Submitted by Businomics Blog
I’m not forecasting a recession, but . . .
My previous blog post about investments for a recession has proved to be very popular. But I recently looked at Capital Spectator’s chart showing returns by industry year to date:

The market is anticipating a domestic slowdown or recession, but not an international recession. […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by Econbrowser
The interesting aspects of the survey of forecasts conducted by the Wall Street Journal (data here) are not in the means (or medians), but in the tails.
First, it’s of interest to note that forecasts of 2007Q4 growth have been revised downward over time.

Figure 1: Actual growth, SAAR(blue) and average of forecasts of growth […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by unsettling economics
Business Week had an interesting article about companies that buy and sell debt that has been discharged in bankruptcy — meaning that there is no debt. But the companies that buy the debt use unscrupulous methods to pressure people to repay the discharged debt that they no longer owe.
Berner, Robert and Brian […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM

(CBS) — Aside from eyewitness testimony, some of the most believable evidence presented in criminal cases in the United States comes from the FBI crime laboratory in Quantico, Va. Part of its job is to test and analyze everything from ballistics to DNA for state and local prosecutors around the country, introducing […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM
According to Chinese Restaurant News, there are nearly 41,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, three times the number of McDonalds franchise units, and more than the number of McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King franchises combined!
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

[?]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM
It is not the market that is rising or falling at any moment, even if we commonly speak as though it were. In truth, prices move in response to the buying and selling decisions of countless investors, who are constantly considering the likely decisions of countless others.
~Peter Bernstein in today’s NY Times
Visit […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Of all of the major news reports on the failed Senate farm bill (and there were dozens, see the Washington Post article here), I found that this front page San Francisco Chronicle article offered the best public choice insights about the political realities of farm subsidies:
Money troubles could be unraveling the age-old […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM

DETROIT, MI — The two gas stations stand across an intersection from each other in Detroit, where even a penny’s difference was enough to lure customers. And so came the price war: One station dropped a cent or two, and the other grudgingly followed.
But the seemingly petty back-and-forth escalated Friday, ending with […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM

Birmingham, AL — Alabama’s jobless rate fell to an historical record low of 3.1% in October, state labor figures released Friday show (see graph above). October’s rate of 3.1% was almost 3.5% below the average unemployment rate of 6.55% from 1976-2007, and provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is not on […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM

I buy a lot of CDs on Amazon.com and just noticed today for the first time that Amazon has now started selling indiviual songs as MP3 files for 99 cents (see chart above for a Gene Harris CD, click to enlarge), in direct competition with iTunes.
Visit 1800blogger to see all of […]

continue reading.....

Submitted by CARPE DIEM

The top graph above (click to enlarge) shows the rising income share of the top-earning 25% of U.S. taxpayers from 1986-2005 according to IRS data. In 1986, the top 25% earned 59.04% of total income, and by 2005 the income share of the top 25% increased to 67.5%, indicating rising income inequality […]

continue reading.....