Archive for November, 2007
« Previous EntriesNew GDP figures
Submitted by Econbrowser
How bad can things be with almost a 5% growth rate of the real economy?
The Commerce Department yesterday revised up its estimate of 2007:Q3 GDP. They now report that U.S. real GDP grew at a 4.9% annual rate during the quarter, up from the 3.9% figure in last month’s “advance” 2007:Q3 estimate. The [...]
THE NUMBERS GAME
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
For the naive alien only just arrived on planet Earth, yesterday’s GDP report might be considered a great triumph. Indeed, taking the numbers at face value, there’s reason to celebrate. Real annualized GDP for the U.S. surged by 4.9% in the third quarter, according to the revision dispatched yesterday by the [...]
Handicapping Profits
Submitted by unsettling economics
In The Confiscation of American Prosperity, I looked at the correlation of poor corporate profitability with CEO’s low golf handicaps, as well as the use of corporate jets, and membership in far off country clubs.
Later, I learned of the relationship between CEO’s oversize mansions and negative corporate performance.
Liu, Crocker and David Yermack. [...]
GM’s India Market Share Rises, Sales Up By 150%
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
NEW DELHI: General Motors Corp. opened its first design studio in India on Thursday, a move intended to support the U.S. automaker’s efforts to expand its presence in the country.
The studio in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, where GM already has a research and development center, will “contribute to the mid-cycle [...]
We Educate Foreign Students, Then Deport Them
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
A mere 65,000 H-1B visas for foreign professionals are allocated in the U.S. each year. And this year, as in the previous four, the quota was exhausted almost as soon as the applications became available in April. This effectively means that more than half of all foreign nationals who earned advanced degrees [...]
Partisan Columnists: #1 Coulter, #2 Krugman
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Lying in Ponds is a website that tracks and ranks the Democratic and Republican biases of a selection of regular political columnists. The top graph above for 2007 shows that Paul Krugman is the most partisan liberal columnist and Ann Coulter is the most partisan conservative columnist.
Lying in Ponds tries to [...]
Net Exports Contribution to GDP Highest in 10 Yrs.
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The contribution of net exports of goods and services to real GDP growth in the third quarter was revised upward to 1.37% (from the original estimate of 0.90%), and contributed to half of the 1% upward revision of real GDP growth from 3.9% to 4.9%. Further, it was the largest percent contribution [...]
Excess Housing Inventory: How Fast Are We Working it Off?
Submitted by Businomics Blog
We have too many new homes on the market. Take a look. (This chart shows new homes for sale that are either finished or under construction. The Census Bureau also counts houses on which construction has not begun. To me, that’s counting some developer’s hopes and dreams. [...]
Handling Short-Term Volatility with a Longer-Term Method
Submitted by A Dash of Insight
Another post from the road…
Every trading system has a time frame. What works for short-term trading may be completely wrong for longer-term methods. In the extreme volatility of the last two weeks, we are sure there are some traders who are buying every dip and selling every rally. [...]
THE FED TO THE RESCUE? AGAIN?
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
The economy may or may not be slowing, but it’s clear that the stock market still loves the idea of lower interest rates.
Exhibit A is yesterday’s commentary from one Fed vice chairman. “Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now,” Don Kohn advised the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, [...]
The Euro as the World’s Reserve Currency: A Progress Report
Submitted by Econbrowser
Back in 2005, Jeff Frankel and I presented a series of projections about the dollar’s role as the world’s dominant reserve currency. We concluded:
…Whether the euro might in the future rival or surpass the dollar as the world’s leading international reserve currency appears to depend on two things: (1) do enough other EU [...]
Summer Real GDP Growth Highest in 4 Years
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. economy expanded at the fastest pace in four years during the third quarter, growing at a real annual rate of 4.9%, the Commerce Department reported today in making its second estimate of growth for the three-month period.
The 4.9% growth rate during the summer of 2007 was only [...]
The Perverse Imbalances between Town and Country
Submitted by unsettling economics
I am writing this paper for a seminar I will give at Yale. Any comments would be appreciated. It still needs work.
yale.doc
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End All Government Involvement in Education
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Prayers in school, sex education and “intelligent design” are contentious school issues. I believe parents should have the right to decide whether their children will say a morning prayer in school, be taught “intelligent design” and not be given school-based sex education. I also believe other parents should have the right not [...]
Quote of the Day II
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The writers’ strike basically shapes up as a couple of third cousins at Thanksgiving dinner arguing over who gets a slightly larger slice of the billion dollar pumpkin pie: the writers who create the movies and shows, or the corporations who actually take all the financial risk that allows us Hollywood writers [...]
Quote of the Day; Blogging is Like Being Married…
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
There’s an old newspaper saying, attributed to Lewis Grizzard, that “Being a newspaper columnist is like being married to a nymphomaniac. Every time you think you’re through, you have to start all over again.”
I think the same could be said for being a blogger.
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FDIC Report Suggests Banks Are Surviving Well
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The charts above were created using the most recent banking data from 8,560 FDIC-insured banks, throught the third quarter 2007, showing that:
1. Total assets of commercial banks increased by a record $446.3 billion (3.6%) to $12,707 billion, eclipsing the previous quarterly high of $331.6 billion set in the first quarter of 2006 [...]
86% Chance of Rate Cut in December
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Based on 30-day Fed Funds futures trading for December at the CBOT, the chance of a Fed Fund rate cut to 4.25% in December increased today from 80 to 86%. The Dow posted its biggest 2-day gain in 5 years.
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Bank Stocks Post a 4.2% Gain Today!
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The DJIA was up today by 2.55% (red line), but how about those NASDAQ bank stocks (blue line) - they made a nice 4.19% recovery today!!? Holy Moly!!
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Businomics: Search Inside It
Submitted by Businomics Blog
Amazon has set up it’s “Search Inside” feature for Businomics: From the Headlines to Your Bottom Line–How to Profit in Any Economic Cycle. I had never used the feature for any book, so I tried it out on mine. Here’s how to do it: Go to Amazon’s Businomics Page and [...]
TelaDoc Market Solution: The Doctors Is Always In
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Health care entrepreneurs working outside the traditional health insurance payment system are using telephone, e-mail, text messaging and innovative computer software to make medical care more accessible and convenient for patients, according to a new study by the National Center for Policy Analysis titled “Convenient Care and Telemedicine.”
Approximately 1 million patients are [...]
Online Shopping in Nov. At All-Time Record Highs
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
“Cyber Monday” sales set a new all-time single day record for e-commerce sales of $733 million, according to comScore, representing a 21% increase over last year. While Monday represented the first time ever more than $700 million was spent in a single day by online shoppers, comScore said that it expects spending [...]
Multiple Refinancing Contributed to Mortgage Crisis
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The chart above is from an article in today’s Detroit News, illustrating how one Detroit homeowner got into foreclosure trouble: Ethel Cochran refinanced her home 7 different times within a ten-year period at adjustable rates, pulling out more and more equity each time.
30-year fixed-rate mortgages were available in 1987 for about 10%, [...]
Bank Stocks Outperform Market in The Long Run
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Bob Wright wrote in a recent comment “If you look at financial stocks over any meaningful period - like 10 years or more, they kill the DJIA and the S&P 500. They even out-performed over the last 5 years until this recent bit of turmoil.”
The chart above (click to enlarge) shows the [...]
Buy Houses in Detroit For $250, Monthly Pmt = $1
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
You can go to Realtor.com and search for homes for sale in any city in the U.S., and you can specify a certain price range. If you search for Detroit homes for sale between $0 and $1,000, you’ll find that there are 74 homes for sale in that price range, including the [...]
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