Nassim Taleb Quote On Bernanke

In the November 22 – November 28 Bloomberg BusinessWeek, p23, Nassim Taleb is quoted as saying the following, which I find interesting: “Bernanke is someone who talks about returns without talking about risk.  It’s identical to a pilot who talks about speed but not about safety.  The measures he is using may work, but should …

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George W. Bush / Larry Kudlow Interview November 2010

Last Monday, CNBC aired a recent interview (with a transcript) of former President George W. Bush by Larry Kudlow.  The interview focused on George W. Bush’s recently published book (“Decision Points”) and the Financial Crisis of 2008-2009. I found various comments by George W. Bush to be interesting.  In many instances I disagree with what …

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“The Billion Prices Project” – Comments

I am finding “The Billion Prices Project” to be valuable. From the homepage, “The Billion Prices Project is an academic initiative that collects prices from hundreds of online retailers around the world on a daily basis to conduct economic research.” Two of the most prominent benefits I see from the data include that data is …

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Updates On Economic Indicators November 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 November Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)(pdf) updated as of November 22, 2010: – The Consumer Metrics Institute Contraction Watch: – The USA TODAY/IHS Global Insight Economic Outlook Index: …

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Companies Fastest To $1 Billion In Sales

In Friday’s post, I mentioned consumers’ migration to lower-priced stores. This continual consumer migration to lower-priced sources can be seen in a variety of statistics.  One statistic that I find particularly interesting is contained in a Forbes story of September 3, 2010 titled “The Next Web Phenom.” At the end of the story it states …

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Walmart’s Q32011 Results – Comments

I found two especially notable items in Walmart’s Q3 conference call transcript (pdf).  I view Walmart’s results as particularly noteworthy given their retail prominence and focus on low prices.  I previously commented upon their results in the May 20 post. First, from page 13, “Comp store sales for the 13-week period, which ended October 29, …

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Gallup Economic Surveys – Comments

Gallup has a variety of economic surveys that I find interesting. Here are charts of three that I find especially noteworthy: – Americans’ Standard of Living Optimism: (reported November 5, 2010) – U.S. Economic Confidence (reported November 9, 2010) – U.S. Consumer Spending (reported November 11, 2010) – At each link, details of each survey …

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Philadelphia Fed – 4th Quarter 2010 Survey Of Professional Forecasters

The Philadelphia Fed Fourth Quarter 2010 Survey of Professional Forecasters was released on November 15.  This survey is somewhat unique in various regards, such as it incorporates a longer time frame for various measures. The survey shows, among many measures, the following expectations, which are close to other economic survey results featured on this blog: …

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The November 2010 Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey

The November Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Survey was published November 15, 2010. I found a couple of items to be especially interesting. First, regarding the impact of QE2:  “The economic impact of the Fed’s moves is likely to be modest, the forecasters said. They estimate growth in GDP will rise by 0.2 percentage points …

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Monetary Policy And The U.S. Dollar

As those familiar with this blog know, I am very concerned about the vulnerability of the U.S. Dollar to a substantial decline.  I have written extensively about this situation. On November 12, Macroeconomic Advisers had a blog post from Larry Meyer that discussed monetary policy (focused on QE2) and the U.S. Dollar.  While I don’t …

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