When it comes to the housing meltdowns in the richest economies, the US has been matched only by Spain, Ireland and the UK. All four countries have seen spectacular losses of wealth in the housing sector over the last two years.
The response by all four governments was to apply as much stimulus as they reasonably [...]
United States's tag archives
Spain: “we need to go back to 2000 wages and prices and start again”
Oct
405 views
A sustainable recovery with 530,000 weekly claims?
Oct
That’s what we seem to be expecting based on the huge uptick in equities since March. While stock markets have long since moved it up a gear, the employment market is stuck in neutral. The latest seasonally-adjusted jobless claims numbers came in at 530,000. The widely-followed four week average is still 526,250 and is not [...]
Third quarter GDP growth comes in at 3.5%
Oct
While a positive number was expected, let’s wait to crunch the numbers before we pop the cork on the Moet – the price index was only 0.8% versus an expected 1.4%. So I will want to see what is happening with nominal GDP. I also want to see how inventories look given the huge purges [...]
Extend and pretend and the growing divide between delinquencies and foreclosures
Oct
Annaly Capital Management’s blog has a good piece up on foreclosures, inspired by yesterday’s Case-Shiller data (hat tip Scott). If you missed it, The S&P/Case-Shiller index showed a pretty steep 1.2% month-on-month increase in U.S. house prices in its latest figures (for August 2009). This is the fourth consecutive month of increases, signaling to some [...]
514 views
Is the U.S. dollar carry trade replacing the one in Japanese yen?
Oct
Nouriel Roubini seems to think so. In remarks quoted via Bloomberg, he called the enormous increase in asset prices “the mother of all carry trades.”
Investors worldwide are borrowing dollars to buy assets including equities and commodities, fueling “huge” bubbles that may spark another financial crisis, said New York University professor Nouriel Roubini.
“We have the [...]
1,398 views
Case-Shiller shows further improvement in U.S. house prices
Oct
The latest data from the S&P/Case-Shiller house price indices shows house prices increasing in 17 of 20 major residential markets. The overall composite index are up for the fourth month in a row but year-over-year comparisons still show a double-digit decline in prices. A snapshot of the data is provided below.
The three lagging markets are [...]
How many medical bankruptcies were there in Switzerland last year?
Oct
The number is zero. According to a recent Harvard study, two of every three bankruptcies in the US are medical-related. That’s why at least catastrophic coverage for everyone is the real purpose of healthcare reform. Why some Americans don’t understand this is beyond me.
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Jobless claims stuck near 530,000, point to structurally high unemployment
Oct
For the latest week’s data for jobless claims, all you need to know is that the 4-week average barely budged and remains just above the 530,000 mark, consistent with a loss of 200,000 jobs. Clearly employment continues to lag at this point in the business cycle.
The Good
Unadjusted initial claims. Actual initial claims came in at [...]
Jobless claims now down to 514,000
Oct
For the latest week, U.S. jobless claims hit 514,000, the lowest level since early January. This brings the widely-tracked four-week average down to 531,500, also a 9-month low. In addition, continuing claims fell below 6 million for the first time since March. All of these seasonally-adjusted data points suggest that the unemployment situation is slowly [...]
Americans are not increasing savings
Oct
You have probably heard a lot of chatter from the media about a newfound thrift amongst American consumers.
The general take is that Americans, faced with lost incomes and wealth and burdened by record levels of debt, have moved away from the asset-based consumption models of yore. Instead of using the 401(k) or the house to [...]
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