3 Critical Unemployment Charts – December 2013

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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Deflation Probabilities

While I do not agree with the current readings of the measure – I think the measure dramatically understates the probability of deflation, as measured by the CPI – the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta maintains an interesting data series titled “Deflation Probabilities.” As stated on the site: Using estimates derived from Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities …

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St. Louis Financial Stress Index – December 5, 2013 Update

On March 28, 2011 I wrote a post (“The STLFSI“) about the St. Louis Fed’s Financial Stress Index (STLFSI) 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 December 5, incorporating data from December 31,1993 to November 29, …

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Corporate Profits As A Percentage Of GDP

In the last post (“3rd Quarter Corporate Profits“) I displayed, for reference purposes, a long-term chart depicting Corporate Profits After Tax. There are many ways to view this measure, both on an absolute as well as relative basis. One relative measure is viewing Corporate Profits as a Percentage of GDP.  I feel that this metric is …

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3rd Quarter Corporate Profits

Today’s GDP release (Q3, 2nd Estimate) was accompanied by the BLS Corporate Profits (preliminary estimate) report for the 3rd Quarter. Of course, there are many ways to adjust and depict overall Corporate Profits.  For reference purposes, here is a chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve (FRED) showing the Corporate Profits After Tax (last updated December 5,2013, …

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Charts Of Equities’ Performance Since March 9, 2009 And January 1, 1980 – December 4, 2013 Update

In the March 9, 2012 post (“Charts of Equities’ Performance Since March 9, 2009 And January 1, 1980“) I highlighted two charts for reference purposes. Below are those two charts, updated through yesterday’s closing price. The first is a daily chart of the S&P500 (shown in green), as well as five prominent (AAPL, IBM, WFM, SBUX, …

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December 3 Gallup Poll Results On Economic Confidence – Notable Excerpts

On December 3, Gallup released the poll results titled “U.S. Economic Confidence Rises in November.”  The subtitle is “Confidence has not yet recovered to pre-shutdown level.” Notable excerpts include: Americans were much more upbeat about the U.S. economy in November than they were in October, but are still less confident than they were in the months …

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U.S. Dollar Decline – December 2, 2013 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 of a substantial …

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