You know, we really don't need a ream of statistics and a cadre of expensive analysts to understand the real economy. Here are a few charts; they are enough.First and foremost, Unemployment. Literally, off the charts.Continued Claims for Unemploymen...
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"Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". Thus quipped Mark Twain when he heard that The New York Times had, rather prematurely, printed his obituary.The bubbly stockmarket of the previous two months (sharpest rise in 70+ years) provides a simil...
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For several months now I have been thinking about what we should call today's economic environment. "The Crisis" is too generic and not descriptive enough; I reject "Great Depression II" for reasons I have previously explained (essentially, the Fed ...
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The "green shoots" that everyone is talking about, and which are greatly responsible for causing the current (dead cat ?) bounce in stocks, are best explained thus:1. The massive bailout of the financial system (approx. $14 trillion in equity injecti...
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Spring has sprung violently in all risk markets, from junk bonds to sovereign credits, from financial to alternative energy stocks, from copper and crude oil to ship charter rates. In a word, from risk revulsion and panic selling to risk appetite and p...
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The steepness of the US Treasury bond yield curve is once again reaching 30+ year record levels; the difference between 10- and 2-year yields is currently at 222 basis points, having previously nearly matched the record 270 bp of 2003 and 1992 (see ...
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Nominal GDP growth (i.e. not adjusted for inflation) has turned negative y-o-y for the first time in 50 years . That's no good at all.One chart:DATA: FRB St. Louis...and...Saturday marked the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, which has lately b...
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