America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
On January 18, Gallup published poll results titled “Half in U.S. Feel Worse Off Financially.” The poll asked various questions, including this one : Would you say that you are financially better off now than you were a year ago, or are you financially worse off now? An excerpt from the results, as discussed in …
In yesterday’s post (“4 Confidence Charts – December 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 December 27 (“Consumer Confidence at an Eight-Month High“) in which he presents the Conference Board and University of Michigan charts in …
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 12-27-11: – …
In the December 13 post (“Total Household Net Worth As A Percent Of GDP 3Q 2011“) I displayed a long-term chart depicting Total Household Net Worth as a percentage of GDP. For reference purposes, here is Total Household Net Worth from a long-term perspective (from 1949:Q4 to 2011:Q3). The last value (as of December 9, …
The following chart is from the CalculatedRisk blog post of December 8, 2011 titled “Q3 Flow of Funds: Household Net Worth declines $2.4 Trillion in Q3.” It depicts Total Household Net Worth as a Percent of GDP. The underlying data is from The Federal Reserve Flow of Funds 3Q 2011 report: (click on chart to enlarge image) As …
Yesterday, CBS aired a segment on its “Sunday Morning” show titled “America’s new poor.” While dynamics similar to those discussed in the segment have been noted in previous posts on this blog, this segment is yet another notable reminder of the changing economic condition and the growing need for food assistance. This segment focuses on …
I found various notable items in Walmart’s Q3 conference call transcript (pdf) dated November 15, 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 …
In the October 17 post (“Danger Signs In The Stock Market, Financial System And Economy“) I mentioned in point #6 “…numerous signs of broad-based financial strain among households.” A November 10 Gallup poll titled “Americans’ Ability to Afford Food Nears Three-Year Low” illustrates one of these strains. Here are what I found as the most …
In the August 9 post (“QE3 – Various Thoughts“) I posted a chart that depicted the movements of the S&P500, 10-Year Treasury Yield and the Fed Funds rate spanning the periods of various interventions since 2007. For reference purposes, here is an updated chart from Doug Short’s blog post of November 7 (“Fed Intervention and …
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 – 28 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 …