Consumer Confidence Surveys – As Of January 31, 2014

Doug Short had a blog post of January 31 (“Michigan Consumer Sentiment:  Little Changed“) in which he presents the latest Conference Board Consumer Confidence and Thomson/Reuters University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index charts.  They are presented below: (click on charts to enlarge images) – – There are a few aspects of the above charts that I find …

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The Perils Of Asset Bubbles

I have written many posts concerning asset bubbles as my analyses indicate that: many immensely large asset bubbles currently exist today’s asset bubbles are exceedingly complex in nature asset bubbles are largely misunderstood asset bubbles pose an immense threat to the financial system their future resolution is profoundly problematical Of course, asset bubbles are often …

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St. Louis Financial Stress Index – January 30, 2014 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 January 30, incorporating data from December 31,1993 to January 24, …

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The State of the Union Address – Notable Excerpts

I found President Obama’s State of the Union Address (transcript from the Wall Street Journal) last night to contain some noteworthy comments.  While I could comment extensively on many parts of the speech, for now I will indicate excerpts that I found most relevant with regard to the economic situation, and may comment upon them at a future …

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House Prices Reference Chart

As a reference for long-term house price index trends, below is a chart, updated with the most current data (through November, except for the Case-Shiller National Index, which is through September), from the CalculatedRisk blog post of January 28 titled “Comment on House Prices: Real Prices, Price-to-Rent Ratio, Cities” : (click on chart to enlarge …

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Durable Goods New Orders – Long-Term Charts Through December 2013

Many people place emphasis on Durable Goods New Orders as a prominent economic indicator and/or leading economic indicator. For reference, below are charts depicting this measure. First, from the St. Louis Fed site (FRED), a chart through December, last updated on January 28.  This value is 229,319 ($ Millions) : (click on charts to enlarge …

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VIX Monthly And Weekly Charts Since Year 2000

For reference purposes, below are two charts of the VIX from year 2000 through yesterday’s (January 27, 2014) close. Here is the VIX Monthly chart, depicted on a LOG scale, with price labels as well as the 13- and 34-month moving averages, seen in the cyan and red lines, respectively: (click on chart to enlarge …

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