Hey, Big Spender
I’ve written about this before, but since Paul Krugman just posted about it, perhaps it’s time to revisit the issue. Professor Krugman’s chart, in my opinion, doesn’t go far enough in that it does not provide sufficient context. While the chart does show the YoY percent decline in Real Government Expenditures & Investment, it does...
Apple by the Numbers
Once again, its hard to put the Apple earnings into context. There are 5 key areas to look at: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Retail Stores, and International growth. The numbers are simply immense: Earnings: • Apple had net income of $11.6 billion on revenue of $39.19 billion. Earnings per share were $12.30 (versus Street analysts consensus...
Fastest Growing & Dying US Industries
Interesting pair of lists from Wonkblog of the fastest growing and dying industries in the United States. I like to parse lists like this to find what is consistent amongst the members. The top 10 fastest-growing US industries 1. Generic pharmaceuticals 2. Solar panel manufacturing 3. For-profit universities 4. Pilates and yoga studios 5. Self-tanning...
Miscellany
Invictus here. A few items of interest (I hope) that I’ve been thinking of lately. What Type of Jobs Recovery Are We Having? Everyone’s seen Bill McBride’s employment chart, which he dutifully updates every month (along with just about every other economic release that comes out). Bill’s chart shows the percent change in employment relative...
Withholding-Tax Collections Continued Strong in March
Matt Trivisonno looks at real time payroll withholding taxes on a year over year basis. He calls it the “greatest economic indicator of all time.” Hyperbole aside, it is a pretty interesting data series. Here are Matt’s comments from last week: “Viewing the job market through the withholding-tax data, we see steady year-over-year growth continuing...
Spring’s Eternal Optimism – except in Housing
> My Sunday Washington Post Business Section column is out. This morning, we look at the annual premature housing recovery. The print version had the full headline The eternal optimism of spring — except in housing; the online version had the longer Spring brings signs of hope and renewal — except in the housing market)....
50 Random Economic Datapoints
The following comes from a collection of data tidbits assembled by Morgan Housel at Mötley Fool. They used the click-bait title, 50 Amazing Numbers About Today’s Economy — but I decided to just ignore that hyperbole and check it out anyway. Here are a few of my favorites: 50. The S&P 500 is down 3%...
Good Friday NFP Day
Today we get the Non Farm Payroll data for March. Expectations are for 205,000 net new jobs, with Unemployment ticking down slightly. Unemployment benefits have dropped to the lowest level in four years, although long term unemployment remains a stubborn problem. And one of the drags on NFP data — government layoffs — may have...
Home Affordability Reality Check (Part 2 of 5)
All this week, we will be looking at the Housing Recovery meme, challenging the assumptions and data that make up that argument. Yesterday, we began with Debunking the Housing Recovery Story (Part 1 of 5). Today we look at exactly how affordable homes are today, as well as the home buying public’s ability to afford...
Open Thread: U.S. Political Polarization
Fascinating set of charts from the quarterly J.P. Morgan Asset Management deck. Its as a good a time as any to open up the conversation: Why is Congress’ approval rating at record lows? Why are so many people at such political extremes? What say ye? > Click to enlarge: Source: Guide to the Markets, Q1,...
Media Map: Who’s Reading What And Where
This map shows which news sources are read and shared at above-average levels by state. Click on the media outlets below to see where they influence readers and which stories were big hits.
Hat tip: Flowing Data
Source:
The Media Map: Who’s Read...
Why Using P/E Ratios Can Be Misleading
Société Générale’s Andrew Lapthorne lays out the danger of relying on P/E ratios. “The essential message is that although one is of course simply the inverse of the other, using P/E ratio instead of earnings yields can give dramatically different results when making historical valuation comparisons. This disparity between average P/E and average E/P is...
