest wireless carrier with 120m subscribers. These giant mergers occur in mature industries as the only way to get new customers is to buy them & the…
Read MoreThere is a growing body of economic research being devoted to measuring happiness. And, to briefly summarize, what researchers have found is that money isn’t the key. What really gives people meaning and happiness is a combination of 4 things:…
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