Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Since the most recent low on July 15 of 70.0318, the U.S. dollar index (vs. major currencies) has increased by 6.2% to close today at 74.3478 (see chart above).
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Submitted by The Capital Spectator
Failure imparts more lessons than triumph in money management. Success too often breeds hubris and excess confidence; disappointment invites analysis and reflection about what went wrong, why it went wrong and how to make sure the same mistakes aren’t repeated.
Progress in finance and economics, in other words, relies more on failure […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
FT.com –This week will be crucial in determining whether the dollar has broken free from its six-year downward trend, as speculation mounts that the U.S. is in the best position to emerge quickly from the economic downturn.
The dollar index, which measures its value against a basket of six major currencies, put in […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
That’s what one customer is reporting here.
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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Politicians in Annapolis, MD are scratching their heads wondering what happened to all those chain smokers who were supposed to help balance Maryland’s budget. Last year the legislature doubled the cigarette tax to $2 a pack to pay for expanded health-care coverage. Eight months later, cigarette sales have plunged 25% and the […]

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Submitted by unsettling economics
I was listening in to NPR, hearing about what the powerful Russian airforce is doing to defenseless citizens in Georgia.  What I did not hear was how similar Russian explanations for their actions and their tactics sound identical to those of the US military — including taking out defense and communications facilities.
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Submitted by A Dash of Insight
In the midst of extreme volatility, financial stocks have shown some relative strength.  Some have described this as a rotation out of the popular hedge fund position:  long energy, short financials.  There are many different ETF choices related to financial sectors.  Two weeks ago we highlighted the rise of these […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

The chart above is from NY Federal Reserve data on Nonprime Mortgage Conditions in the United States for June 2008. Based on those data, the chart below shows the current distribution of housing units:
Note that the 3 million subprime mortgages represent only 2.6% of 116 million total housing units, and only […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Map (click to enlarge) showing that as of June 2007, 47% of subprime mortgages in California were low or no documentation.

Dynamic map showing that 19.4% of subprime mortgages in Florida were in foreclosure in June 2007.

More dynamic maps available here from the NY Fed, you can search by 12 criteria (subprime mortgages […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto made the famous observation that 20% of the population owned 80% of the property in Italy, later generalised by Joseph M. Juran and others into the so-called Pareto principle (also termed the 80-20 rule) and generalised further to the concept of a Pareto distribution (see graphs […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
A Minneapolis man went for a swim in Lake Nokomis (pictured above, Minneapolis skyline in background) Tuesday night, only to find Minneapolis Park Police waiting for him when he got out. Officers cited 41-year-old Dr. Tom Kleven for swimming too far.
Kleven, who is training for a triathlon later this year, said […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The chart above shows that the share of income earned by the top 5% in 2006 (IRS data here) was 35.9% (the IRS data also shows that group paid 60% of all income taxes). How does that distribution of income in the U.S. compare to the distribution of home runs in […]

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