America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
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, …
In his “60 Minutes” interview of Sunday (which I commented upon in the last post), Ben Bernanke responded to a question (from Scott Pelley) regarding the wealth disparity: Pelley: The gap between rich and poor in this country has never been greater. In fact, we have the biggest income disparity gap of any industrialized country …
My thought on the matter is that the overall topic of inflation and its effects is a complex one. Adding to the complexity is the definition of inflation. Most people define inflation in terms of CPI, but there are many different ways of defining the concept. On this blog, to avoid confusion, I try to …
I am finding “The Billion Prices Project” to be valuable. From the homepage, “The Billion Prices Project is an academic initiative that collects prices from hundreds of online retailers around the world on a daily basis to conduct economic research.” Two of the most prominent benefits I see from the data include that data is …