Durable Goods New Orders – Long-Term Charts Through October 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 October, last updated on November 27.  This value is 230,252 ($ Millions) : (click on charts to enlarge …

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Consumer Confidence Surveys – As Of November 27, 2013

Doug Short had a blog post of November 26 (“Consumer Confidence Declines Again in November“) 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 …

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Food Stamps As Of November 25, 2013

This post is an update to previous posts concerning food stamps.  The program is officially called “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” or SNAP.  As stated on the SNAP website, “As of Oct. 1, 2008, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the new name for the federal Food Stamp Program.” The data was last updated November 8, 2013, reflecting August 2013 levels. …

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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 30 “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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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 November 17, 2013 post titled …

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Walmart’s Q3 2014 Results – Comments

I found various notable items in Walmart’s Q3 2014 management call transcript (pdf) dated November 14, 2013.  I view Walmart’s results and comments as particularly noteworthy given their retail prominence and focus on low prices.  I have previously commented on their quarterly conference call comments; these previous posts are found under the “paycheck to paycheck” tag. Here are various excerpts …

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Thoughts Concerning Deflation

I have written a variety of posts concerning deflation and “deflationary pressures” 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 …

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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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November 5 Gallup Poll Results On Economic Confidence – Notable Excerpts

On November 5, Gallup released the poll results titled “U.S. Economic Confidence Plunges in October.”  The subtitle is “Sixteen-point drop to -35 is sharpest in any month since Gallup Daily tracking began.” Notable excerpts include: Americans’ confidence in the U.S. economy sank for the month of October amid the partial U.S. government shutdown and partisan bickering …

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