Global Market Commentary, Analysis and Investments
Oh my, oh my…this is getting interesting…
“How zombie consumers menace the world economy,” is a headline from Yale Professor Stephen Roach. Mr. Roach is misusing the word ‘zombie,’ but he’s coming closer to understanding what is really going on.
That is, he’s beginning to see things our way!
[Read more...]Want to know what is really going on?
Investors are waking up. They are wiping the sleep from their eyes. Behold! No recovery.
Analysts and the commentariat are struggling to make sense of it. With record low mortgage rates, and after eight programs designed to boost up housing, for example, sales are still plummeting. July saw the biggest monthly drop in existing house sales since the Johnson Administration.
[Read more...]Alan Abelson, in his column in Barron's, notes that the $9.1 billion drop in Consumer Installment Debt in May makes it four months in-a-row that this debt balance went down, and that “Credit card use (so-called revolving debt) shrank by $7.4 billion, extending its string of monthly declines to 20.? Yikes!
[Read more...]On Sunday, we celebrated America's independence from Britain.
Having just come from London, it's hard to see what the fuss was all about. The English seem like decent people. The queen still has her dignity. The British government seems no worse than its American counterpart. And David Cameron appears to have a much better idea of what he is doing than the Obama team.
[Read more...]The news about the beleaguered consumer is that the latest report is that overall consumer credit declined at an overall annual rate of 5.5% in February, although revolving credit (like credit cards) went down at an annual rate of 13%!
Now, I heard that this is due to a lot of debt being written off by the credit card company, probably finally exasperated by, for instance, me answering the phone, Mogambo, him no live here! Me no speakee English! and my habit of answering the door with the challenge Friend or foe?
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Confusing Gradual Bankruptcy with Economic Recovery
We have a wintry landscape here in Baltimore…or what is left of one. But forget the weather, happy days are here again.
At least, that is what you might think from reading the newspapers. Unemployment is going down. Consumer debt is going up. Even the housing market is showing signs of improvement.
[Read more...]