Month: March 2011
Newspaper advertising in the US has sunk to a 25 year low as readership migrates to the web where advertising is far cheaper. Advertisers spent $25.8 billion on newspaper and digital editions in 2010; the lowest since 1985. And, after…
Impact of disaster in Japan on US is tiny: Oil prices drop by $1.50 as Japan shuts down 6 refineries; 31% of its capacity. Yen rises slightly as insurers convert foreign holdings into Yen to pay for rebuilding. Japanese gov’t…
The ratio of Irish debt/GDP is now 100% and approaching an unsustainable 120%. Now each 1% point reduction in the interest rate the Irish pay the European Central Bank for their bailout loan cuts their long term debt load by…
Unions are a way for suppliers of a particular service (firemen, policemen, teachers) to legally collude with respect to wages, vacations, holidays, pensions, healthcare and so on. It would be akin to cell phone companies agreeing to fix prices, service…
Borrowing costs for Portugal, Ireland and Greece have hit highs amid concern that Europe will not take action to dispel fears of sovereign defaults. Long term rates for Spain came close to setting a record and Italy’s cost rose above…
The key reason investors believe the economy is improving is because the surveys; the ISMs, consumer confidence and regional Fed polls of manufacturing sentiment have been strong. Auto and chain store sales were also decent. But other data reports like…
192K jobs in Feb! But wait. Due to storms in Jan let’s avg out job growth in Jan and Feb. That gets us about 125K per month; not much better than in Q4 ’10. So we have positive job growth…
Is deflation all that bad? It’s considered bad in part because consumers postpone purchases today to get a better deal tomorrow, weakening demand. Is this true for food, gas, haircuts and electricity? NOT! And how about consumer electronics? The laptop/ipod/hard…
We saw auto sales shoot up 6.7% to 13.4 million units (at an annual rate), the best level since August ‘09, and we also saw the ISM inch higher to 61.4 from 60.8 with the “internals” of the report just…
Manufacturing data in the U.S. continues to improve. The Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped from 68.8 in Jan to 71.2 in Feb — best since July ‘88. Production, orders, inventories, backlogs all rose — the exception; employment. The New…
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