ShareThis comes via the Wall Street Journal:
Highway-construction companies around the country, having completed the mostly small projects paid for by the federal economic-stimulus package, are starting to see their business run aground, an ominous sign for the nation’s weak employment picture.
Tim Word, vice president of Dean Word Co., a heavy-construction company in New Braunfels, Texas, [...]

ShareBelow is another great article from John Mauldin via his weekly newsletter, this time featuring John Hussman who is talking double dip and depression. My last post shows I am very concerned about this scenario – which I see as likely – and the parallels to 1930. At this point, I don’t see a lot [...]

ShareIf you want to get a leading indicator of how retailers are doing, going online is definitely the best way to get up-to-the-minute data. Not only is the data coming out of online retailers much more real-time, there has also been a huge shift to the online retail channel. For instance, Amazon has knocked the [...]

ShareBy now you have heard that Dubai World, the investment company, has asked its creditors for a six-month delay in repaying its debt (see articles in links).  This is what is commonly referred to as default. Now many are wondering if Dubai the country is on the verge of default and asking who is most [...]

ShareUnemployment claims dropped dramatically to 466,000 this past week. This is the best data on the unemployment front we have seen in a long time. The prior week’s claims were also downwardly revised for the first time in a while. These changes brought the widely followed 4-week average down to 496,500, the first time we [...]

ShareRemember the fabled Goldilocks economy that we had during the Great Moderation:
A Goldilocks economy is a not too hot or cold economy, sustaining moderate economic growth and a low inflation allowing for a market friendly monetary policy. The name comes from the children’s story The Three Bears. The first use of this phrase is credited [...]

ShareBonds like this. Let’s see how the stock market reacts to this. Pre-market data show no big moves.
From the BEA:
Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter of [...]

ShareValero Energy has just announced it is shutting down its Delaware City Refinery.  This is a major news announcement because refiners should be seen as a canary in the coalmine for end-user demand and Valero is one company in the oil patch which has been loath to cut workers to improve the bottom line. This [...]

ShareAfter a huge fall off in credit consistent with the fall in nominal GDP, we are seeing credit stabilise at a lower level. Debt to GDP ratios may not be lower, but as GDP is lower, so too is credit in the system.  Yet there is a large difference between the haves and the have-nots, [...]

ShareToday, I want to run a few thoughts by you courtesy of John Mauldin.  In his recent weekly newsletter, he makes a number of points I have made here over the past few weeks and comes to a similar conclusion about the weakness of recovery and the likelihood of a double dip recession.
John Mauldin, Best-Selling [...]