U-3 And U-6 Unemployment Rate Long-Term Reference Charts As Of May 4, 2012

Shortly after each monthly employment report I have been posting a continual series titled “3 Critical Unemployment Charts.” Of course, there are many other employment charts that can be displayed as well. For reference purposes, below are the U-3 and U-6 Unemployment Rate charts from a long-term historical perspective.  Both charts are from the St. …

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3 Critical Unemployment Charts – May 2012

As I have commented previously, as in the October 6, 2009 post (“A Note About Unemployment Statistics”), in my opinion the official methodologies used to measure the various job loss and unemployment statistics do not provide an accurate depiction; they serve to understate the severity of unemployment. However, even if one chooses to look at the …

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St. Louis Financial Stress Index – May 3, 2012 Update

On March 28, 2011 I wrote a post (“The STLFSI“) about the  STLFSI (St. Louis Fed’s Financial Stress Index) which is supposed to measure stress in the financial system.  For reference purposes, the most recent chart is seen below.  This chart was last updated on May 3, incorporating data from 12-31-93 to 4-27-12 on a …

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Building Financial Danger – May 2, 2012 Update

On October 17, 2011 I wrote a post titled “Danger Signs In The Stock Market, Financial System And Economy.”  This post is a brief 11th update to that post. My overall analysis indicates a continuing elevated and growing level of danger which contains  many worldwide and U.S.-specific “stresses” of a very complex nature. I have written numerous …

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May 1 Gallup Poll Results On Economic Confidence – Notable Excerpts

On May 1, Gallup released the poll results titled “U.S. Economic Confidence Steady in April at Four-Year High.”  The subtitle is “Economic optimism continues to outstrip perceptions of current conditions.” Three of the most notable excerpts: Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index averaged -20 in April, identical to confidence in March and slightly improved over -22 in February …

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U.S. Dollar Decline – May 1, 2012 Update

U.S. Dollar weakness is a foremost concern of mine.  As such, I have extensively written about it.  I am very concerned that the actions being taken to “improve” our economic situation will dramatically weaken the Dollar.  Should the Dollar substantially decline from here, as I expect, the negative consequences will far outweigh any benefits.  The negative impact …

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