Japan suffered one of the most horrific market meltdowns in history from 1984-2004. Only four years after the last market bottom and on the verge of another global market downturn, it even may be too early to use the past tense to describe the bubble.
Yet, Japan offers a remarkable lesson regarding easy money and [...]

As we prepare for another week in the markets, it bears remembering that Bear markets are not an orgy of pain with indices going straight down. Along the way, there are always brief rallies which bring optimism that the worst is over. But, the indices then resume their downtrend until capitulation is reached and almost everyone is bearish.

The chart below is yet another from Perot Charts. I have no particular message in mind with this chart except to inform my readers how the government gets and uses tax monies.
One issue to note is the outsize proportion of taxes that come from individuals despite the U.S. having a relatively high corporate tax [...]

Perot Charts is Ross Perot’s attempt to reintroduce himself into politics in the US. From his standpoint, the U.S. is running an irresponsible fiscal policy that will only lead to ruin. His chart on the U.S. national debt, now over $9 trillion, starts with an introduction from Richard Fisher, the head of the [...]

At 8:30 EDT this morning, the Labor department released its jobless claims numbers. The numbers are not appreciably different than a week ago. But they are largely consistent with recession: 384,000 jobless claims and 3,139,000 continuing claims.
Year-on-year changes:

4-week Average jobless claims: +62,250 (at 378,250 claims)
4-week Average continuing claims: +592,500 (at 3,103,250 claims)

Below are the [...]

This is yet another chart from Perot Charts. I intend to highlight a number of these charts in my coming ‘chart of the day’ series because they present a comprehensive picture of the challenges the U.S. Federal Government faces. Also, note that my base case scenario over the near-term for Federal tax receipts [...]

Ross Perot is making a comeback! The Texas billionaire has come back into the political fray with his website Perot Charts. I recommend taking a stroll through it. You will definitely be a wiser person for it. Today’s chart comes from his site and shows projected social security and medicare spending [...]

Hourly wages in the U.S. have not kept pace with inflation in the past 35-40 years. To the degree that U.S. households have been able to maintain higher real household earnings, it is all due to the influx of women into the workforce.
Real hourly earnings peaked at $20.30 per hour in January 1973, on [...]

The UK government came up with a new inflation data series in the 1990s to replace the RPI for tracking consumer price inflation. Many people believe this series, the CPI, understates the inflation actually experienced by consumers in the economy. The government describes the series this way:
The Consumer Prices (CPI) and the Harmonised Index of [...]

Of all of the inflation indices the ONS (Office for National Statistics) in the UK uses, the RPI data are the most comprehensive. This particular series runs back to 1948 and is use in all manner of contracts, pension schemes, what have you.
“The Retail Prices Index (RPI) is the most familiar general purpose domestic measure [...]