The Rise & Fall, or Just the Fall of Factory Orders
Factory orders for the month of December fell as you would expect for the current economy. But the results were even worse than weak estimates out there. They fell 3.9% rather than the 3.4%…
Economy
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Newest first · Page 393A False Bottom For US Housing
News came out that pending home sales moved up 6.3% in December and this caused a lot of conversation about the housing market finding a bottom. The rapidly falling prices of homes and lower…
Non-Manufacturing Horrible, Just Not AS Horrible
The Institute for Supply Management has released its January non-manufacturing data. The services economy isn’t pretty. But it also isn’t as bad as many expected. The ISM showed that the non-manufacturing index was 42.9…
Manufacturing & Construction, Dual Misery But Hints Of Decent News
Covering U.S. and global economic data is not exactly the most optimistic of topics today. The good news is that some of the bad news is not as bad it could be. Today’s additional…
Income & Spending Much Worse Than They Sound
As you would imagine, personal income and spending are coming into negative territory. Incomes are still holding up relatively well, assuming you didn’t get laid off, and spending is continuing to soften. The good…
Typhoid Mary And Finding The Man Who Started The Global Recession
Some communicable diseases can be traced back to what medical researchers call "patient zero", the first carrier of an illness and often someone who has no symptoms. One of the most notorious examples of…
What Happens To GDP Now? It Moves Down More Sharply
The government reported that fourth quarter GDP contracted at an annual rate of 3.8%.That does not approach the 7.8% in the second quarter of 1980 or the 10.4% post-war record set in the first…
GDP Will Drop By More Than 7% In The Second Half
Bloomberg’s poll of economists shows that the experts think US GDP contracted 5.5% in the fourth quarter. A drop of that magnitude would be the greatest since 1982, a year when the recession took…
California Dreaming
Arnold Schwarzenegger may believe that he would be sitting in Barak Obama’s chair in the Oval Office if only he had been born a US citizen. Instead he runs California, which may be the…
Memo To Congress: “Buy Land, They Ain’t Making Any More Of It”
Mark Twain and Will Rogers shared a sentiment. As Twain said, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore”. It would have been interesting to ask each man what he thought about the value of…
Consumer Confidence: The Worst Gets Worser
Consumer confidence hit an all-time low this month. The Conference Board announced that The Index now stands at 37.7, down from 38.6 in December. Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research…
Creating Jobs Trumps Building Bridges (CAT)(PFE)(TXN)(S)(HD)
It seems impossible that a handful of companies could put nearly 80,000 people out of work in a day. Caterpillar (CAT), Pfizer (PFE), Texas Instruments (TXN), Sprint (S), and Home Depot (HD) did most…
Another Opinion That Stimulus Package Is Light On Cash
There is a growing body of opinion that $825 billion plus the $350 billion left in TARP funds will not be enough to pull the economy out of what has become a flat spin.…
As Freddie Mac (FRE) Requests More Cash, The Scope Of The Bailout Gets Much Bigger
The Treasury has provided loan facilities of up to $100 billion for both Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). Freddie Mac is preparing to ask for $35 billion from its pool. It has…
The U.K.’s GDP Shrinks The Most Since 1980
Data released from the U.K. shows the economy there has not been in as bad shape since Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister showing the recession is biting there harder than expected. GDP fell 1.5…