The European Debt Crisis – Broader Implications

On January 10 I wrote an article on the Seeking Alpha site titled “10 ‘Front and Center’ Problem Areas That Pose a Threat to the Economy.” From time to time I like to revisit this list as these threats remain very relevant to our current and future economic situation. The European Debt Crisis was listed …

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U.S. Real Household Income Growth Chart

In the September 20, 2010 post (“Real Median Household Income & Poverty Measures“) I highlighted the lack of significant long-term growth in Real Median Household Income. As I stated in that post: …Real Median Household Income has experienced anemic growth for decades. Doug Short, in his August 30 blog post titled “U.S. Household Incomes:  A …

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Confidence Surveys – Another View

In yesterday’s post (“4 Confidence Charts – August 2011“) I displayed four charts indicating various long-term consumer and small business confidence readings as compared to the S&P500. Doug Short had a blog post of August 30 (“Conference Board:  Consumer Confidence Does a Cliff Dive“) in which he presents the Conference Board and University of Michigan …

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4 Confidence Charts – August 2011

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 8-30-11: – …

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Walmart’s Q2 2012 Results – Comments

I found various notable items in Walmart’s Q2 conference call transcript (pdf) dated August 16, 2011.  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 results; these previous posts are found under the “paycheck to paycheck” tag. Here are various excerpts that I find …

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President Obama’s August 8 Remarks – Notable Excerpts

Yesterday, President Obama delivered an address in large part concerning the credit downgrade and the economy. (The transcript is seen at WhiteHouse.gov titled “Remarks by the President“) Although I don’t agree with many aspects of the speech, I found various parts of this speech to be notable.  Here are various facets that I found particularly …

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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 discussed key measures that the NBER uses to determine recoveries, and posted four charts. Here are those charts, updated in his August 2, 2011 post.  The charts …

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Disturbing Charts (Update 5)

I find the following charts to be disturbing.   These charts would be disturbing at any point in the economic cycle; that they depict such a tenuous situation now – 24 months after the official (as per the 9-20-10 NBER announcement) June 2009 end of the recession – is especially notable. These charts raise a lot …

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