America's Economic Future – A Discussion By Ted Kavadas
On Wednesday November 2 Ben Bernanke gave his scheduled Press Conference. Here are Ben Bernanke’s comments I found most notable, although I don’t necessarily agree with them. These comments are excerpted from the “Transcript of Chairman Bernanke’s Press Conference” of November 2 2011 (preliminary) (pdf), with Bernanke’s responses as indicated to the various questions: from page 4 (Opening …
Shortly after each monthly employment report I have been posting a continual series titled “3 Critical Unemployment Charts.” Of course, there are many other employment charts that can be displayed as well. For reference purposes, below are the U-3 and U-6 Unemployment Rate charts from a long-term historical perspective. Both charts are from the St. …
As I have commented previously, as in the October 6, 2009 post (“A Note About Unemployment Statistics”), in my opinion the official methodologies used to measure the various job loss and unemployment statistics do not provide an accurate depiction; they serve to understate the severity of unemployment. However, even if one chooses to look at the …
U.S. Dollar weakness is a foremost concern of mine. As such, I have extensively written about it. I am very concerned that the actions being taken to “improve” our economic situation will dramatically weaken the Dollar. Should the Dollar substantially decline from here, as I expect, the negative consequences will far outweigh any benefits. The negative impact …
Yesterday saw the release of the Economic Projections of the Federal Reserve Board Members and Federal Reserve Bank Presidents, November 2011 (pdf). Of note, since January, the Federal Reserve has been reducing its economic growth forecasts. _____ I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored. However, as those familiar with …
This post is an update to recent posts, that began on October 6 (“A Chart Of Recent S&P500 Price Volatility“) on stock market volatility. While I track many different measures of volatility, I find the following chart to be both simple and clear in depicting the recent outsized volatility in the stock market. This chart …
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 …
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 October 30, 2011 post titled …
Many people place emphasis on Durable Goods New Orders as an economic indicator. For reference, here are a few charts depicting this measure. First, from the St. Louis Fed site (FRED), a chart through September, last updated on October 26. The last value is 200,333: – Here is the chart depicting the measure on a …
In the October 22-23 Wall Street Journal, there was an article titled “The Wild Ride Of The 1%.” This article discusses the fluctuations, and causes of fluctuations, of the wealth of the country’s most affluent. While the entire article is worthwhile reading, I found the following excerpts to be particularly notable: The American rich, who …