Another View Of The U.S. Dollar

I’ve written numerous posts about the U.S. Dollar, as I am very concerned about its vulnerability to a substantial decline (one that would take it considerably below 70, as discussed in the July 30 post) and the various ill-effects that would accompany such a decline. Of note, very few people have voiced concerns over the …

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MacroMarkets September 2010 Home Price Expectations Survey

On September 21 MacroMarkets released its September Home Price Expectations Survey results. Here is the Press Release (pdf); the accompanying chart is seen below: As one can see from the above chart, the expectation is that not only has the residential real estate market hit a “bottom” as far as pricing; but that steady yet …

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Updates On Economic Indicators September 2010

Here is an update on various indicators that are supposed to predict and/or depict economic activity.  These indicators have been discussed in previous blog posts: The September Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)(pdf) updated as of September 27, 2010: The Consumer Metrics Institute Contraction Watch: The USA TODAY/IHS Global Insight Economic Outlook Index: An excerpt …

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Disturbing Charts (Update 2), Part II

As a continuation of the last post, here are three other charts that I find disturbing in nature. These charts raise a lot of questions.  Many of these questions I have discussed in the blog, as I believe they are very significant in nature.  Additionally, these charts should highlight the “atypical” nature of our economic …

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Disturbing Charts (Update 2), Part 1

In the next two posts, I am going to display various charts that I find disturbing.   These charts would be disturbing at any point in the economic cycle; that they depict such a tenuous situation now – 15 months after the official (as per the 9-20-10 NBER announcement) June 2009 end of the recession – …

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Total Household Net Worth As A Percent Of GDP 2Q 2010

The following chart is from the CalculatedRisk Blog of September 18, 2010.  It depicts Total Household Net Worth as a Percent of GDP.  The underlying data is from The Federal Reserve Flow of Funds 2Q 2010 report: (click on chart to enlarge image) As seen in the above-referenced CalculatedRisk blog post: “According to the Fed, …

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Real Median Household Income & Poverty Measures

As seen in the recently (September 16) released “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2009” (pdf) from the U.S. Census Bureau, Real Median Household Income was $49,777 in 2009, as seen on page 6.  On page 14, the Poverty Rate is seen at 14.3%, encompassing 43.6 million people. As seen on …

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S&P500 Earnings Forecasts For 2010 And 2011

As many are aware, Standard & Poors publishes earnings estimates on a quarterly basis.  My previous post concerning their estimates can be found at this May 30 post) Currently, their estimates for 2010 add to the following: -From a “bottom up” perspective, operating earnings of $82.87/share -From a “top down” perspective, operating earnings of $78.29/share …

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Thoughts On The Stock Market

The stock market appears to be at an important juncture. As seen in the below chart, by Ron Walker (thechartpatterntrader.com) there is the much-discussed potential Head and Shoulders formation that looms large: (click on chart to enlarge)(chart courtesy of StockCharts.com) As well, the VIX is just above 20.  As I have commented upon previously, over the …

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