Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Hindenburg Omen
August 16th, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Many people are submitting the Hindenburg Omen thing, so this is mostly to let you know: Yes, I’ve seen that information. As for what I think about it: I’d refer to what I wrote about the recent Cisco caper, which applies […]
Afghanistan Says Finds 1.8 Billion Barrel Oilfield
August 15th, 2010Via: Reuters: Afghanistan said on Sunday it had discovered an oilfield with an estimated 1.8 billion barrels in the north of the war-ravaged country, where U.S. and other foreign forces are trying to tame a Taliban-led insurgency. The discovery of the basin between northern Balkh and Shiberghan provinces was made after a survey conducted by […]
But Will It Make You Happy?
August 14th, 2010In the “normal” world, in our “normal” careers, we would have an annual combined income of roughly US$100,000. What horror would the U.S. government commit with the portion of the taxes it would demand from us? We now live well on a tiny fraction of what we would make in our “normal” careers. We have […]
Georgia: Thirty Thousand People Show Up at Shopping Center for Chance at Government-Subsidized Housing
August 12th, 2010Holy shit. Via: Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Thirty thousand people turned out in East Point on Wednesday seeking applications for government-subsidized housing, and their confusion and frustration, combined with the summer heat, led to a chaotic mob scene that left 62 people injured. At the Tri-Cities Plaza Shopping Center, emergency vehicles passed each other, transporting 20 people […]
CNN/Fortune: “Is this finally the economic collapse?”
August 12th, 2010Via: CNN: The Great Depression. Wall Street in 1987. Japan in 1997. Points of economic collapse are generally crystal clear in the rear-view mirror. Professional politicians in Japan have been telling stories for 20 years as to why they can prevent economic stagnation. In the US, the storytelling started in 2007. All the while, stock […]
Federal Workers Earning Double Their Private Counterparts
August 12th, 2010Via: USA Today: At a time when workers’ pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees’ average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds. Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation […]
More Foreclosures, More Bank Failures, Big Trouble for the FDIC
August 11th, 2010Via: Yahoo Finance: The U.S. housing market continues to send mix signals. More homes continue to enter foreclosure but the number of homeowners carrying so-called “under water mortgages,” declined in the second quarter, Zillow.com reported Monday. 21.5% of homeowners owed more on their mortgage than their home was worth in the second quarter, that’s down […]
Baby Boomers of Mass Destruction
August 11th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Based on the CBO’s data, I calculate a fiscal gap of $202 trillion, which is more than 15 times the official debt. This gargantuan discrepancy between our “official” debt and our actual net indebtedness isn’t surprising. It reflects what economists call the labeling problem. Congress has been very careful over the years to […]
Dollar Hits 15-Year Low vs Yen After Fed Move
August 11th, 2010Via: Reuters: The dollar fell to a 15-year low against the yen on Wednesday as steps taken by the Federal Reserve to revive a faltering U.S. economy pushed U.S. Treasury yields lower. … The dollar dropped to 84.72 yen JPY= on trading platform EBS, after taking out option barriers at 85.00 and 84.75, in a […]
Californians’ Income Falls for First Time Since WWII
August 11th, 2010Via: Sacramento Bee: Government statisticians have put a number on Californians’ paycheck pain last year: about $40 billion. The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis said personal incomes of Golden State workers fell by that amount in 2009 compared with the previous year – the state’s first year-to-year decline since World War II. In the Sacramento […]
