October 6, 2015 Gallup Poll Results On Economic Confidence – Notable Excerpts

On October 6, 2015 Gallup released the poll results titled “U.S. Economic Confidence Index Flat in September.” Notable excerpts include: Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaged -14 for September, essentially the same as the -13 in August. From a broader perspective, the index has declined steadily since peaking at +3 in January. also: Twenty-four percent …

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Comparisons Of Economic And Financial Aspects – 2008 and 2015

While there are various similarities between the economic situation of 2008 and 2015, there are also many notable differences. A comprehensive comparison would be extensively lengthy and would contain many complex aspects.  As such, no short discussion can even begin to be a comprehensive discussion of the economic and financial similarities and differences of the …

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Charts Of Equities’ Performance Since March 9, 2009 And January 1, 1980 – October 4, 2015 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 the latest daily closing price. The first is a daily chart of the S&P500 (shown in green), as well as five prominent (AAPL, IBM, …

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Long-Term Charts Of DJIA, Dow Jones Transportation Ave., S&P500, And Nasdaq

StockCharts.com maintains long-term historical charts of various major stock market indices, interest rates, currencies, commodities, and economic indicators. As a long-term reference, below are charts depicting various stock market indices for the dates shown.  All charts are depicted on a monthly basis using a LOG scale. (click on charts to enlarge images)(charts courtesy of StockCharts.com) …

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Average Hourly Earnings Trends

I have written many blog posts concerning the worrisome trends in income and earnings. Along these lines, one of the measures showing disconcerting trends is that of hourly earnings. While the concept of hourly earnings can be defined and measured in a variety of ways, below are a few charts that I believe broadly illustrate problematic …

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U-3 And U-6 Unemployment Rate Long-Term Reference Charts As Of October 2, 2015

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 – October 2015

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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Deloitte “CFO Signals” Report Q3 2015 – Notable Aspects

Recently Deloitte released their “CFO Signals” “High-Level Summary” report for the 3rd Quarter of 2015. As seen in page 2 of the report, “One hundred fourteen CFOs responded during the two-week period ending August 21. Seventy-one percent of respondents are from public companies, and 84% are from companies with more than $1B in annual revenue. …

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