Measuring growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is like taking the economy’s temperature. The annualized growth rate of 1.5% at the end of the second quarter – which is a…
Dancing With A Cow
While Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has beaten down the U.S. stock market, it has helped the bond market. Because the European bond market is in such poor shape, U.S. bonds…
An Anorexic Recovery
If we could put the recovery of the past few years on a scale, it would be the thinnest in history. Recently, though, it has become downright anorexic. Goldman Sachs…
A Step in the Right Direction?
An unemployment rate above 8% is no longer news – it’s been above 8% for 41 months, which is the longest streak since the Great Depression. However, during the Clinton…
What Recovery?
Maybe we should be used to high unemployment … but now the bad news on jobs is coupled with queasiness about corporate earnings. The latest earnings season began with the…
Finally – U.S. Drags Down European Market … Japan Falls, Too
We’ve been writing about Europe dragging down the U.S. stock market for more than a year now. We, of course, take no satisfaction in it, but it’s kind of a…
I Think I Can’t. I Think I Can’t.
The U.S. economy is becoming the little engine that couldn’t. You, of course, remember the children’s story in which self-confidence and determination pull the little engine up and over a…
The S&P 500 Comes Up Short
The S&P 500 fell more than 2% yesterday, recording its worst one-day drop since December. Was it disappointment with The Fed? A sudden realization that the market shouldn’t rise when…
Pretzel Logic
When Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said recently that he did not expect The Fed to initiate any additional monetary stimulus, apparently stock traders weren’t listening. The recent run-up in stock…