America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
On September 13, Gallup released a poll titled “Upper-Income Americans’ Economic Confidence Shaken.” I find this poll interesting for a variety of reasons. A few excerpts of note: Upper-income Americans’ economic confidence was badly shaken in August, with 80% saying the economy is “getting worse,” up from 66% in July. This is the first month since …
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 September 13 blog post titled “U.S. Household Incomes: A …
Yesterday saw the release of “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2010″ (pdf) from the U.S. Census Bureau. Real Median Household Income was $49,445 in 2010, as seen on page 5. On page 14, the Poverty Rate is seen at 15.1%, encompassing 46.2 million people. As seen on the chart on page …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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: – …
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 …
With all of the recent attention given to the U.S. credit downgrade by S&P, I think it is interesting to look back at the debate on the topic in February 2010. On February 11 2010, I wrote a blog post titled “Treasury Secretary Geithner’s Comments” regarding an interview he gave that week, in which he …
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 …