Submitted by A Dash of Insight
Growing strength in health care sectors is the dominant theme in this week’s ETF Update.  As usual, there are also some interesting implications for the overall market.
We noted the rise of these sectors in last week’s ratings, observing that the market continued to “play defense.”  (For new readers tThere is […]

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Submitted by unsettling economics
James Grant is a knowledgeable student of the credit system, but today he goes off the rails, blaming the left wing for the credit crisis. Here is the most striking passage:
“By and by, the lefties carried the day. They got their government-controlled money (the Federal Reserve opened for business in 1914), and […]

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Submitted by Econbrowser
At least that’s the assessment of Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco economist John Fernald (hat tip: Mark Thoma).

We’ve commented before that housing futures signal further price declines.

We also know that the auto sector has been hit hard.

Notwithstanding, the tax stimulus likely kept consumption spending growing this quarter, and Fernald is expecting a […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
WASHINGTON – U.S. oil demand was significantly down for the first six months of 2008, the API reported Friday in its Monthly Statistical Report. While U.S. refiners churned out record and near-record amounts of oil products, imports – especially product imports — fell substantially.

Deliveries of all oil products – a measure of […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Russia has become Europe’s largest automotive market after year on year sales grew 41% in the first six months of 2008, according to a survey by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC.) In this period, 1.65 million cars were bought in Russia compared to 1.63 million in Germany, which was previously Europe’s largest market.
Link.

HT: […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The U.S. exports more ($1.024 trillion) than any country in the world except Germany ($1.133 trillion), and more than China ($974 billion) or Japan ($590 billion). Data available here.
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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — Zimbabwe’s troubled central bank introduced $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.

As high as they are, though, the bills still aren’t enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges. The new note […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
NEW YORK (AP) — On an occasional evening at the kitchen table in Brooklyn, N.Y., Victoria Morey has been known to sit down with her 9-year-old son and do something she’s not supposed to.

“I am a rebel,” confesses this mother of two. And just what is this subversive act in which Morey […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
According to Americans for Tax Reform, the Cost of Government Day for 2008 is July 16. Working people must toil on average 197 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government. In other words, the cost of government consumes 53.9% of national income.
The Cost of Government Day […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
New Yorkers are rightly proud of their city’s renaissance over the last two decades, but when it comes to growth, Gotham pales beside Houston. Between 2000 and 2007, the New York region grew by just 2.7%, while greater Houston — the country’s sixth-largest metropolitan area — grew by 19.4%, expanding to 5.6 […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Conspicuous consumption is not an unambiguous signal of personal affluence. It’s a sign of belonging to a relatively poor group. Visible luxury thus serves less to establish the owner’s positive status as affluent than to fend off the negative perception that the owner is poor. The richer a society or peer group, […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

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