Month: June 2011

A Rise in Earnings?

06/15/2011

In the early ’90s Pfizer patented sildenafil to treat various heart-related conditions. That patent expires in ’12. During clinical trials men taking sildenafil experienced spontaneous erections. This led Pfizer to develop the same drug (Viagra) for ED. Pfizer then applied…

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Peak GDP Growth; Dismal!

06/14/2011

On a 4-quarter trailing basis real GDP growth peaked at 3.2% in Q3 of last year, declined to 2.8% in Q4 and now stands at just 2.3% If that Q3 peak of 3.2% holds, it will be the be the…

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Debt Ceiling Decisions

06/13/2011

The Congress will raise the debt ceiling! There have been 6 Biden Summit meetings (hosted by VP Biden and attended by 3 key players from each party) in the past 6 weeks but 3 are scheduled for this week, the…

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Shift to Capital Goods

06/10/2011

According to the Dept. of Comm. since the recovery began business spending on employees has increased 2%, while spending on equipment and software (E&S) has risen 26%. A spending rebound that divergent has only occurred once–after the ’82 recession. This…

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Triple Crown Drought

06/09/2011

The Triple Crown drought has reached 33 years since Seattle Slew won in ’78 (Secretariat in ’73). Why the dearth? The ’85 tax law changes proved dramatic. Owners no longer could write off racing expenses unless they were involved on…

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Stupid Senator Shelby

06/08/2011

In April ’10 Obama nominated MIT economist Peter Diamond, to be a Fed governor. Sen Shelby questioned his experience. Moreover, he got all the R’s on the Sen Banking Comm. to vote against confirmation. In Oct ’10 Diamond won the…

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Come Fly Away

06/07/2011

Ever wonder why airfare from Pittsburgh (Pitt) to Las Vegas (LV) is less than from LV to Pitt? If you fly from Pitt to LV you are going on vacation and you have lots of choices. But if you are…

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Well Chilled Champagne?

06/06/2011

A Singaporean investor set a new record for the world’s most expensive champagne by paying $44,000 for a bottle of 1841 Veuve Cliquot. It was salvaged from a shipwreck 165 feet deep off the Aland Islands located between Sweden and…

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No Jobs, Weak Productivity

06/03/2011

Jobs, where are they? The Labor Dept. employment tally came in at 54K well off the 232K in April and 194K in March. While our economy may be entering another “soft patch” the thing is you don’t get 2 of…

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Economy is Not Fun

06/02/2011

The Institute of Supply Management’s Manufacturing Activity Index fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4. This shows the pace of manufacturing activity moderating since the index reached a 7 year high of 61.2 in March. Add to it a decline…

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