America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
Here are four charts reflecting confidence survey readings. These are from the SentimenTrader.com site. I find these charts valuable as they provide a long-term history of each survey, which is rare. Each survey chart is plotted in blue, below the S&P500: (click on each chart to enlarge image) Conference Board Consumer Confidence, last updated 9-28-10: …
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 – 15 months after the official (as per the 9-20-10 NBER announcement) June 2009 end of the recession – …
The following chart is from the CalculatedRisk Blog of September 18, 2010. It depicts Total Household Net Worth as a Percent of GDP. The underlying data is from The Federal Reserve Flow of Funds 2Q 2010 report: (click on chart to enlarge image) As seen in the above-referenced CalculatedRisk blog post: “According to the Fed, …
As seen in the recently (September 16) released “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2009” (pdf) from the U.S. Census Bureau, Real Median Household Income was $49,777 in 2009, as seen on page 6. On page 14, the Poverty Rate is seen at 14.3%, encompassing 43.6 million people. As seen on …
On September 1, Christina Romer gave a speech titled “Not My Father’s Recession: The Extraordinary Challenges and Policy Responses of the First Twenty Months of the Obama Administration.” (pdf) The main reason I highlight this report is for reference purposes, as I may comment upon it in the future. As those familiar with this blog …
On Monday The Wall Street Journal had an Op-ed by Steve Malanga titled “How States Hide Their Budget Deficits.” Of particular interest is this excerpt: “Last week, however, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed fraud charges against New Jersey for misrepresenting its financial obligations, particularly its pension obligations, and misleading investors in its bonds. …
This post is an update to a post of April 12 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 …
Deflation has been a popular topic lately. Some have recently expressed that deflation can be a scenario from which one can remain unimpacted, or will profit from. Examples include a August 7-8 Wall Street Journal article titled “How to Beat Deflation-And Even Profit From It.” A recent article by Robert Prechter Jr. in the August …
The recently introduced “Economic Security Index” is notable on many fronts. Here is a summary from the “About” page: “The Economic Security Index (ESI), sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, measures the share of Americans who experience at least a 25% drop in their available family income whether due to a decline in income or a …