America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
On February 14 I wrote a post titled “Milton Friedman ‘Free to Choose’ Videos – The Complete Set”. Of note, this series is from 1980. As such, many might dismiss the series as irrelevant and outdated. However, the series (and book of the same title) is highly relevant to today’s economic situation. Virtually all of …
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 April 29, 2011, reflecting …
On January 10 I wrote, on the Seeking Alpha site, an article titled “10 ‘Front and Center’ Problem Areas That Pose a Threat to the Economy.” I would like to briefly update my thoughts on these “Problem Areas” as I continue to believe they are very important. Three factors of the ten seem to be …
I’ve recently read the book Toward a Truly Free Market by John Médaille, a book that largely expounds on the economic concept of (Neo)Distributism. I would like to preface my comments about the book with the following three points: First, although I agree with various facets of Distributism – as it is presented it in the …
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 – 21 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 …
On March 21, Gallup released results from an annual survey in which they gathered information on American’s concerns about 14 major national issues. The survey responses indicated that the economy was the top-ranking concern, with 71% indicating they worry about the economy “a great deal.” Here is an excerpt from the Press Release that I …
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 2-22-11: …
The following chart is from the CalculatedRisk blog post of March 10, 2011. It depicts Total Household Net Worth as a Percent of GDP. The underlying data is from The Federal Reserve Flow of Funds 4Q 2010 report: (click on chart to enlarge image) As seen in the above-referenced CalculatedRisk blog post: “According to the …
Last night, “60 Minutes” ran a segment on homeless children. (A transcript is found at this link.) Of course, the overall concept of homeless children, as well as children suffering from (economic) adversity, is sad and disconcerting. The video is disturbing. One line from the segment is especially notable: “We all hear about the recovery …
I found various notable items in Walmart’s Q4 conference call transcript (pdf) dated February 22, 2011. I view Walmart’s results as particularly noteworthy given their retail prominence and focus on low prices. I have previously commented upon their quarterly results. Here are the excerpts, all found on pages 34-35, that I find most notable: “The …