Analysis Topic: Economic Trends Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, November 05, 2009
Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), Are They For You? / Economics / Inflation
On November 4th, Bloomberg ran this piece: U.S. to Sell $81 Billion in Long-Term Debt Next WeekSame old same old, right? Another big treasury auction. Maybe it’s a bit more than that, this time.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
The Feds Have No Faith in Economic Recovery / Economics / Economic Stimulus
The stock market has enjoyed a significant rally since the end of the first quarter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last week that the economy grew at a 3.5% annual rate in the third quarter--a figure they achieved by that claiming inflation was running at only a 0.8% annual rate, despite a sharp drop in the dollar, a spike in commodity prices and record highs for gold.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Why Purchasing Power is More Important than Investment Profits / Economics / Fiat Currency
Growing your money is not the most important element of wealth. In fact, growth should come secondary to the preservation of wealth and purchasing power. Too often do investors get distracted with nominal changes in their personal wealth only to find that the thousands of dollars they have collected is worth considerably less than it was when the initial investment was made.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The Kiss of Debt / Economics / US Debt
Regular readers of this space will recognize this as the third in a series. Irregular readers will not recognize it at all. They will look at us as though we had come from Mars. Earthlings are all convinced that a financial crisis of cosmic proportions befell the planet last fall. Had the authorities failed to act with determination and speed, it would have been the end of the world. In the popular mind the politicians have saved capitalism from its own excesses.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Global Economy / Economics / Economic Theory
[Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Global Economy • By Joseph Schumpeter • New York, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2009 • 208 pages]
The most famous chapters of Joseph Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy have been republished in paperback under the title Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Global Economy.[1] Republishing these core chapters as a standalone text in a time of economic crisis is timely to say the least.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
U.S. Economy Returns to Growth, Media Premature Boasting of Glory / Economics / Economic Recovery
Last week, to the delight of its media cheerleaders, the government announced that economic growth had returned and the recession had ended. But before we start celebrating one quarter of modest growth, we should realize the only force driving this apparent recovery is an enormous increase in government spending. To finance its largesse, the government is now borrowing at a rate that has ordinary citizens and the international community extremely concerned.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
RIP the Private Sector Economy / Economics / Economic Stimulus
Long-time readers of Gains, Pains, & Capital know that one of our central themes is the REAL issues plaguing the US economy and how the powers that be have completely failed to do anything to remedy them.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Leading Economic Indicators Point to Continuing Economy and Stock Market Rally / Economics / Economic Recovery
The Conference Board Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) has a very good track record in forecasting recessions …
It gave advance warnings for each of the past eight U.S. recessions including the double-whammy recession of the early 1980s and the recent one.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Reasons Why Hyperinflation Hasn’t Hit the U.S. Economy…Yet / Economics / HyperInflation
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Everything we know about classic economic theory suggests the U.S. economy should be experiencing Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation right now, thanks to the nearly $2.2 trillion the U.S. Federal Reserve has pumped into the system.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
What's Wrong With U.S. Consumer Confidence? / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
This is an interesting video taken from CNBC's "Squawk On The Street" - The show's host, Mark Haines, is incredulous that last Tuesday's consumer confidence number came in lower than expected. Haines mutters: "What the heck is that all about?" As Haines goes onto explain, housing is higher in most major markets and corporate profits are better. The only thing missing was the next statement out of his mouth, and I will fill in the blanks: "What do people want?"
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Securitization Bankrupted America, So Who Owns It Now? / Economics / US Debt
Everyone is familiar with the chart of US debt that goes up to about 350% of GDP in 2008, this is the same slide except looked at another way [1]:
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
What is Money and How Does One Measure It? / Economics / Fiat Currency
Money is a difficult subject. There is much confusion as to what it is. There is even more confusion as to the best way to measure it. Yet, before we can measure it, we have to define it.
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Better Manufacturing Economic Data Boosts Equity Markets / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Better-than-expected manufacturing data helped to restore the upward momentum in global equity markets yesterday, while at the same time putting the US dollar under renewed downward pressure against the higher yielders. The US ISM manufacturing PMI jumped from 52.6 in September to 55.7 in October – its highest since April 2006. The improvement was led by a sharp rise in the survey’s employment index, from 46.2 to 53.1, raising an upside risk for Friday’s October nonfarm payroll report (see chart).
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
State Budgets, How Bad Will it Get? / Economics / Recession 2008 - 2010
Crises expose the system's irrationalities and wasteful resource allocations. For example, Madoff and his many, smaller imitators reveal the tips of corruption icebergs. More important, the crisis-induced fiscal emergencies looming in most of the 50 states demonstrate several absurdities in our economic system.
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Monday, November 02, 2009
U.S. Third Quarter GDP Too Good to Be True? / Economics / Economic Recovery
This past Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported 3rd Quarter GDP at up 3.5%, surprising the already ebullient consensus. The report I’m sure put a smile on Obama and Bernanke’s faces, not to mention legions of Keynesian economists longing to say I told you so. Hey, even the stock market seemed to like the report, as the Dow Jones Industrials exploded 200 points on the day.
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Monday, November 02, 2009
The Political Economy Postponing Providence / Economics / Economic Stimulus
That’s the game – postponing providence – putting off the inevitable until the next guy’s shift. This is the cache of our political economy, as with all other comparables before it, now maturing into rot. All dominant cultures recede this way of course, dying from within as it were. And the American Empire is no different, with its hollowed out economy, markets, and values. Despite the obvious signs of this decay, most people continue to deny and ignore the inevitable, however acceleration of collapse will continue to challenge such fancy, eventually becoming self-evident to even the less endowed.
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Monday, November 02, 2009
The Government Will Default on Its Debts / Economics / Great Depression II
The governments of every major nation are going to default on their debts. There are two relevant questions: (1) How? (2) When?
Establishments around the world all deny this. They have gained power and wealth by means of the expansion of government. They have justified their success by insisting that the government-business alliance is the only way to establish economic growth and economic security for the masses. This claim rests on a more fundamental claim, namely, that an unhampered free market is destructive of economic stability and will inevitably lead to economic depression.
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Monday, November 02, 2009
Economic Recovery, The Great Hoax of 2009-2010 / Economics / Economic Recovery
Before he died, Dad warned me of false profits … and fake promises.
“Beware,” he said, “of shaky gains hyped up by Wall Street.
“Watch out,” he insisted, “for unsustainable economic recoveries trumpeted by Washington.
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Monday, November 02, 2009
Global Economy is Firing on All Cylinders / Economics / Economic Recovery
Jon D. Markman writes: What a difference 12 months can make.
Just one year after every national economy on earth was in deep trouble, a powerful global rebound is underway. In fact, the global upswing is a lot stronger than most investors realize.
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Monday, November 02, 2009
Is Debt-Deflation Economic Depression Just Beginning? / Economics / Great Depression II
Last Thursday I received an email from David Meier, Associate Advisor at the MotleyFool concerning Debt-Deflation.
David asked if I had any comments on his article Debt-deflation: Just the beginning? Here is a partial listing: