America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
Here are some indicators that are supposed to predict and/or depict economic activity. These indicators have been discussed in previous blog posts: The ECRI WLI (Weekly Leading Index) was at 131.5 for the week ended January 1. From the story in the link below: “‘With the WLI climbing to a one-and-a-half-year high, the U.S. economy …
Given the incredibly outsized intervention efforts in the residential real estate market, I think it is important to examine some dynamics of the real estate bubble. Here is a chart from the 12/15/09 Contrary Investor commentary that I believe is interesting, as it depicts some underlying residential real estate fundamentals. It shows the equity and mortgage …
Here is a Wall Street Journal editorial on the December 24 developments at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This editorial provides some new perspectives on the matter: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704152804574628350980043082.html My original comments on these developments was on December 28. I feel it is critically important to understand the extent of intervention as it pertains to the housing market. Fannie …
I would like to make a couple of comments regarding the speech Ben Bernanke gave on January 3. It was titled “Monetary Policy and The Housing Bubble.” (pdf) I could make a significant amount of comments regarding this speech, as I partly or fully disagree with many of the points presented. I will, however, briefly comment …
Occasionally I have written about investment frauds. My last post on this topic was on November 27 and is found here: https://www.economicgreenfield.com/2009/11/27/investment-frauds/ Here is a story from December 28 titled “Ponzi collapses nearly quadrupled in ’09”: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-Ponzi-collapses-nearly-apf-898755198.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode While I find this article’s statistics to be of interest, I do not necessarily agree with some of its …
Here is a link to the latest (December 29) press release of The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence readings: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/ConsumerConfidence.cfm I found the large difference between the Expectations Index and Present Situation Index to be notable. The Expectations Index, at 75.6, was the highest in two years. However, the Present Situation Index fell to 18.8 and remains at a 26-year …