“Is America In Decline?”

I found this exchange on last Sunday’s (May 9) “60 Minutes” to be interesting.  It is between Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” and Hillary Clinton.  For now I will simply post the exchange, and may comment upon it later: Pelley:  “Larry Summers, the president’s economic advisor, asked this question: ‘How long can the world’s biggest …

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Impact Of Government Stimulus On GDP

John B. Taylor had a blog post on May 1, 2010 that discussed the impact of government stimulus on GDP.  The post is titled “Latest Data Continue to Show Little Impact of Government Stimulus on GDP.” _____ One of the reasons that I write extensively about interventions, which includes stimulus programs,  is that I believe …

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The Loss Of Manufacturing In The United States

The following excerpt is from the Global Economics section of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, May 10-May 16 2010: “Industrial America’s plight can be encapsulated in a few incredible numbers.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. employment in manufacturing over the past six months has been the lowest since March 1941, before the U.S. entered World …

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Thoughts On The May 6 Stock Market Plunge

I find last Thursday’s stock market plunge to be highly notable on several fronts.  The temptation is to treat the event as a “fluke” or “one off” event that is inconsequential; it is especially tempting to do so when most of the damage was quickly reversed and, as of this writing, stock indices are again …

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Rising Costs And Inflation

“And long before this recession hit — for a decade — middle-class families had already been expensing — experiencing a sense of declining economic security.  Their paychecks were flat-lining even though the cost of everything from groceries to college educations to health care were all going up.” President Obama, during an April 2, 2010 speech …

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1Q 2010 Corporate Revenues

For the last few quarters, I have been commenting upon the general lack of revenue growth in corporate results.  I have focused on a variety of diversified manufacturers and distributors, all of them well-respected S&P500 firms.    My last comment on this issue was on January 29. For the recently released 1Q2010 financial results, it …

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The S&P500 And Chinese Stock Market

Over the last few months a notable divergence has occurred between the U.S. and Chinese stock markets. Two charts illustrate this divergence.  The first shows the S&P500 vs. the Shanghai Composite on a daily basis: chart courtesy of StockCharts.com The second chart shows a chart of FXI, the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index.  This chart …

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More Ponzi Schemes

The Wall Street Journal has recently had two more articles concerning alleged Ponzi schemes. The first is titled “Our Ponzi Nation: Florida Entrepreneur Hit With Charges.” The second is titled “Alleged Ponzi In Colorado Has Shades of Madoff Affair.” Also, there was an interesting story from April 17 titled “Report Says SEC Missed Many Shots …

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