More Observations On The Economy, And None Of Them Good
Going back a year it would have been very hard to find more than a handful of economists who believe that a global recession would potentially drive down GDPs in most of the world’s…
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The minutes from the December FOMC meeting where rates were essentially taken to zero have now been released. What is interesting is that there is very little expected hope for anything great in 2009. …
German Billionaire Merckle Takes His Life Amidst Financial Crisis
Another prominent figure has reportedly taken his life amidst the turmoil of the financial markets. In this case, it appears that 74 year-old German billionaire Adolf Merckle has committed suicide. German newspaper Die Welt…
Does Saving Money Kill The Economy?
Many economists think that when consumers save money instead of spending it, a recession gets deeper. People start to stick money into mattresses for safe keeping in case they get fired. They may use…
A Government Safety Net For The Unemployed: A Tax Cut And 10% Jobless Rate
Unrelated and often random comments from the incoming Congress and administration are beginning to create a tapestry of remarkable pessimism and diminished hope. No one believes now that the economy can be fixed fairly…
More Bad New On Jobless Claims
Consumer confidence is at a multi-year low. Housing prices are off 18% compared to a year ago. To complete the trifecta jobless claims are at a 26-year high. First-time applications for state unemployment benefits…
Consumer Confidence Goes Fall Into The Inferno’s Ninth Circle
The Ninth Circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. The home of traitors to their own kind. The Conference Board today reported that consumer confidence hit 38 for the month of December, the lowest level…
Consumer Confidence Is The Opposite Of Consumer Spending
The Wall Street Journal makes the point that consumer confidence does not mean much if it does not go hand-in-hand with consumer spending. As the paper reports "Gasoline is still getting cheaper, retailers and…
Looking To “The Land Of The Rising Sun” For US Economic Future (SNE)(TM)
The Japanese stock market has closed down about 42% for the year. The US markets may do a little better than that, off by 38% or so. For people with money in the market,…
The Fed Cannot Create Economic Growth
John Tamny RealClearMarkets As the year 1970 drew to a close, some of President Richard Nixon’s top economic advisors were frantically searching for ways to grow the economy ahead of the ’72 elections. Herbert…
Global Economy Could Shrink In 2009, First Contraction Since 1947
The global economy has not contracted since 1947. But, an HSBC economist believes that it will happen again in 2009. According to The London Telegraph, Stephen King, HSBC’s chief economist writes "On the basis…
Economic Numbers & Holiday Work Pains
It was hard to get excited about a half-day of the markets already, and the poor economic data only exacerbated that feeling. Durable goods coming in "less-bad" than expected initially helped the markets, but…
Durables Numbers Look Better Than Expected
Orders for U.S.-made durable goods fell 1% in November, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday, as orders for transportation goods fell 7.4%. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected an overall decline of 3%. Excluding transportation,…
Jobless Claims Job Up: More Deep Recession Evidence
The U.S. labor market has gotten worse in the last month, with unemployment hitting the worst levels since 1982, the Labor Department said. First-time applications for state unemployment benefits jumped by 30,000 to a…
Tell Us Something We Don’t Know: Consumers Deeper In Debt
From the "not news" file comes a report from credit rating firm, Equifax, that consumers are falling more deeply into debt. According to Reuters, Dann Adams, president of U.S. Information Systems for Equifax Inc,…