America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
I found last night’s State of the Union Address to contain many noteworthy comments. While I could comment extensively on many parts of the speech, for now I will indicate excerpts that I found most relevant, and may comment upon them at a future point. I am highlighting these excerpts for many reasons; it should …
The concept of being successful in the global economic environment is a complex one. The January 17-January 23 2011 Bloomberg BusinessWeek had a short interview of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. I found the following excerpt notable, given Singapore’s successes in many areas: On Globalization Competition is intense, change is continuous, and the fruits …
The state of Illinois has received much attention lately for its budgetary shortfalls and recently enacted personal and corporate income tax increases. A January 13 Wall Street Journal article titled “Illinois Braces for Tax Increases” provides a summary of the current budgetary situation. I was quite surprised to see state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka declare …
As a continuation of the last post, here are three other charts that I find disturbing in nature. These charts raise a lot of questions. Many of these questions I have discussed in the blog, as I believe they are very significant in nature. Additionally, these charts should highlight the “atypical” nature of our economic …
In the next two posts, I am going to display various charts that I find disturbing. These charts would be disturbing at any point in the economic cycle; that they depict such a tenuous situation now – 18 months after the official (as per the 9-20-10 NBER announcement) June 2009 end of the recession – …
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 December 2, …
On December 14, The Wall Street Journal had a story titled “Fewer Homes ‘Underwater’ as Foreclosures Increase.” In the article, I found a quote by Matt Dobler as especially notable: “It just kind of leaves you wondering what the safety net is for my generation, because it’s obviously not our home.” Although I typically don’t …
On December 14, Doug Short posted to his blog a chart showing retail sales per capita, adjusted for inflation (CPI). The data is through November, as noted on the chart: (click on chart to enlarge image) Of course, this view of total retail sales, on a per-capita (factoring in population growth) basis – as well …
On Sunday, “60 Minutes” did a segment on state budget problems. Both video and a transcript are available. The segment is worth viewing, especially for those who lack familiarity with the issue. While I don’t agree with some of its comments, it provides a good overview of the situation and some of the complexities involved. …
The following chart is from the CalculatedRisk Blog of December 9, 2010. It depicts Total Household Net Worth as a Percent of GDP. The underlying data is from The Federal Reserve Flow of Funds 3Q 2010 report: (click on chart to enlarge image) As seen in the above-referenced CalculatedRisk blog post: “According to the Fed, …