Largest Employers

Crain’s recently came out with their list of the largest Chicago-area employers.  What I found notable was that the top 5 employers are various government entities (federal, state and local). Of course, this situation is not unique to the Chicago area.  Many states have a large percentage of their total jobs as government jobs. While …

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America’s Economic Future – A Comment

Those familiar with this blog know that I believe (based off of my overall analysis) that our current purported economic recovery is not sustainable. As I have indicated in previous writings, we as a nation need to be more “strategic” in nature if we are to attain true Sustainable Prosperity. One critical question that we …

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The US Dollar

On January 13 I wrote the following blog post concerning the overall situation of the US Dollar: https://www.economicgreenfield.com/2010/01/13/the-us-dollar-a-few-comments/ In that post, I wrote that there appeared to be few if any signs that a severe US Dollar decline was impending. However, the situation has changed.  When viewed from a technical analysis perspective, US Dollar seems …

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Updates On Economic Indicators

Here are some indicators that are supposed to predict and/or depict economic activity.  These indicators have been discussed in previous blog posts: The USA TODAY/IHS Global Insight Economic Outlook Index: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/economic-outlook.htm an excerpt dated 2/24: “The February update of the USA TODAY/IHS Global Insight Economic Outlook Index shows real GDP growth, at a six-month annualized …

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The March Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey

I found the March Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey contained three sets of interesting material. First, it contained the survey results and comments of economists with regard to what impact interventions (The Federal Reserve’s actions as well as that of the ARRA) have played in “rescuing the U.S. economy from the financial crisis.” Second, …

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Notable S&P500 Price Action

The climb in the S&P500 has been notable over the last few sessions.  According to SentimenTrader.com, through yesterday, “Yet another up day pushed the S&P 500 futures to its 10th straight gain, only the second time since their inception (01/15/87 was the other).” Here is a chart of the S&P500 price action of the last …

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“New Financial Conditions Index”

I ran across the following paper titled “Financial Conditions Indexes: A Fresh Look after the Financial Crisis” (pdf) dated February 22, 2010. This paper discusses and explains this new attempt to create a “financial conditions index” that will accurately predict economic activity. From the abstract: “As of the end of 2009, our FCI showed financial …

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The “Double-Dip” Scenario

Lately there have been an increasing number of people citing the possibility of a “double-dip” recession.  Much of this scenario is predicated upon the belief that as government stimulus spending fades, so too will economic activity. This March 5 article from CNBC.com summarizes some of the opinions regarding the double-dip reasoning and possibilities. I find …

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Another Ponzi Scheme

I have been intermittently commenting upon the growing number of investment frauds being uncovered.   Those posts can be found under the “investment frauds” tag. Here is yet another alleged Ponzi scheme as seen in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal article titled “SEC Charges Couple in Florida Ponzi Scheme.” As seen in the article, this alleged scheme …

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