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 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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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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Current Economic Situation

With regard to our current economic situation, my thoughts can best be described/summarized by the posts found under the 32 “Building Financial Danger” posts. My thoughts concerning our ongoing economic situation – with future implications – can be seen on the page titled “A Special Note On Our Economic Situation,” which has been found near …

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Additional Thoughts Concerning Deflation

I have written a variety of posts concerning “deflationary pressures” and deflation as I continue to believe that deflationary conditions are on the horizon, and that such deflationary conditions will cause, as well as accompany, inordinate economic hardship. [note: to clarify, for purposes of this discussion, when I mention “deflation” I am referring to the CPI …

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Recession Measures – Updated

This post is the latest update to a series of blog posts seen on the CalculatedRisk.com blog.  The original blog post of April 12, 2010, is titled “Recession Measures.” In it, Bill McBride discussed key measures that the NBER uses to determine recoveries, and posted four charts. Here are those charts, updated in his January 18, 2014 post titled …

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Disturbing Charts (Update 13)

I find the following charts to be disturbing.   These charts would be disturbing at any point in the economic cycle; that they (on average) depict such a tenuous situation now – 55 months after the official (as per the September 20, 2010 NBER BCDC announcement) June 2009 end of the recession – is especially notable. These …

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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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